The idea of founding a theory of painting after the model of music theory was suggested by Goethe in 1807 and gained much regard among the avant-garde artists of the 1920s, the Weimar culture period, like Paul Klee.
From Goethe to Klee Goethe famously said in 1807 that painting "lacks any established, accepted theory as exists in music".Moshe Barasch (2000) Theories of art – from impressionism to Kandinsky, part IV 'Abstract art', chap. 'Color' pp. 332–3Goethe 19 May 1807, conversation with Riemer Kandinsky in 1911 reprised Goethe, agreeing that painting needed a solid foundational theory, and such a theory should be patterned after the model of music theory, and adding that there is a deep relationship between all the arts, not only between music and painting.Kandinsky p. 27
The comparison of painting with music gained much regard among the avant-garde artists of the 1920s, the Weimar culture period, like Paul Klee.Marcel Franciscono Paul Klee: His Work and Thought, part 6 'The Bauhaus and Düsseldorf', chap. 'Klee's theory courses', p. 246 and under 'notes to pages 245–54' p. 365
Structural semantic rhetoric The Belgian semioticians known under the name Groupe μ, developed a method of painting research called structural semantic rhetoric; this method aims to determine the stylistic and aesthetic features of any painting utilizing the rhetorical operations of addition, omission, permutation and transposition.Winfried Nöth (1995) Handbook of semiotics pp. 342, 459Jean-Marie Klinkenberg et al. (Groupe μ) (1980) Plan d'une rhétorique de l'image, pp. 249–68
See also Aesthetics of music Philosophy of music Synesthesia in art Visual semiotics
Notes
References Kandinsky Concerning the Spiritual in Art, chapter The language of form and colour pp. 27–45