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AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org
Colour in Architecture and the writings of Pseudo-
Dionysius, The Areopagite.
João Carlos de Oliveira Cesar
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, Brazil
jcocesar@usp.br
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to study colour in architecture, based on texts that would have been
written by a Syrian mystic of the fifth century who used to conceal his identity under the
alias of Dionysius the Areopagite, a council member of the Athenian Areopagus law court
and follower of the apostle Paul, as mentioned in the book of Acts in the Bible (Acts 17:34).
Dionysius acquired a nearly apostolic authority which gave enormous credibility to his
writings in the Middle Age and the Renaissance. This work deals with Dionysius’s concepts
of colour, regarding the writings of Goethe and Plato, particularly the ones found in
Timaeus, Menon, and Socrates; aiming at applying them in a study of the chromatic
perceptive processes of architecture. It intends to present concepts that can contribute
to a better understanding of some historic approaches of those processes and the relation
among harmony, chromatic diversity and completeness. It also intends to analyse aspects,
regarding colours, which could have influenced Gothic constructions, particularly the
abbey of Saint-Dennis in France, as well as the work of Abbot Suger.
Keywords: colour in architecture, Dionysius The Areopagita, Abbey of Saint Denis.
1.DIONYSIUS, THE AREOPAGITE AND THE CORPUS DIONYSIACUM
“And Dionysius with so great desire to contemplate these orders set himself, he
named them and distinguished them as I do. But Gregory afterwards dissented
from him; wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes within this heaven, he at
himself did smile. And if so much of secret truth a mortal proffered on earth, I would
not have thee marvel, for he who saw it here revealed it to him, with much more
of the truth about these circles.” (DANTE, Paradise, Canto XXVIII :407)
It may seem slightly anachronic these days, as René Roque states in the introduction
of The Complete Works, to underline the present-day-value of Pseudo-Dionysius works,
because “author and treatises (are) enigmatic, hard to understand, (and) involved in a
Colour in Architecture and the Writings of Pseudo- Dionysius, The Areopagite.
AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org
historical and doctrinal context so far removed from ours” (ROQUES, in PSEUDO-
DIONYSIUS, 1987:5). However, the influence of his writings can be felt in the work of many
scholars, including his influence upon colours, to date.
The Corpus Dionysiacum, as it is known, consists of four treatises: The Divine Names, The
Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and ten letters.
The question is: who really wrote these texts? The authorship of the texts is, as a rule,
attributed to Dionysius, the Areopagite, a council member of the Athenian Areopagus law
court and a follower of the apostle Paul, as mentioned in the book of Acts in the Bible
(Acts 17:34). Their importance, especially in the Middle Ages, was enormous and many
even attribute them to the apostle Paul himself, who would have handed them down to
Dionysius, as it is implied in Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. However, they were
most likely written by a Syrian mystic of the fifth century who used to conceal his identity
under the alias of Dionysius, due to the influences and similarities found in the texts of
philosophers such as Plotinus (204/5-270), Iamblichus (250-330), and Proclus (410/412-
485).
According to Ernst Benz, the theology of colour found in Areopagite, is directly connected
with his Theology of Light. God is the primeval light which is inaccessible- “The Divine
Darkness”. No one can look upon The Primeval Divine Light itself. God “dwells in
unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see”, for neither is it without
danger to gaze upon the glorious rays of the Sun with weak eyes”. The primeval light
reveals itself only in that, corresponding to the powers of comprehension of the creatures
of the lower spheres, it garbs itself in envelopments, symbols, analogies and images.
Colors are the veils of the divine primeval light in its descent and its radiation into the
lower worlds. The purpose of this hierarchical structure is the initiate’s greatest possible
similitude to, and becoming one with, God. (BENZ, 1988)
The spiritual interpretation of the colours is accordingly repeated at the church level. The
worldly church is similar and corresponds to the celestial church above. The sacraments,
symbols, and ceremonies reflect the order of the church above and the colours of the
church correspond to the colours of the angelical world. This is valid not only for the
liturgical vestments but also for the icons painted on church walls.
Symbols are used as a way of transforming the immaterial into material, the human
into what is divine; as a way of bringing the transcendental to our level and, at the same
time, of keeping it away from the reach of the profane.
“We see our human hierarchy, on the other hand, as our nature allows, pluralized in a
great variety of perceptible symbols lifting upward hierarchically until we are brought as
far as we can be into the unity of divinization.” (PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS, 1987:197)
Dionysius deals with the notion of deification or Theosis, the search for The Beauty of
The Unity and Harmony of The Whole manifested in everything we see.
“ In the domain of perceptible images, the artist keeps an eye constantly on the
original and never allows himself to be sidetracked or to have his attention divided by
Colour in Architecture and the Writings of Pseudo- Dionysius, The Areopagite.
AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org
any other visible object. If he does this, then one may presume to say that whatever
the object which he wishes to depict he will, so to speak, produce a second one, so
that one entity can be taken for the other, though in essence they are actually
different. It is thus with those artists who love beauty in the mind. The concentration
and the persistence of their contemplation of this fragrant, secret beauty enables them
to produce an exact likeness of God.”(PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS, 1987:226)
Fundamentally, in his work, all reality consists of hierarchical levels and a triad. Within
each hierarchical level there is a ternary structure (three levels with three other
subdivisions) and functions in all three of them: the first, the union and perfection; the
second, the enlightenment; and the third, the purification.
2. LIGHT AND COLOUR ACCORDING TO PLATO
Plato, in Timaeus, in a dialogue with Socrates, describes what he calls “the rational theory
of colours”. To him, the vision, as well as the other human senses, would be associated
with one of the elements of nature which, in this case, would be the fire.
Colour and light coalesce and represent the knowledge which is in all things and
constitutes the human being. The meeting of the “knowledge” contained in colours, when
they reach the retina, with the knowledge that constitutes men and with the fire sent
forth through their eyes, makes up the image that they see. This relationship among light,
colour, and knowledge, the last being a manifestation of the divine, can also be observed
in the work of the Pseudo-Dionysius and in the Theology of Light.
“Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights.” But there is something more. Inspired by the Father, each procession
of the Light spread itself generously toward us back to oneness and deifying simplicity
of the Father who gathers us in. For, as the sacred Word says, from him and to him are
all things.” (PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS, 1987:145)
This same idea can be found in the writings of Goethe when in his book Theory of Colours
he mentions a citation attributed to Plotinus, one of the most important philosophers of
Neoplatonism.
“If the eyes were not sunny, how could we perceive light? If God’s own strength lived
not in us, how could we delight in Divine things?” (GOETHE, 1978:53)
In another dialogue, Plato describes a conversation between Socrates and Meno about
virtue in which he defines shape and colour:
“Figure is the only thing which always follows colour” (PLATO, 1937:354)
“I define figure to be that in which the solid ends; or, more concisely, the limit of
solid”....”colour is an effluence of form, commensurate with sight, and palpable to
sense.” (PLATO, 1937:355)
Later, in Theaetetus, Plato returns to the subject of colour, reporting the dialogues of
Socrates with Theaetetus and Theodorus on knowledge and wisdom. Among the aspects
Colour in Architecture and the Writings of Pseudo- Dionysius, The Areopagite.
AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org
covered in the text, Socrates discusses the relationship between knowledge and
perception, citing Pythagoras, to whom man is the measure of all things, of the existence
of all things that exist and the non-existence of the things that do not exist. To Socrates,
all things are indeed in motion and nothing is motionless. We do not perceive sensible
things through the mind, but with the mind, not with the senses, but through the senses.
Senses differ from each other and do not have objects in common.
3. THEOLOGY OF COLOUR AND ARCHITECTURE: THE GOTHIC AND ABBOT SUGER
Georges Duby wrote the following about the work of Abbot Suger on the construction
of the monastery of St. Dennis, between 1135 and 1144: he creates the monument as a
theological piece of work, based on the writings of the patron of the abbey of Saint Denis
or, as it was believed, Dionysius the Areopagite. The central idea is “God is Light”. Light,
“created or uncreated, in which participates every creature that receives and transmits
its illumination, according to their capacity or place occupied in the scale of being.” (DUBY,
1979:105)
Figure 1,2: Abbey of Saint Denis, interior (photos of the author)
The work of Suger on St. Dennis is based on Dionysius’s hierarchies and the celebration
of the unity of the universe. Differently from the Romanesque style, Suger opens spans,
Colour in Architecture and the Writings of Pseudo- Dionysius, The Areopagite.
AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org
allows light to come through, unbroken, unifying, cohesive. The hierarchies are revealed
by the variation in lighting, the light of the setting sun that penetrates through the
concave of the three portals and by the rosette above them, illuminating the three high
chapels dedicated to the celestial hierarchies.
The colours of the gems acquire a symbolic value related to the Christian virtues:
“when enthralled by the enchantment of the beauty of God’s home, the seduction of
the multicoloured gems leads me to ponder, transforming the material into the
immaterial, on the diversity of the sacred virtues, then it seems to me that I see myself
residing as in reality in a strange region of the universe that has never existed before
either in the mud of earth or in the purity of heaven and, by the grace of God, I can be
transported from here to the highest world, in an anagogic fashion.” (DUBY, 1979:108)
About this topic, Dionysius wrote:
“With regard to multicolored stones, these must be taken to work symbolically
as follows: white for light, red for fire, yellow for gold, green for youthful vitality”
(PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS, 1987:198)
In order to dignify the light of the Lord, as Duby states, he commissioned the most
luminous windows so as to allow the irisations of the amethyst or the rubies and
reproduce the colours of the heavenly virtues. The impact of the innovations in St. Dennis
can be identified in several other gothic cathedrals such as Chartres, Burges, and Angers.
6. CONCLUSION
John Gage, in Color and Meaning, highlights the influence of concepts developed by
Dionysius, not only on the abbey of Saint Dennis, which can be felt throughout the Gothic,
particularly on the symbolic relations of colours, but also on the studies of Lorenzo
Ghiberti in the XV century and on the relations of the humanists with light. (GAGE, 1999)
One of the aspects found in several authors, particularly in Goethe and in some experts
in environmental chromatic perception, is the concept of harmony and the ideas of
complementarity and unity. The harmony manifested in the search for unity through the
chromatic diversity or chromatic completeness, as something intrinsic to humans. Colours
meaning the light to the weak human eyes which cannot look directly into the sun, the
source.
A theory of harmony based on the idea of the complementary colour can be found in
Newton and Chevreul’s On the law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colours (1839).
“When in this completeness the elements of which it is composed are still
appreciable by the eye, the result is justly called harmony”. (GOETHE, 1978:28)
REFERENCE LITERATURE
Alighieri, D. 2002. A Divina Comédia. São Paulo, Ed. Nova Cultural,.
Colour in Architecture and the Writings of Pseudo- Dionysius, The Areopagite.
AIC Interim Meeting | 25 – 29 September 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal | www.aic2018.org
Benz, E. 1988. Color in Christian Visionary Experience in Color Symbolism, Spring
Publications Inc. Dallas,.
Duby, G. 1979. O tempo das Catedrais. Editorial Estampa, Lisboa.
Gage, J. 1999. Color and Meaning. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Goethe, J.W. 1978. Theory of Colours. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Kharlamov, V. , 2009. The Beauty of the Unity and the Harmony of the Whole- The concept
of Theosis in the Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Wipf and Stock
Publishers, Eugene, Oregon.
Kovach. F. J. 1974. Philosophy of Beauty. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Plato, 1937. The Dialogues of Plato. (Translated into English by B. Jowett) New York,
Random House. (two volumes).
Pseudo-Dionysius. 1987 .Pseudo Dionysius: The Complete Works. Paulist Press, NJ.