Editing Primary color (section)

=== 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>