Editing Primary color (section)

== History ==

=== Philosophy ===
Philosophical writing from ancient Greece has described notions of primary colors, but they can be difficult to interpret in terms of modern color science. [[Theophrastus]] (c. 371–287 BCE) described [[Democritus]]' position that the primary colors were white, black, red, and green.<ref name="renzoshamey2020">{{cite book |last1=Shamey |first1=Renzo |last2=Kuehni |first2=Rolf G. |title=Pioneers of Color Science |date=2020 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-30811-1|isbn=978-3-319-30809-8 |s2cid=241801540 }}</ref>{{rp|4}} In [[Classical Greece]], [[Empedocles]] identified white, black, red, and, (depending on the interpretation) either yellow or green as primary colors.<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|8}} [[Aristotle]] described a notion in which white and black could be mixed in different ratios to yield chromatic colors;<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|12}} this idea had considerable influence in Western thinking about color. [[François d'Aguilon]]'s 16th century notion of the five primary colors (white, yellow, red, blue, black) was influenced by Aristotle's idea of the chromatic colors being made of black and white.<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|87}}The 20th century philosopher [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] explored color-related ideas using red, green, blue, and yellow as primary colors.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last1        = Beran
 |first1       = Ondrej
 |title        = The Essence (?) of Color, According to Wittgenstein
 |journal      = From the ALWS Archives: A Selection of Papers from the International Wittgenstein Symposia in Kirchberg Am Wechsel
 |date         = 2014
 |url          = http://wittgensteinrepository.org/agora-alws/article/view/2704/3132
 |access-date  = 2017-12-11
 |archive-date = 2017-12-11
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20171211104829/http://wittgensteinrepository.org/agora-alws/article/view/2704/3132
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wittgenstein |first1=Ludwig |title=The Big Typescript, TS. 213 |date=2005 |publisher=Blackwell Pub |location=Malden, MA |isbn=978-1405106993 |edition=German-English scholar's}}</ref>
[[File:Franciscus Aguilonius color scheme.png|thumb|upright=1.4|The color scheme of [[François d'Aguilon]], where the two simple colors of white (albus) and black (niger) are mixed to the "noble" colors of yellow (flavus), red (rubeus), and blue (caeruleus). Orange (aureus), purple (purpureus), and green (viridis) are each combinations of two noble colors.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacEvoy |first1=Bruce |title= do "primary" colors exist?|url=https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color6.html |website=handprint : colormaking attributes|access-date=1 December 2020 |quote=From a modern perspective, the most peculiar feature of d'Aguilon's theory is that these three "noble" hues were themselves created from the mysterious blending of white and black, or light and dark (upper curved lines in the figure), so that light and dark were the two "simple" or primary colors. The "composite" hues green, orange (gold), and purple (lower curved lines) were mixed from the "noble" triad colors. D'Aguilon's diagram was reprinted by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher in his optical treatise Ars magna lucis et umbrae (The Great Art of Light and Shadow, 1646). Both sources were widely read in the 17th century, and shaped the explanation of color mixing dominant during the Baroque.}}</ref>]]

=== Light and color vision ===

[[Isaac Newton]] used the term "primary color" to describe the colored spectral components of sunlight.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33504/33504-h/33504-h.htm|title=Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light|last=Newton|first=Isaac|date=1730|publisher=William Innys at the West-End of St. Paul's.|language=en|page=135 |quote="Whiteness and all grey Colours between white and black, may be compounded of Colours, and the whiteness of the Sun's Light is compounded of all the primary Colours mix'd in a due Proportion"}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Newton |first1=Isaac |title=A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton … containing his New Theory about Light and Color |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society |date=19 February 1671 |issue=80 |pages=3075–3087 |url=http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00006 |access-date=19 November 2020 |quote=The Original or primary colours are, Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and a Violet-purple, together with Orange, Indico, and an indefinite variety of Intermediate gradations. |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215225401/https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A number of color theorists did not agree with Newton's work. [[David Brewster]] advocated that red, yellow, and blue light could be combined into any spectral hue late into the 1840s.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boker |first1=Steven M. |title=The Representation of Color Metrics and Mappings in Perceptual Color Space |url=http://people.virginia.edu/~smb3u/ColorVision2/node6.html |website=The Representation of Color Metrics and Mappings in Perceptual Color Space}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=MacEvoy |first1=Bruce |title=handprint : colormaking attributes |url=https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color6.html |website=www.handprint.com |quote=The Scottish physicist David Brewster (1781-1868) was an especially pugnacious holdout, arguing as late as the 1840's that all spectral hues could be explained by red, yellow, and blue fundamental colors of light, which Brewster equated with three colored filters or transmittance curves that could reproduce the entire spectrum...}}</ref> [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]] proposed red, green, and violet as the three primary colors, while [[James Clerk Maxwell]] favored changing violet to blue.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maxwell |first1=James Clerk |title=The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell |publisher=Courier Corporation |year=2013|isbn=978-0-486-78322-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EA7CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA449 |language=en |page=49 |quote=The experiments with pigments do not indicate what colours are to be considered as primary; but experiments on the prismatic spectrum shew that all the colours of the spectrum, and therefore all the colours in nature, are equivalent to mixtures of three colours of the spectrum itself, namely, red, green (near the line E), and blue (near the line G). Yellow was found to be a mixture of red and green.}}</ref> [[Hermann von Helmholtz]] proposed "a slightly purplish red, a vegetation-green, slightly yellowish, and an ultramarine-blue" as a trio.<ref>{{cite book
| title     = A text book of the principles of physics
| author    = Alfred Daniell
| publisher = Macmillan and Co
| year      = 1904
| page      = 575
| url       = https://books.google.com/books?id=oPQZAAAAYAAJ&q=primary+red-green-and-violet+maxwell&pg=PA575
}}</ref> Newton, Young, Maxwell, and Helmholtz were all prominent contributors to "modern color science"<ref name="Mollon2003">{{cite book |last1=Mollon |first1=J.D. |title=The science of color |date=2003 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |isbn=0-444-51251-9 |pages=1–39 |citeseerx=10.1.1.583.1688 |edition=2nd }}</ref>{{rp|1–39}} that ultimately described the perception of color in terms of the three types of retinal photoreceptors.

=== Colorants ===
Twentieth century art historian
[[John Gage (art historian)|John Gage]]'s ''The Fortunes Of Apelles'' provides a summary of the history of primary colors<ref name="gage_apelles"/> as pigments in painting and describes the evolution of the idea as complex. Gage begins by describing [[Pliny the Elder]]'s account of notable Greek painters who used four primaries.<ref>{{cite book |title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book XXXV. An Account of Paintings and Colours. |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,0978,001:35 |chapter=32 |quote=It was with four colours only, that Apelles, Echion, Melanthius, and Nicomachus, those most illustrous painters, executed their immortal works; melinum for the white, Attic sil for the yellow, Pontic sinopis for the red, and atramentum for the black; and yet a single picture of theirs has sold before now for the treasures of whole cities. But at the present day, when purple is employed for colouring walls even, and when India sends to us the slime of her rivers, and the corrupt blood of her dragons and her elephants, there is no such thing as a picture of high quality produced. Everything, in fact, was superior at a time when the resources of art were so much fewer than they now are. Yes, so it is; and the reason is, as we have already stated, that it is the material, and not the efforts of genius, that is now the object of research.}}</ref> Pliny distinguished the pigments (i.e., substances) from their apparent colors: white from Milos (''ex albis''), red from Sinope (''ex rubris''), Attic yellow (''sil'') and [[atramentum]] (''ex nigris''). Sil was historically confused as a blue pigment between the 16th and 17th centuries, leading to claims about white, black, red, and blue being the fewest colors required for painting. [[Thomas Bardwell]], an 18th century Norwich portrait painter, was skeptical of the practical relevance of Pliny's account.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bardwell |first1=Thomas |last2=Richardson |first2=Samuel |last3=Millar |first3=Andrew |last4=Dodsley |first4=Robert |last5=Dodsley |first5=James |last6=Rivington |first6=John |last7=Rivington |first7=James |last8=Vivarès |first8=François |title=The practice of painting and perspective made easy : in which is contained, the art of painting in oil, with the method of colouring ... and a new, short, and familiar account of the art of perspective, illustrated with copper-plates, engraved by Mr. Vivares |year=1756 |publisher=London : Printed by S. Richardson, for the author, and sold by him ... and by A. Millar ... R. and J. Dodsley ..., and J. and J. Rivington ... |url=https://archive.org/details/practiceofpainti00bard/page/n15/mode/2up?q=ancients |quote=How it really was, Time has put it out of our Power to determine : But if we ſuppoſe thoſe four principal Colours in Perfection, then, I think, it can be no longer doubted, but that from them might be made all the various Colours in Nature. For my part, I cannot believe, that the four capital Colours of the Antients would mix to that ſurpriſing Perfection we ſee in the Works of Titian and Rubens. And if we have no certain Knowlege of their Method of Colouring who lived In the laſt Century, how ſhould we underſtand theirs who lived near Two thouſand Years ago ?}}</ref>

[[Robert Boyle]], the Irish chemist, introduced the term ''primary color'' in English in 1664 and claimed that there were five primary colors (white, black, red, yellow, and blue).<ref name="Boyle1664"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Briggs |first1=David |title=The Dimensions of Colour, primary colours |url=http://www.huevaluechroma.com/062.php |website=www.huevaluechroma.com}}</ref> The German painter [[Joachim von Sandrart]] eventually proposed removing white and black from the primaries and that one only needed red, yellow, blue, and green to paint "the whole creation".<ref name="gage_apelles"/>{{rp|36}}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Partial list of authors describing red, yellow, and blue as the (chromatic) primary colors before 18th century (adapted from Shamey and Kuehni)<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|108}}
|-
! Year !! Author !! Color terms !! Descriptive term
|-
| c. 325 || [[Chalcidius]] || Pallidus, rubeus, cyaneus || Generic colors
|-
| c. 1266 || [[Roger Bacon]] || Glaucus, rubeus, viriditas || Principal species
|-
| c. 1609 || [[Anselmus de Boodt]] || Flavus, ruber, caeruleus || Principal colors
|-
| c. 1613 || [[François d'Aguilon]] || Flavus, rubeus, caeruleus || Simple colors
|-
| c. 1664 || [[Robert Boyle]] || Yellow, red, blue || Simple, primary
|-
| c. 1680 || [[André Félibien]] || Jaune, rouge, bleu || Principal, primitive
|}

Red, yellow, and blue as primaries became a popular notion in the 18th and 19th centuries. [[Jacob Christoph Le Blon]], an engraver, was the first to use separate plates for each color in [[mezzotint]] [[printmaking]]: yellow, red, and blue, plus black to add shades and contrast. Le Blon used ''primitive'' in 1725 to describe red, yellow, and blue in a very similar sense as Boyle used ''primary''.<ref name="Mollon2003"/>{{rp|6|quote=In 1725, however, he published a slender volume entitled Coloritto, in which he sets out the principle of trichromatic color mixing (Figure 1.4). It is interesting that he gives the same primaries in the same order (yellow, red, and blue) as does the anonymous author of the 1708 text, and uses the same term for them, ''couleurs primitives''}} [[Moses Harris]], an entomologist and engraver, also describes red, yellow, and blue as "primitive" colors in 1766.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Moses |title=The natural system of colours : wherein is displayed the regular and beautiful order and arrangement, arising from the three premitives, red, blue, and yellow, the manner in which each colour is formed, and its composition, the dependance [sic] they have on each other, and by their harmonious connections are produced the teints, or colours, of every object in the creation, and those teints, tho' so numerous as 660, are all comprised in thirty three terms, only |date=1766 |publisher=Laidler's office, Princes-Street, Licester-Fields |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/50048542/}}</ref> [[Léonor Mérimée]] described red, yellow, and blue in his book on painting (originally published in French in 1830) as the three simple/primitive colors that can make a "great variety" of tones and colors found in nature.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mérimée |first1=Jean-François-Léonor |last2=Taylor |first2=William Benjamin Sarsfield |title=The Art of Painting in Oil and in Fresco, Being a History of the Various Processes and Materials Employed, from Its Discovery |publisher=Whittaker & co. |year=1839 |page=245 |url=https://archive.org/details/artpaintinginoi01taylgoog/page/n300/mode/2up?q=simple |language=en |quote=Although painters usually have arranged on their palettes a good many pigments of various deno- minations, yet they do not always seem to know, that three simple colours (yellow, red, and blue) can, by proper combination, be made to produce that great variety of tones and colours that we find in nature. United in pairs, these three primitive colours give birth to three other colours, as distinct and as brilliant as their originals; as thus, the yellow, mixed with red, gives the orange; the red and blue, violet; and the green is obtained by mixing blue and yellow, and, according to the preponderance of one or other colour in the mixture, will the tint incline towards that colour; and as these proportions are graduated, we pass progressively from one colour to another, and from whatever point we begin, we return to it.}}</ref> [[George Field (chemist)|George Field]], a chemist, used the word ''primary'' to describe red, yellow, and blue in 1835.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Field |first1=George |title=Chromatography; Or, A Treatise on Colours and Pigments: And of Their Powers in Painting |publisher=Tilt and Bogue |year= 1835 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDMAAAAAQAAJ&q=%22primary+colours%22+yellow+red+blue+%22entire+colours%22&pg=PA38 |language=en |quote=The Primary Colours are such as yield others by being compounded, but are not themselves capable of being produced by composition by other colours. They are three only, yellow, red, and blue...}}</ref> [[Michel Eugène Chevreul]], also a chemist, discussed red, yellow, and blue as "primary" colors in 1839.<ref>{{cite book | author = Chevreul, Michel Eugène | title = The Laws of Contrast of Colour | year = 1861 | publisher = Routledge, Warne, and Routledge | place = London | url = https://archive.org/details/lawscontrastcol00chevgoog| page = [https://archive.org/details/lawscontrastcol00chevgoog/page/n70 25] }} – English translation by John Spanton</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=MacEvoy |first1=Bruce |title=handprint : colormaking attributes |url=https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/chevreul.html |website=www.handprint.com}}</ref>

=== Color order systems ===

[[File:Lambert Farbenpyramide 1772.jpg|thumb|[[Johann Heinrich Lambert]]'s "Farbenpyramide" tetrahedron published in 1772. Gamboge (yellow), carmine (red), and Prussian blue pigments are used the corner swatches of each "level" of lightness with mixtures filling the others and white at the top.<ref name="Lambert1772">{{cite book |last1=Lambert |first1=J.H. |title=Beschreibung einer mit Calauischem Wachse ausgeführten Farbenpyramide |date=1772 |publisher=Haude und Spener |location=Berlin}}</ref>]]

[[File:Runge RYB sketch.png|thumb|[[Philipp Otto Runge]]'s sketch showing bl (blue), g (yellow) and r (red) as the fundamental colors<ref name="Lambert1772" />{{rp|86}}]]

Historical perspectives<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacEvoy |first1=Bruce |title=handprint : colormaking attributes |url=https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color6.html#solidmodels |website=www.handprint.com}}</ref> on color order systems<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kuehni |first1=Rolf G. |title=Color space and its divisions : color order from antiquity to the present |date=2003 |publisher=Wiley-Interscience |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=978-0-471-43226-5}}</ref> ("catalogs" of color) that were proposed in the 18th and 19th centuries describe them as using red, yellow, and blue pigments as chromatic primaries. [[Tobias Mayer]] (a German mathematician, physicist, and astronomer) described a [[triangular bipyramid]] with red, yellow and blue at the 3 vertices in the same plane, white at the top vertex, and black and the bottom vertex in a public lecture in 1758.<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|115}} There are 11 planes of colors between the white and black vertices inside the triangular bipyramid. Mayer did not seem to distinguish between colored light and colorant though he used vermilion, [[orpiment]] (King’s yellow), and Bergblau ([[azurite]]) in partially complete colorings of planes in his solid.<ref name="runge2003">{{cite web |last1=Kuehni |first1=Rolf G. |title=Philipp Otto Runge's Color Sphere A translation, with related materials and an essay |url=http://www.iscc-archive.org/pdf/RungeFarben-Kugel.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120190655/http://iscc-archive.org/pdf/RungeFarben-Kugel.pdf |archive-date=2019-01-20 |url-status=live |access-date=2 February 2021}}</ref>{{rp|79}} [[Johann Heinrich Lambert]] (a Swiss mathematician, physicist, and astronomer) proposed a triangular pyramid with [[gamboge]], [[carmine]], and [[Prussian blue]] as primaries and only white at the top vertex (since Lambert could produce a mixture that was sufficiently black with those pigments).<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|123}} Lambert's work on this system was published in 1772.<ref name="Lambert1772" /> [[Philipp Otto Runge]] (the Romantic German painter) firmly believed in the theory of red, yellow and blue as the primary colors<ref name="runge2003"/>{{rp|87}} (again without distinguishing light color and colorant). His color sphere was ultimately described in an essay titled ''Farben-Kugel''<ref name="runge2003"/> (color ball) published by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] in 1810.<ref name="runge2003"/>{{rp|84}} His spherical model of colors equally spaced red, yellow, and blue longitudinally with orange, green, and violet between them, and white and black at opposite poles.<ref name="runge2003"/>{{rp|85}}

=== Red, yellow, and blue as primary colors ===
{{redirect|Red, Blue, and Yellow|the video games|Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow}}

Numerous authors have taught that red, yellow, and blue (RYB) are the primary colors in art education materials since at least the 19th century, following the ideas introduced above from earlier centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Osborn |first1=Laughton |year=1856 |title=Handbook of Young Artists and Amateurs in Oil Painting: Being Chiefly a Condensed Compilation from the Celebrated Manual of Bouvier ... Appended, A New Explanatory and Critical Vocabulary |publisher=J. Wiley & son |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K81NAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22primary+colors%22+painting&pg=PA382 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Calkins |first1=Norman Allison | year= 1888 |title=Primary Object Lessons: For Training the Senses and Developing the Faculties of Children ... |publisher=Harper & Bros. |page=195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3wwUAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22primary+colors%22&pg=PA186 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=John L. |title=Color mixing guide for artists, painters, decorators, printing pressmen, show card writers, sign painters, color mixers, give color mixtures by parts. |date=1923 |publisher=Fine Arts Publishing |url=https://archive.org/details/ColorMixingGuideForArtistsPaintersDecoratorsPrintingPressmenShow/page/n3/mode/2up |language=English}}</ref>

A wide variety of contemporary educational sources also describe the RYB primaries. These sources range from children's books<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vance |first1=Cynthia |title=Red, yellow, blue, and you |date=2008 |publisher=Abbeville Kids |location=New York |isbn=9780789209696 |edition=1st}}</ref> and art material manufacturers<ref>{{cite web |title=Crayola Support FAQ-What are the primary colors? |url=https://www.crayola.com/faq/another-topic/what-are-the-primary-colors/ |website=www.crayola.com |quote=What are the primary colors? Primary colors include red, blue, and yellow. Primary colors cannot be mixed from other colors. They are the source of all other colors.}}</ref> to painting<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pitcher |first1=Colette |title=Watercolor Painting For Dummies |date=16 March 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-05200-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_eu_9qDLhUC&q=%22primary%20colors%22%20 |language=en}}</ref> and color guides.<ref>{{cite book |title=Color Choices |author=Stephen Quiller |publisher=Watson–Guptill |year=2002 |isbn=0-8230-0697-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jiUTZQj_v5QC&dq=what-is-a-color-wheel+spaced+red+yellow+blue&pg=PA12 }}</ref> Art education materials often suggest that RYB primaries can be mixed to create ''all'' other colors.<ref>{{cite web
| title      = Color
| url        = https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-art/color.html
| website    = www.nga.gov
| access-date = 10 December 2017
| quote = "Red, blue, and yellow are the primary colors. With paints of just these three colors, artists can mix them to create all the other colors."
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Leidtke |first1=Amy |title=Leonardo's Art Workshop: Invent, Create, and Make STEAM Projects like a Genius |date=20 November 2018 |publisher=Rockport Publishers |isbn=978-1-63159-522-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GvF6DwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

====Criticism====
[[Albert Henry Munsell|Albert Munsell]], an American painter (and creator of the early 20th century [[Munsell color system]]), referred to the notion of RYB primaries as "mischief", "a widely accepted error", and underspecified in his book ''A Color Notation'', first published in 1905.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Munsell |first1=A.H. |title=A Color Notation |date=1907 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26054/26054-h/26054-h.htm |quote=The wide discrepancies of red, yellow, and blue, which have been falsely taught as primary colors, can no more be tuned by a child than the musical novice can tune his instrument. Each of these hues has three variable factors (see page 14, paragraph 14), and scientific tests are necessary to measure and relate their uneven degrees of Hue, Value, and Chroma.}}</ref>

Itten's ideas about RYB primaries have been criticized as ignoring modern color science<ref name="renzoshamey2020"/>{{rp|282|quote=For a three-dimensional model, Itten ignored the quantitative systems produced by Munsell and Ostwald and used a simple sphere externally resembling the one published by Runge in 1810.}} with demonstrations that some of Itten's claims about mixing RYB primaries are impossible.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hirschler |first1=Robert |last2=Csillag |first2=Paula |last3=Manyé |first3=Pablo |last4=Neder |first4=Mônica |title=How much colour science is not too much? |journal=Color Research & Application |quote=One of the most typical problems is that of trying to reproduce Itten's colour circle following his instructions. Students may get frustrated, because it is simply not possible to achieve acceptable results using the RYB 'primaries'. Figure 16 illustrates why it is impossible to reproduce Itten's colour circle following strictly his instructions. |date=December 2018 |volume=43 |issue=6 |page=987 |doi=10.1002/col.22275|s2cid=125461782 }}</ref>