Colourful language

Went to church this morning in Hawkshead; saw John the vicar and Kathleen the warden who both recognised me. Maybe because I'm a famous Christian now, maybe because I've been there a few times before. John talked about colour, in his sermon. Pentecost is coloured red because of the fiery tongues in Acts 2. But Whitsun comes from the word for white. Decided I don't like red. I once bought a Ferrari Testarossa in yellow. To scan in for a game (1/24th scale I think.)

Anyway, I've just finished reading 'Art, Modernity and Faith' by George Pattison. He talks about art and theology. And colour. There's a chapter on John Ruskin, the victorian philanthropist and patron of the arts. We've just been out to Coniston, and saw his grave in the churchyard. Later this week I'll have a walk to Brantwood to see his house. Interesting chap, Ruskin. He thought that colour is the spiritual power of art. He said curves are better than straight lines because they suggest infinity, and so divinity. And a gradient of colour is better that a flat area in exactly the same way. And light backgrounds are better than dark ones. All things I will think about the next time I do a PowerPoint.

Ruskin championed the preRaphs and Turner too, whom he thought understood how to scale contrast on his canvas better than anyone. Contrast ratios are something we think about for projectors and LCDs normally - I don't suppose anyone took much notice in Turner's day. Except Ruskin.


"Ineluctable, fissiparous, iconomachy, nullity, chiaroscuro, aesthesis, theoria,
conventual, kairoi, theonomy, stelae, iconodule, excrescence, biophilia."


Yes, 'Art, Modernity and Faith' had more words in it that I don't understand than pretty much any book I've ever read. A few of these were explained, and my iPad could tell me about half of them.
Just for fun, see how many of those you recognise before scrolling down to the 'answers' below. My score was 0.












ineluctable: irresistible, unavoidable.

fissiparous: inclined to undergo division into different groups. Like art, or Protestantism.

iconomachy: I think this means smashing up icons. Or statues, or symbols - like triangles for instance.

nullity: a thing of no importance or worth. Like iconomachy.

chiaroscuro: the treatment of light and shade in painting. On Photoshop it's called 'gradient'.

conventual: relating to a convent (should've guessed that one).

kairoi: plural of a greek word for a moment of time (kairos).

theonomy: 'Divine law'. Probably.

stelae: upright stone slabs, sometimes a gravestones. I suppose they point to the stars.

iconodule: supporter of the cause of icons.

excrescence: an outgrowth, often cause by disease; a superfluous or unattractive addition.

biophilia: a biologically innate associative urge bonding all living creatures.

aesthesis and theoria are terms used by Ruskin (when he's looking at art). He doesn't like the term aesthetic as it has connotations of purely sensory experience. Instead he uses aesthesis - the 'mere animal consciousness of the pleasantness' and theoria - 'the exulting, reverent and grateful perception of it.


It pays to enrich your word-power. Or so the Readers' Digest said. What do they know?

Location:Fellfield