I was preparing to work on my next blog and my research led to something interesting.
It was the “Temperament Rose”. I was amazed at how early in history (around 18th century), where the colours were being personified, that the “colours” signalled certain temperaments of human mind.
See the Goethe & Schiller’s “Temperament Rose” here. Also see the possible image translation of the same as I researched and read through multiple articles available.
If you observe, it is similar to the present-day colour wheel concept. Rulers, Heroes, Tyrants are on the warmer colours towards the right and gradually gradation occurs based on the level of aggressiveness / temperament of the roles of people.
For, if you observe, as we go clock wise of the wheel here, the temperaments of the roles are changing from very serious / authoritative (see rulers, tyrants, heroes, adventurers) to being more of pleasure seekers (hedonistic) and slightly cheerful (sanguine). Further down the wheel, the traits move from being romantic (lovers, poets, speakers) gliding towards the the calm unemotional temperaments (teachers, philosophers, historians too) to being perfectionists, and finally temperament bordering on depression.
Whoa!! All human traits in the emotional realm has been captured in the “Rose” here. All these are tied to specific colors and their mixes on the wheel as well.
From various writings available on the subject, I came to understand that Goethe was attempting to categorize colours as perceived by the human eye with human temperaments. This attempt thereby also tied colour and its relation with human psychology closely.
My observations:
If we go through the Rose in clockwise direction, it is interesting to note that Rulers and Melancholics have an overlap, suggesting mix temperaments, so do the rulers and tyrants sharing the space closely as well.
Similar observations are where Adventurer and Hedonists, Lovers and Poets, Teachers and Philosophers, where they share temperaments there by making me wonder and explore further on the colours used here to represent them.
It was interesting for me academically to observe how creators of the “Temperamenten Rose” defined temperaments to colours.
The color red as perceived by human eye, catches attention, has been used by cultures to represent power, anger, danger, victory etc. Earthy colours are such as near neutrals like browns, tans, umbre, ochre has been known to represent, being grounded, secure, safe, protected and the extreme, loneliness like that of barren land without any life…
A ruler per the “Rose”, has the red of aggressiveness and the brown of the safety, protection he provides to his ruling land and his subjects.
Adventurers and Hedonists (pleasure seekers) follow their heart, do what makes them happy. Adventures seek happiness by taking risks, following unchartered paths, hedonists (ethical or otherwise) depend on activities, that make them happy to make their life meaningful.
Yellow, orange, red and mixes of these colours are known to denote action, energy, hope, sunshine, as well as the darker shades meaning to represent the qualities such as deceit, power, danger etc.
Lovers and poets are romantic in nature. Lovers are the people who are cheerful when in love, romantic, sensitive to emotions and so are the poets who are imaginative, intuitive, think beyond the realms of reality….both temperaments have common factors.
This is being represented by the colors beige (yellow)-cyan, beige(yellow) as a colour is known to bring in calm, relaxed state of mind, the feeling of soft tenderness. cyan colour generally denotes, expansion (like sky), intuition, imagination etc.
Philosophers and teachers share the qualities like, knowledge giving, knowledge seeking, intuition, wisdom. This has been represented by blue and brown. Blue has been known to represent learning, higher learning, education, wisdom, depth expertise, wisdom. While the color brown is known to represent the stability, structure which is very much qualities required to acquire knowledge and expertise.
Scholars and rulers are usually known to be adorned with colors like purple and red. Purple representing royalty, highest rank in the royal court or in the university of learning , while red denoting the similar qualities along with qualities that a leader requires as well.
It is interesting to see how colours have been used here to represent temperaments and temperaments being used as qualities of people who may be actually clubbed under different notable professions at that time.
This is my generalization and understanding of works by Goethe & Schillet’s Temperament Rose. Do let me know what you think of this great work on colours by Goethe & Schillet by commenting below.
Best Regards
The Image Ally
References and research read credits:
www.agilliesdesign.wordpress.com//Wikipedia.com // colour wheel pro//bourncreative.com
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