A programmer has created these stunning graphs to reveal the dominant colour of artworks through history.
一个程序员通过分析得出了一组很棒的图表，表明历史上的诸多画作中使用最多的颜色是橙色。
They show Orange has always been the most popular colour - although in recent years blue has begun to catch up.
这些图表显示橙色一度是画作中最流行的颜色，但是最近几年蓝色开始受到画家们的青睐。
I made a visualization of the change in colors of paintings over time, said Martin Bellander, a PhD student in psychology at the Karolinska Institute who created the graph.
卡罗林斯卡医学院心理系的博士生马丁·柏兰德制作了这些图表，他说：“我做的这些图表形象地展示了以往画作中画家们对橙色的偏爱程度。”
To do this, he wrote software first to scrape the images of the paintings from sites where they were available for free download - BBC, Google Art Project, Wikiart, Wikimedia commons, and various museums.
为了做这些图表，他首先制作了一款软件，把从各大网站上免费下载的画作图片放在一起进行分析。
Then, the software extract the relevant colour information from them, and plots it in a nice way.
这款软件能够从这些画作图片中提取相关的颜色信息，并以图表形式给出结果。
He found the paintings change over time - from orange to blue.
柏兰德发现从古至今画作的流行颜色从橙色逐渐变成了蓝色。
The changes in color might be a results of a combination of factor, he wrote.
他认为这种变化可能是因为一系列因素共同造成的。
One of these could of course be trends in the use of colour.
他说：“这当然也会成为颜色使用方面的一种趋势。”
If we assume a smooth linear deterioration of certain colours in oil paintings, it would be possible to subtract that change and study the short term fluctuation in colour use.
“如果我们假设在油画创作时某种特定颜色的使用频率呈平稳的线性下降趋势，那么我们就有可能去除这种变化并研究颜色使用的短期波动情况。”
For example the marked increase of blue at the time of the First World War, might actually reflect a true trend in colour use.
“比如第一次世界大战期间，蓝色的使用频率大大增加，这可能就反应了颜色使用中的一种趋势。”
Bellander used freely available images for the project.
柏兰德在做这项分析时使用的全是可以免费下载的画作图片。
There are a bunch of different sites where you can access (photos of) paintings, for instance the BBC, Google Art Project, Wikiart, Wikimedia commons, and various museums.
他说：“在诸如BBC等很多网站上，我们都能免费下载很多画作的图片。”
One of my favorites is the BBCs site where you can browse through over 200K of well organized paintings - an amazing resource.
“其中我最喜欢的是BBC，在上面可以下载到大小在200K左右的处理得非常好的画作图片。”
For many of these there is also information on the year they were painted, the artist, etc.
“而且很多图片都还附有绘画年份、画家名字等基本信息。”
He believes that some experts who have claimed perhaps the change is due top the price of paint are wrong.
柏兰德并不认同一些专家所说的颜色变化是因颜料价格升高而引起的。
I haven’t found any data on the prices of blue, so that explanation is hard to elaborate on.
“我没有发现任何与蓝色颜料价格相关的数据，所以那种观点很难站得住脚。”
However, it is not only blue that increases but all colors except orange, which might speak against the pigment prices explanation.
“而且使用频率增加的不只有蓝色，而是除了橙色以外的所有颜色，这也能反驳颜料价格影响颜色使用的说法。”
