Tone, or tonality, is often used as a
term to describe value in drawing and
painting. Tones of colours are
referential to the values of colours,
but tonality can also refer to the
overall quality or visual feeling of the
value of a painting and tonalism refers
to an aesthetic of focus on the poetry
of values or tones in a painting.
SETTING THE TONE
One of the fi rst discussions in the
western world concerning the value
of colours as seen in the natural world
was presented by Aristotle in De
Coloribus. Working in the 4th century
BC, the Greek philosopher suggested
that colours and their values were a
function of the interaction of light and
shade. For him, absolute white was
the complete absence of value and
colour, while absolute black was the
extreme opposite and also colourless
and valueless.
Aristotle’s discussions of colour
and value have been extremely
infl uential for centuries, especially
during the Italian Renaissance and
again among Romantic painters of the
19th century. Today, we see white and
black as part of the value stream on
greyscale charts and they are
important visual markers for gaugi
the value of colours.
The classical Greek and Roman
painters, being very concerned with
the beauties of nature, explored
subtle gradations of value in colour
to create form and depth in their
paintings. The painted portraits of
the Republican Roman period, as w
as the landscape decorations seen
the villas of Pompeii, employed grea
delicacy in the rendering of value
gradations in their colours.
The icon painters of the medieval
period minimised value gradations in
their portrayal of holy fi gures. Because
the natural reality of these images
was not important from a theological
and meditative point of view, value
gradations were limited, and colours
were often fl at and focused more
on basic middle tones. The great
fl owering of the interest in nature after
the 12th century in Italy, produced a
renewed interest in varieties of
colours in nature.
Leonardo da Vinci, the great Italian
Renaissance painter, theorist and
inventor, suggested a basic palette
of six colours – white, yellow, green,
blue, red and black – that closely
corresponded to a greyscale of sixABOVEAl Gury, Impressionist
Landscape, oil on panel, 22x30cm
“True to many Impressionist works,
it is the middle values (4-5 on a value
scale) and lights (2-4 on a value
scale) dominate this composition.”Da Vinci’s palette
The Italian master suggested a basic palette of
white, yellow, green, blue, red and black. Note how
each of the colour choices matches a different
value – something that can be seen best when the
palette is converted digitally to black and white.