Diversity and Animation of Harmonies
These harmonies differ in diversity and animation, but all are alike in that they are related by ties of common blood. Similar analogous harmonies may in theory be built upon tones of any hue or gamut of related hues, but in practice they are restricted to gamuts in which the warm hues play a large if not a preponderant part. Thus we may have analogous harmonies built up of hues lying between red and blue- green on the warm side of the circle. Between red and blue-green on the other side of the circle the colors are too cold to be agreeable in harmonies of analogy; so far, at least, as the larger areas of interior decoration are concerned.
Harmonies of this character are the easiest to produce, since their creation does not necessitate the possession of a flair for color or a highly cultivated taste, but only common sense and freedom from color blindness. Harmonies of analogy are also quiet, restful and subtle. Through the absence of that sense of activity which results from strong color contrasts, these harmonies not only make a room more reposeful but more spacious, and are therefore in general to be chosen for rooms which seem small or overcrowded with furniture, as well as for those wherein repose is the first consideration. Moreover, since the colors employed are markedly alike in emotional effect, harmonies of analogy must always be employed in rooms which are to be invested in the maximum degree with a particular emotional quality-that is, in rooms in which what is known in the studios as the temperamental idea is to be expressed. The highest beauty of analogous harmonies depends upon perfect keying, or infusion of the dominant hue into all the subordinate hues in such a way as to give an effect of atmospheric coloring, as if the room were seen through a delicately tinted glass. It is, of course, clear that the atmospheric effects characteristic of perfect coloring are difficult for the beginner to manage. They can in fact be produced only when broken and grayish tones of the hues employed are used skillfully. Thus in the room last described the old red and the olive appear much as vermilion and emerald would appear if seen through a haze of grayish yellow, and even the blue-green of the tapestry must be sufficiently broken with gray to make it look like a dull blue seen through this same gray-yellow haze.
All harmonies of this class, as described above, reveal a characteristic lack of snap, and none would be accepted by the mind as wholly satisfying. This defect is due to the total absence of the complementary of the dominant hue, which ought to be made to appear in some form, however unimportant, in every color scheme. Physiologically the color nerves require to be refreshed, while psychologically the mind requires to be relieved and stimulated by a note of strongly-contrasting color, as by an occasional high or explosive note in an even melody, or a patch of shadow on a sunlit field of grain. Thus in the dining room described above, wherein warm browns, old ivory, orange, old gold and Venetian reds were used together, the decorator would also introduce a note of blue in Venetian glass or majolica, and would prob- ably echo this note in the border of the rug, in some detail of the cornice boards that support the hangings, and in some part of the design of the parchment masks or shades of the lighting fixtures.
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