Manfred Clynes demonstrated that essentic forms inhabit not only the structure of music and sound, but the sense of touch also. Above, we have seen how they hide themselves in the shapes of two and three dimensional art, and indeed, the world around us. It should come as no surprise that babies are programmed at the earliest age to search for their mother’s breast, or that the circle (relating to the emotion of love) is one of the earliest shapes to be recognised.
Before babies respond to shape, though, they respond to colour1. So we should now ask what sort of palette would correspond to the essentic form for love. Single colours certainly have emotional connotations, as we will discuss, but that cannot be the trigger. The skin colour of the breast remains fairly consistent over its area, except for the nipple, but this colour can vary enormously. Background lighting can vary, and skin pigmentation is not only diverse across the human species, but varies within days depending on exposure to sunlight. So there cannot be one single colour which correlates to the essentic form for love.
The only consistent feature would be a smooth gradation of colours over the curved area of the breast, closely related by hue, value and intensity. The colours would be contiguous in the colour wheel or colour triangle, and would harmonise.
And indeed, when we look at leading analyses of colour harmony (by Chevreul or Birren for example), we find two principal categories mentioned in the sections on harmony: Harmonies of Analogy, and Harmonies of Contrast. Let’s consider the former first. Birren, in ‘Principles of Color’ says:
“Most colors in highlight and shadow will scale through adjacents. A red rose will have orange highlights and purplish shadows. A yellow nasturtium will scale towards orange in the centre of the flower to yellow green at the stem… as colors go brighter, or as illumination on them is increased, there is a general shift towards yellow. As colors go deeper, or as illumination is decreased, there is a general shift towards violet…Good color schemes of adjacents are then as follows:
Red with red-violet and red-orange.
Orange with yellow-orange and yellow-green.
Green with yellow-green and blue-green.
Blue with blue-green and blue-violet.
Violet with red-violet and blue-violet.
In all instances the simple primary or secondary is supported and enhanced by two intermediate neighbours that reflect its character and lie on either side of it on the color circle.”
In discussing harmonies in Hering’s colour triangle, later in the same book, Birren notes:
“The straight line sequences of the colour triangle [obtained by drawing a straight line through any three items]… are all natural and concordant. Follow any path and harmony results… Tints harmonise with pure colour and white because they contain both. Shades harmonise with pure colour and black for a similar reason. In diagonal directions, tone becomes the coordinating or integrating form…”
Pictures from Birren, “Color Psychology and Color Therapy”