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“Your article is very good,” said the Abbe Plomb.  “But can the principles of a ritual of colour which you have discerned in Angelico be verified with equal strictness in other painters?”

“No, if we look for colour as Angelico received it from his monastic forefathers, the illuminators of Missals, or as he applied it in its strictest and most usual acceptation.  Yes, if we admit the law of antagonism, the rules of inversion, and if we know that symbolism authorizes the system of contraries, allowing the use of the hues which are appropriated to certain virtues to indicate the vices opposed to them.”

“In a word, an innocent colour may be interpreted in an evil sense, and vice versa,” said the Abbe Gevresin.

“Precisely.  In fact, artists who, though pious, were laymen, spoke a different language from the monks.  On emerging from the cloister the liturgical meaning of colours was weakened; it lost its original rigidity and became pliant.  Angelico followed the traditions of his Order to the letter, and he was not less scrupulous in his respect for the observances of religious art which prevailed in his day.  Not for anything on earth would he have infringed them, for he regarded them as a liturgical duty, a fixed rule of service.  But as soon as profane painters had emancipated the domain of painting, they gave us more puzzling versions, more complicated meanings; and the symbolism of colour, which is so simple in Angelico, became singularly abstruse—­supposing that they even were constantly faithful to it in their works—­and almost impossible to interpret.

“For instance, to select an example:  the Antwerp gallery possesses a tryptich, by Roger van der Werden, known as ‘The Sacraments.’  In the centre panel, devoted to the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Redeemer is shown under two aspects, the bleeding form of the Crucifixion and the mystic form of the pure oblation on the altar; behind the Cross, at the foot of which we see the weeping Mary, Saint John and the Holy Women, a priest is celebrating Mass and elevating the Host in the midst of a cathedral which forms the background of the picture.

“On the left-hand shutter, the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Penance are shown, in small detached scenes; and on the right-hand shutter those of Ordination, Marriage and Extreme Unction.

“This picture, a work of marvellous beauty, with the ’Descent from the Cross’ by Quentin Matsys, are the inestimable glory of the Belgium gallery; but I will not linger over a full description of this work; I will omit any reflection suggested by the supreme art of the painter, and restrict myself to recording that part of the work which bears on the symbolism of colour.”

“But are you sure that Roger van der Weyden intended to ascribe such meanings to the colours?”

“It is impossible to doubt it, for he has assigned a different hue to each Sacrament, by introducing above the scenes he depicts, an angel whose robe is in each instance different in accordance with the ceremony set forth.  His meaning therefore is beyond question; and these are the colours he affects to the means of Grace consecrated by the Saviour: