La Gamme jaune de František Kupka : un exemple de synesthésie

摘要

The Yellow Spectrum by František Kupka The Yellow Spectrum (1907, National Museum of Modem Art, Pompidou Centre, Paris) by F. Kupka, the key work of his figurative period, is a typical example of an approach based on synesthesia. As its highly descriptive title indicates, Kupka hère launches himself deeper into a study of colour, applying the whole yellow-orange spectrum present in the theory of colors. Nevertheless he attaches to these colors a symbolic and 'narrative' meaning in which he follows the logic of the psychological and physiological effects of color. Moreover, many preliminary sketches, as well as the second version of this painting (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) are fraught with literary connotations. It is very likely that this work is an imaginary and highly symbolic portrait of Charles Baudelaire as a poet able to evoke and 'visualize' through his work (in particular in Les Paradis artificiels [Artificial Paradises] and in his French translations of Edgar Allan Poe) a whole spectrum of internal visions.