Pictorial Composition by Henry Rankin Poore

Author:Henry Rankin Poore
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486135755
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

55. The circular construction here is obvious even to the casual eye. There is no question that the intention was actually to compose round a circle, as the diagram clearly illustrates. Observe the exit that has been carefully provided to allow the eye to leave the confinement of the circular foreground when it is ready.

56. The circle is the classical symbol of unity. The oval head framed in the wheel of ruff represents harmony and complete repose.

In Tintoretto’s “Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne” (Illustration 7), the floating figure presents us with a shock, even if we consider the time when it was produced. This was a period in art when angels were frequently used throughout a composition simply to fill gaps or create masses. Their postures were dictated by whatever conditions the picture demanded. In this case, the artist needed to complete the circuit begun by the two figures on the ground, so he simply introduced an arc-like figure suspended in air. In addition, the angel fills a space that could otherwise have captured the viewing eye. In the mind of a 16th-century artist these reasons were perfectly valid.

In Watts’ “Endymion,” the movement of the draperies supplies motion to the figure of Selene, and as a momentary action we know it could be possible. However, if the interpretation of motion by hair and drapery were utterly implausible, and the impression, as in the Tintoretto, that of the suspended nude model, few modern painters would use such a figure. It is this touch of realism, even among the transcendental painters, that denotes the clean-cut separations between the modern and mediaeval art sense.

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