Color matching art of Nanjing Yunjin

"Brocade" is expensive, not only because of its exquisite materials and high labor intensity, but more importantly, it is a beautiful silk work of art, woven with beautiful five-color silk. "Six Books" says: "Weaving colors into brocade"; Li Shizhen explained the name "Brocade" in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Brocade is made of five-color silk, so the words are from silk to gold ..." It can be seen that exquisite patterns and colorful decorations are the most important factors that constitute the luxury of brocade.

Nanjing brocade has as many as 18 colors. The main flowers are introduced layer by layer by using "color halo". They are rich and elegant, with solid texture, rich and beautiful patterns, rich and solemn colors, and a large number of gold threads are used to form a gorgeous and unique style.

In terms of color perception, China's tradition has always liked warm colors, bright colors, bright colors and strong positive colors, but disliked light colors and many intermediate colors. Therefore, cyan, red, yellow, green, purple, white and black have become the main decorative colors in China. This can be seen from the folk embroidery in China, the stage costumes of Beijing Opera, the costumes of ethnic minorities, and the painting of palace-style buildings. The use of color in brocade also inherits the tradition of color in this national decoration. The brocade in Yuan Dynasty changed from the traditional emphasis on color matching to the promotion of gold thread as the main performance, which is a very prominent change in China brocade decoration. The brocade of Ming and Qing Dynasties, influenced by the prevailing golden atmosphere in Yuan Dynasty, not only paid attention to color matching, but also paid attention to the use of gold. The two decorative methods are eclectic, forming a new style of brocade decoration with equal emphasis on gold and color. Under the influence of the thought of using gold in Yuan Dynasty, combined with the specific practical requirements of royal costumes and court decoration, it formed its own color-using rules and decorative characteristics.

In feudal society, brocade, as a royal high-grade fabric, its decorative pattern and color decoration must obey the user's preference psychology and the practical requirements of a specific environment. Yunjin is for emperors and empresses, so its color decoration must show solemn, gorgeous, noble and elegant style to adapt to the user's identity and coordinate with the luxurious atmosphere in the court.

Some palace buildings in feudal society in China are particularly solemn, and they are specially used for courtship and sacrifice. Some are particularly elegant, designed for the emperor to study and rest; Some are particularly luxurious, such as for singing and dancing and catering; Some of them are particularly beautiful, such as for emperors and queens to live and live in. In these specific environments, brocade must be in harmony with the surrounding environment and set off each other. Therefore, this specific use object and specific use environment not only determines the pattern content and expression form of Yunjin pattern, but also determines the basic theme of Yunjin color matching.

"Look at its color from a distance, look at its flowers closely" is a famous saying in China folk dyeing and weaving design to master the effect of finished products. It means that a good dyeing and weaving design should not only have beautiful patterns, but also have touching color decoration. This is because the first influence on people's vision is that there are colors first, and then there are patterns. In the design of Yunjin, artists also have such a saying, which is called "happy horse racing to see flowers and makeup". "Makeup" is the most colorful fabric in brocade. Riding on a Mercedes-Benz horse, it takes only a moment to see the makeup fabric. The viewer riding a horse can immediately get a clear and strong impression and aesthetic feeling, mainly by color effect. Of course, this does not mean that the artistic effect of Yunjin finished products is really tested in this way, but that Yunjin designers can create many excellent works with beautiful patterns and strong colors if they deeply understand the important role played by color decoration in finished products and master this trick.

The color matching of the brocade pattern has a bright and strong theme, and it has a solemn, elegant, lively and majestic momentum. This color matching technique is in the same strain as the painting and decoration art of China Palace building. As far as the background color of "cosmetic satin" fabric is concerned, light color is rarely used. Except that yellow is a special background color (only the emperor's robes and royal decorative fabrics can use yellow), most of them use red, dark blue, royal blue, dark green and other dark colors as the background color (black is also used as the background color, but it is rarely used). The color matching of the main pattern also adopts dark decorations such as red, blue, green, purple (including sauce color), bronze, snuff and Tibetan camel.

Because of the use of "color halo" and color harmony, the heavy-colored flowers on the dark ground have achieved good artistic effects, forming a solemn and elegant theme of overall color matching, which is in harmony with the magnificent luxury atmosphere in the court and plays a comparative role in setting off the yellow royal costumes of feudal emperors.

In the color matching of brocade patterns, many of them are handled in a romantic way according to the specific needs of the patterns. Such as clouds in the sky, white clouds, gray clouds and dark clouds ... If all kinds of moire patterns commonly used in brocade are treated according to the real colors of life, the result will not only produce aesthetic feeling, but also destroy the harmony of the overall color matching of the patterns. In the design of brocade patterns, artists design moire patterns as "four in one cloud", "ruyi cloud", "seven in one cloud", "walking cloud" and "hooking cloud", which are idealized and typified according to the characteristics of different clouds and the law of formal beauty. Although it is far from the real form of clouds in life, it seems easy for people to recognize that it is a moire depiction and think it is more beautiful than the real clouds. This is the touching effect of typicality and idealization in artistic creation.

The moire color collocation of brocade makeup flowers is mostly decorated with red, blue and green, with light red, light blue and light green as the outer halo or white as the outer halo, so as to enrich the changes of color levels and increase the aesthetic feeling of color rhythm. Yun Lan Lv Yun, contrary to the truth of life, has been a household name for thousands of years, just like the word "blue sky". No one said they were untrue. On the contrary, they praised them vividly. This color matching of moire on brocade makeup fabric is also the reason. It not only enriches the color changes of the whole pattern, but also uses gold thread to twist the edges, which is more in line with people's imagination and description of auspicious clouds, auspicious atmosphere and immortal realm. The combination of colorful auspicious clouds and golden dragons shows that the "dragon" flies for nine days, which is more in line with the psychology of feudal rulers and is loved by rulers.

Another example is the lotus in life, which is red, pink and white; The lotus flowers in the brocade pattern are mostly represented by blue-gray or purple-gray. Yunjin's "Twisted Lotus" pattern is widely used and influenced by Buddhist art. Religious art often requires solemnity, calmness and tranquility. Blue-gray and purple-gray lotus flowers, although contrary to the truth of life, conform to the requirements of religion and the laws of art. Because this color scheme is suitable for the needs of color changes of specific patterns, people recognize it and love it.

In the color matching of brocade patterns, gold and silver (gold thread, thin gold, silver thread and thin silver) are also widely used. Gold and silver can be mixed with any color. The patterns in the "make-up" fabrics are all twisted with pieces of gold thread, and some patterns are decorated with gold thread and silver thread ("Jinbaodi" fabrics mostly use gold thread and silver thread). Gold and silver not only play a role in coordinating and unifying the overall color in the brocade pattern with strong color contrast, but also add a gorgeous sense of richness to the whole fabric, making it more beautiful and pleasing to the eye. This colorful decorative effect is the unique artistic feature of Yunjin.

The reason why the color matching of Yunjin make-up fabric can achieve the solemn and elegant effect of being heavy but not heavy, gorgeous but not vulgar, and contrasting but not exciting is because it skillfully uses the decorative technique of "color halo" and the processing skills of "twisting the edges with pieces of gold" and "alternating with white background". The so-called color halo is the expression of color shade, level and rhythm. The specific application of color halo (also called "touch-up") is to weave large theme flowers and some large guest flowers with different shades several times. Large theme flowers are generally represented by "three halos". According to the change of the size of the pattern block and the overall color matching, the large-sized guest flower can be represented by "three halos" or "two halos". Three halos, that is, a color scale is divided into three levels; The two halos, that is, the color levels divided into two levels, form a distinct rhythm, and the color levels with different shades show the three-dimensional effect and vivid spirit of the pattern. Due to the transition and change of shades, it not only weakens the stimulation of color contrast between the ground and flowers, or between flowers, but also increases the sense of rhythm and rhythm of colors. Then, it is "inlaid with gold", which makes colorful flowers more prominent; "White and white" make the contrasting colors unified and harmonious, so that the color collocation of the whole pattern can obtain solemn, elegant, simple, vivid, unified and harmonious beautiful effects.

Color glow can be used in two ways. The one with deep inside and shallow outside (such as the innermost halo is red, the middle halo is light red and the outer halo is pink) is called "positive halo". What is deep outside and shallow inside is called "anti-halo" (also called "anti-twist" by artists). The application of positive halo and anti-halo is determined according to the requirements of pattern "makeup" and the needs of overall color change. Usually used, mainly frontal dizziness. Sometimes the background color of the fabric is relatively light, and proper use of some anti-corona can highlight the effect of makeup. Sometimes, in a large positive halo pattern, consciously inserting a little anti-halo pattern can have the effect of "seeking novelty in plain". Generally speaking, except for special circumstances and special needs, positive halo is the main one, and anti-halo is only used as foil and ornament. If the anti-halo is not used properly, the artist calls it "sea twist" "sea twist" means improper halo method, which destroys the overall effect of color.

Color halo is also called retouching, which can be divided into two retouching and three retouching. Two halo colors (two embellishments): dark and light red; Sunflower yellow, sunflower green; Jade white and blue; Bronze, purple; Feathers are grayish blue; Three halo colors (three embellishments): water red, silver red with red; Kwai yellow, wide green belt azurite; Lotus root and violet with purple sauce; Jade white, Gu Yue with sapphire blue; Chou heung and bronze with snuff; Silver ash, tile ash with pigeon ash; Jujube sauce, grape ash, bronze color; Dark bronze with Tibetan camel. Although this is an incomplete material, it is the law and experience tempered by the long-term practice of color matching in Yunjin weaving. How many formulas are there? It's been a long time, and I can't find it. In the past, when the master handed down his disciples, he always looked after the house. Generation after generation, each has its own hand, and then there is not much left.