ENGLISH VERSION Philipp Otto Runge. La sfera dei colori

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Runge, Philipp Otto
La sfera dei colori
e altri scritti sui colori e sull'arte

A cura di Carmen Flaim

Abscondita, 2008
Isbn 978-88-8416-176-5

[1] For many years now the Abscondita publisher has produced at least a couple of series (Carte d’artisti – artists’ folders and Miniatures - Miniatures) dedicated to the literature on art sources. It is, in almost all cases, the replication of texts already published in previous years by other publishers and that Abscondita brings again to the bookstore after having just acquired the copyrights. So far nothing bad, to the contrary. On many occasions it gives the reader a chance to recover texts previously ignored or underestimated. The absolutely most annoying aspect, however, is that Abscondita refrains - in most cases - to point out that the work is not unpublished and does not provide the (in our opinion due) bibliography of the case. So that the unwary reader might think to read a work, which has come down unpublished to our day. This is the case for example of this anthology of writings on the colour of the German Romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge; only if you read notes and bibliography, then you get suspicious, noting that the most recent quote dates back to 1983. So it is natural to connect to the Internet and try to figure out if the suspect, which was born spontaneously, is indeed a reality. And so it is. In 1984 the Sfera dei colori e altri scritti sul colore e sull’arte (The Sphere of colours and other writings on colour and art), curated by Carmen Flaim, was co-published between University Editions of Verona and Il Segno publisher. We do not have the absolute certainty that it is exactly the same work (not having consulted it). It is however likely that the introduction discussed in the volume of 1984 has been converted into the current afterword to the anthology. Because of this single operation Abscondita has decided to take the view that that we are faced with an entirely new work, without mentioning the previous edition. As further evidence: in the anthology there is no mention of Runges’s Sfera del colore e altri scritti sull’arte nuova (Sphere of colours and other writings on the new art), published this time by Il Saggiatore in 1985, with Renato Troncon as an editor. And it could not be otherwise, given that actually this volume, published as new in 2008, had already been published in 1984. Frankly, we think that this kind of behaviour is not only unfair, but also counterproductive in the long run in terms of the credibility of the brand. 

[2 ] The text of the flap is taken from the Afterword of the curator : 

"The essays on the colour knew in the early decades of the nineteenth century a pick in interest and a diffusion which has never been reached later on. References to the symbolic meanings of colour, its ideological and even ethical meanings are found in Novalis, Wackenroder, Tieck, Brentano and Goethe; in philosophers or scientists such as Schelling, Schopenhauer, Steffens, Hegel; in musicians such as Berger and Beethoven; in the circle of conceptual artists such as and the Nazarenes of Overbeck and Pforr. If Goethe's Farbenlehre is perhaps the best known text of this season, the Sphere of colours (Farbenkugel, 1810) and the writings on the 'new art' of the Romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge ( 1777-1810 ) will represent more than those by Goethe, as Paul Klee wrote, "a teaching essential to the whole painting to come", impacting profoundly on the theoretical development of the artistic avant-garde of the early twentieth century. Its pages, always covered by a strong intellectual and moral tension, transmit the ardour, the passions, the utopias of German romanticism and reveal the essentially literary nature of Runge, proved above all by his paintings, but also by two splendid Tales: Van den Machandelboom (On the Juniper) und Van den Fischer und siine Fru (The fisherman and his wife), which he composed in the dialect of Pomerania

[3] The Sphere of colours was published for the first time in 1810 in Hamburg (a few months before the death of Runge) with the original title Farbenkugel oder des Konstruktion Verhältnisses aller Mischungen der Farben und ihrer zueinander vollständigen Affinität ; angehängtem Versuch mit einer der Ableitung Harmonie in den Farben der Zusammenstellungen . The full title is thus rendered in Italian by the curator: La sfera dei colori ovvero costruzione dei rapporti di tutte le mescolanze reciproche tra i colori e di tutte le loro affinità, con un tentativo di conseguire l’armonia nelle composizioni dei colori (The colour sphere or the construction of the mixing ratios of all interactions between the colours and all their similarities, with an attempt to achieve harmony in the compositions of colours). In particular, "between Sphere of colours” and “Chromatic sphere” as possible translations, the first is preferred to emphasise, in assonance, the close proximity to the survey by Goethe" (p. 140 n. 1). On the uneasy relationship between Goethe and Runge see PP. 158-166 of the afterword as well as the texts of the letters that the two exchanged over the years, published here.

On Runge's theory of colours see also this paper by Enrico Giustacchini http://www.stilearte.it/il-pittore-che-scriveva-le-fiabe-dei-fratelli-grimm/  

[4] "In the selection of the texts that accompany the writing on Farbenkugel we naturally favoured those theoretical points by Runge which, although aimed more directly to the problem of colour, would allow us also some reflections of a more widely cultural or literary meaning. Some of these were left undated already in the Hamburg edition of 1840 [editor's note - the first edition anthology of the writings of Runge, edited by his brother Daniel ] and , despite the later research, these remained undated ... Considering, therefore, both the difficulty to follow, in the publication, a definitely reliable succession, as well the pre-eminence of this paper compared to all the others, we decided to build this section of the text, starting from the same Farbenkugel, even if it was [ note of the editor: chronologically ] almost the last by Runge, around which the writings more consistent or more intimately involved with his speech were reproduced "(p. 10). The titles are reported hereafter : 

• The elements of color; In 1811 the Grimm Brothers proposed them, in their appeal for submission of tales to their collection, as the structural and linguistic archetype to follow with maximum adhesion."

• Fragment of essay for a color theory;

• On the duplicity of color;

• The dialogues on the analogy between colours and sounds.

" In the selection of letters that accompany the essays the same principle prevailed, and we have given preference to those which contain observations or assumptions about the colour, whether they served to prepare the Farbenkugel or were inserted in it later. However, we have not neglected those capable of informing us at least a bit on the circle of intellectuals with whom Runge had a relationship, or to give an account, outside of any hagiography, of the years of apprenticeship (for example, a letter to Goethe of August 23, 1801 ) .

The difficulties in translating the texts of Runge are remarkable. By his own admission, the German painter did not master the language well, nor worried about it too much. Interventions, sometimes decisive, by his brother Daniel were not enough to lighten a writing which was remarkably intricate and weighed down by a use of punctuation which was later completely revolutionized. In addition an uncertain grasp of scientific and technical terminology has to be added, terminology to which not infrequently Runge preferred the vocabulary, more suited to him, of the mystics. Where this led to confusion or embarrassment, we have always reported it in a footnote "(p. 10).

[5] Finally, to remember that for a more comprehensive vision of the German Romantic art literature (in original language), the fourth volume of the Bibliothek der Kunstliteratur, published by Deutscher Klassiker Verlag is worth reading. It also contains a couple of letters of Runge.