Harvard Psychological Studies Part 67

among Alt. and Mad.)

The direction of suggestion by means of the indication of a line (L.), quite naturally is more frequent in the Madonna-picture and Portrait cla.s.ses. Both these types are of large simple outline, so that L.

would be expected to tell, but more or less irregular, so that it would not appear on both sides, thus neutralizing its action, as often in the symmetrical altarpieces. This neutralizing explains why it has a comparatively small per cent. in the landscape table, it having appeared in minor form all over the field, but less often in large salient outline. It is worth noticing that for the D.C. of both genre and landscape, the per cent. drops appreciably. As it is, in a decided majority of cases, combined with V.--the shape being more or less a diagonal slope--it is clear that it acts as a kind of bond between the two sides, carrying the attention without a break from one to the other.

The element of ma.s.s requires less comment. It appears in greatest number in those pictures which have little action, portraits and landscapes, and which are yet not symmetrical--in which last case ma.s.s is, of course, already balanced. In fact, it must of necessity exert a certain influence in every unsymmetrical picture, and so its percentage, even for genre pictures, is large.

Thus we may regard the elements as both attracting attention to a certain spot and dispersing it over a field. Those types which are of a static character abound in elements which disperse the attention; those which are of a dynamic character, in those which make it stable.

The ideal composition seems to combine the dynamic and static elements--to animate, in short, the whole field of view, but in a generally bilateral fashion. The elements, in subst.i.tutional symmetry, are then simply means of introducing variety and action. As a dance in which there are complicated steps gives the actor and beholder a varied and thus vivified 'balance,' and is thus more beautiful than the simple walk, so a picture composed in subst.i.tutional symmetry is more rich in its suggestions of motor impulse, and thus more beautiful, than an example of geometrical symmetry.

_B. Principles of Composition._

The particular function of the elements which are subst.i.tuted for geometrical symmetry has been made clear; their presence lends variety and richness to the balance of motor impulses. But the natural motor response to stimulation has another characteristic which belongs to us as individuals. The motor response must be balanced, but also unified.

In a picture, therefore, there must be a large outline in which all the elements are held together, corresponding to this requirement of unity. Now this way of holding together, this manner of combination, may vary; and I hope to show that it not only varies with the subject and purpose of the picture, but bears a very close relation thereto--that, in short, it is what determines the whole character of the picture. Just what this relation is will appear in the study of our material.

Examples of these types of composition may best be found by a.n.a.lyzing a few very well-known pictures. We may begin with the cla.s.s first studied, the Altarpiece, choosing a picture by Botticelli, in the Florence Academy (746). Under an arch is draped a canopy held up by angels; under this, again, sits the M. with the C. on her lap, on a throne, at the foot of which, on each side, stand three saints. The outline of the whole is markedly pyramidal--in fact, there are, broadly speaking, three pyramids; of the arch, the canopy, and the grouping. A second, much less symmetrical example of this type, is given by another Botticelli in the Academy--_Spring_ (140). Here the central female figure, topped by the floating Cupid, is slightly raised above the others, which, however, bend slightly inward, so that a triangle, or pyramid with very obtuse angle at the apex, is suggested; and the whole, which at first glance seems a little scattered, is at once felt, when this is grasped, as closely bound together.

Closely allied to this is the type of the _Madonna of Burgomaster Meyer_, Holbein (725), in the Grand-Ducal Castle, Darmstadt. It is true that the same pyramid is given by the head of the M. against the sh.e.l.l-like background, and her spreading cloak which envelops the kneeling donors. But still more salient is the diamond form given by the descending rows of these worshipping figures, especially against the dark background of the M.'s dress. A second example, without the pyramid backing, is found in Rubens' _Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus_ (88), in the Alte Pinakothek at Munich. Here the diamond shape formed by the horses and struggling figures is most remarkable--an effect of lightness which will be discussed later in interpreting the types.

The famous _Bull_ of Paul Potter (149), in the Royal Museum at the Hague, furnishes a third type, the diagonal. High on one side are grouped the herdsman, leaning on a tree which fills up the sky on that side, and his three sheep and cow. The head of the bull is turned toward this side, and his back and hind leg slope down to the other side, as the ground slopes away to a low distant meadow. The picture is thus divided by an irregular diagonal. Somewhat more regular is the diagonal of the _Evening Landscape_, by Cuyp (348), in the Buckingham Palace, London. High trees and cliffs, hors.e.m.e.n and others, occupy one side, and the mountains in the background, the ground and the clouds, all slope gradually down to the other side.

It is a natural transition from this type to the V-shape of the landscapes by Aart van der Neer, _Dutch Villages_, 245 and 420, in the London National Gallery and in the Rudolphinum at Prague, respectively. Here are trees and houses on each side, gradually sloping to the center to show an open sky and deep vista. Other examples, of course, show the opening not exactly in the center.

In the _Concert_ by Giorgione (758), in the Pitti Gallery, Florence, is seen the less frequent type of the square. The three figures turned toward each other with heads on the same level make almost a square s.p.a.ce-shape, although it might be said that the central player gives a pyramidal foundation. This last may also be said of Verrocchio's _Tobias and the Archangels_ in the Florence Academy, for the square, or rather rectangle, is again lengthened by the pyramidal shape of the two central figures. The unrelieved square, it may here be interpolated, is not often found except in somewhat primitive examples. Still less often observed is the oval type of _Samson's Wedding feast_, Rembrandt (295), in the Royal Gallery, Dresden. Here one might, by pressing the interpretation, see an obtuse-angled double-pyramid with the figure of Delilah for an apex, but a few very irregular pictures seem to fall best under the given cla.s.sification.

Last of all it must be remarked that the great majority of pictures show a combination of two or even three types; but these are usually subordinated to one dominant type. Such, for instance, is the case with many portraits, which are markedly pyramidal, with the double-pyramid suggested by the position of the arms, and the inverted pyramid, or V, in the landscape background. The diagonal sometimes just pa.s.ses over into the V, or into the pyramid; or the square is combined with both.

It is, of course, not necessary at this point to show how it is that such an apparently unsymmetrical shape as the diagonal, alone or in combination with other forms, nevertheless produces an effect of balance. In all these cases of the diagonal type the ma.s.s or interest of the one side, or the direction of subordinate lines backward to it, balances the impulse of the line descending to the other side. The presence of balance or subst.i.tutional symmetry is taken for granted in this treatment, having been previously established, and only the modifications of this symmetry are under consideration.

Now, in order to deal properly with the question of the relation of the type of composition to the subject of the picture, complete statistical information will be necessary. A table of the pictures, cla.s.sified by subjects and distributed under the heads of the six major types, is accordingly subjoined.

Pyramid. Double-Pyr. Diagonal.

S.C. D.C. S.S. S.C. D.C. S.S. S.C. D.C. S.S.

Altarpieces, 49 0 1 10 4 0 1 0 0 Mad. w. C., 40 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 Holy Family, 25 0 4 0 0 1 2 2 2 Adorations, 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Crucifixions, 11 0 0 7 0 1 0 0 1 Desc. fr. Cross, 12 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 Annunciations, 0 8 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 Misc. Religious, 55 16 3 4 4 0 10 7 5 Allegorical, 20 2 1 4 0 0 4 0 2 Genre, 25 4 4 5 0 0 18 2 1 Landscape, 8 2 1 3 0 0 25 6 0 Port. Group, 20 4 2 9 0 0 3 3 2 Rel. Single Fig., 20 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 Alleg. S.F., 7 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 Portrait S.F., 179 0 0 28 0 0 0 0 0 Genre S.F., 15 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0

V-shaped. Square. Oval.

S.C. D.C. S.S. S.C. D.C. S.S. S.C. D.C. S.S.

Altarpieces, 6 1 0 4 1 0 0 1 0 Mad. w. C., 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Holy Family, 13 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 Adorations, 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Crucifixions, 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 Desc. fr. Cross, 5 0 1 3 0 0 2 0 0 Annunciations, 0 1 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 Misc. Religious, 20 14 2 9 12 1 2 2 3 Allegorical, 3 2 1 3 1 0 3 1 0 Genre, 10 7 6 4 4 0 1 3 0 Landscape, 20 12 0 4 0 0 5 2 0 Port. Group, 10 7 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 Rel. Single Fig., 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Alleg. S.F., 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Portrait S.F., 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Genre S.F., 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

What types are characteristic of the different kinds of pictures? In order to answer this question we must ask first, What are the different kinds of pictures? One answer, at least, is at once suggested to the student on a comparison of the pictures with their groupings according to subjects. All those which represent the Madonna enthroned, with all variations, with or without saints, shepherds or Holy Family, are very quiet in their action; that is, it is not really an action at all which they represent, but an att.i.tude--the att.i.tude of contemplation. This is no less true of the pictures I have called 'Adorations,' in which, indeed, the contemplative att.i.tude is still more marked. On the other hand, such pictures as the 'Descents,' the 'Annunciations,' and very many of the 'miscellaneous religious,'

allegorical and genre pictures, portray a definite action or event.

Taking together, for instance, in two groups of five each, the first ten cla.s.ses in the table, we find that they fall to the six types in the following proportion:

P. D.P. Dg. V. Sq. Ov.

I. 66 13 05 13 03 0 II. 43 07 14 20 12 04

Inasmuch as II. contains also many 'contemplative' pictures, while I.

contains no 'active' ones, the contrast between the proportions of the groups would really be sharper than the figures indicate. But as it is, we see that the pyramid type is characteristic of the 'contemplative' pictures in a much higher degree. If the closely allied double-pyramid type is taken with it, we have 79 per cent of the 'contemplative' to 50 per cent, of the 'active' ones. This view is confirmed by contrasting the 'Adoration,' the most complete example of one group, with the genre pictures, the most complete example of the other--and here we see that in the first all are pyramidal, and in the second only 26 per cent. A cla.s.s which might be supposed to suggest the same treatment in composition is that of the portraits--absolute lack of action being the rule. And we find, indeed, that no single type is represented within it except the pyramid and double-pyramid, with 86 per cent. of the former. Thus it is evident that for the type of picture which expresses the highest degree of quietude, contemplation, concentration, the pyramid is the characteristic type of composition.

But is it not also characteristic of the 'active' pictures, since, as we see, it has the largest representation in that cla.s.s too? Perhaps it might be said that, inasmuch as all pictures are really more 'quiet' than they are 'active,' so the type _par excellence_ is the pyramidal--a suggestion which is certainly borne out by the table as a whole. But setting aside for the moment the pyramid and its sub-variety, we see that the diagonal V-shaped and square types are much more numerous in the roughly outlined 'active' cla.s.s. Taking, again, the genre cla.s.s as especially representative, we find 23 per cent. of the diagonal type, and 25 per cent. of the V-shaped. We have seen how closely allied are these two types, and how gradually one pa.s.ses over into the other, so that we may for the nonce take them together as making up 47 per cent. of the whole. The type of picture which expresses the highest degree of activity, which aims to tell a story, has, then, for its characteristic type the V and its varieties.

The landscape picture presents a somewhat different problem. It cannot be described as either 'active' or 'pa.s.sive,' inasmuch as it does not express either an att.i.tude or an event. There is no definite idea to be set forth, no point of concentration, as with the altarpieces and the portraits, for instance; and yet a unity is demanded. An examination of the proportions of the types shows at once the characteristic type.

P. D.P. Dg. V. Sq. Or.

Landscapes, 13 03 35 36 05 08

It is now necessary to ask what must be the interpretation of the use of these types of composition. Must we consider the pyramid the expression of pa.s.sivity, the diagonal or V, of activity? But the greatly predominating use of the second for landscapes would remain unexplained, for at least nothing can be more reposeful than the latter. It may aid the solution of the problem to remember that the composition taken as a whole has to meet the demand for unity, at the same time that it allows free play to the natural expression of the subject. The altarpiece has to bring about a concentration of attention to express or induce a feeling of reverence. This is evidently brought about by the suggestion of the converging lines to the fixation of the high point in the picture--the small area occupied by the Madonna and Child--and by the subordination of the free play of other elements. The contrast between the broad base and the apex gives a feeling of solidity, of repose; and it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the tendency to rest the eyes above the center of the picture directly induces the a.s.sociated mood of reverence or worship.

Thus the pyramidal form serves two ends; primarily that of giving unity; and secondarily, by the peculiarity of its ma.s.s, that of inducing the feeling-tone appropriate to the subject of the picture.

Applying this principle to the so-called 'active' pictures, we see that the natural movement of attention between the different 'actors'

in the picture must be allowed for, while yet unity is secured. And it is clear that the diagonal type is just fitted for this. The attention sweeps down from the high side to the low, from which it returns through some backward suggestion of lines or interest in the objects of the high side. Action and reaction--movement and return of attention--is inevitable under the conditions of this type; and this it is which allows the free play--which, indeed, _const.i.tutes_ and expresses the activity belonging to the subject, just as the fixation of the pyramid const.i.tutes the quietude of the religious picture. Thus it is that the diagonal composition is particularly suited to portray scenes of grandeur, and to induce a feeling of awe in the spectator, because only here can the eye rove in one large sweep from side to side of the picture, recalled by the ma.s.s and interest of the side from which it moves. The swing of the pendulum is here widest, so to speak, and all the feeling-tones which belong to wide, free movement are called into play. If, at the same time, the element of the deep vista is introduced, we have the extreme of concentration combined with the extreme of movement; and the result is a picture in the 'grand style'--comparable to high tragedy--in which all the feeling-tones which wait on motor impulses are, as it were, while yet in the same reciprocal relation, tuned to the highest pitch. Such a picture is the _Finding of the Ring_, Paris Bordone (1048), in the Venice Academy. All the ma.s.s and the interest and the suggestion of attention is toward the right--the sweep of the downward lines and of the magnificent perspective toward the left--and the effect of the whole s.p.a.ce-composition is of superb largeness of life and feeling.

With it may be compared t.i.tian's _Presentation of the Virgin_ (107), also in the Academy, Venice. The composition, from the figure moving upward to one high on the right, to the downward lines, waiting groups and deep vista on the left, is almost identical with that of the Bordone. Neither is pure diagonal--that is, it saves itself at last by an upward movement. Compare also the two great compositions by Veronese, _Martyrdom of St. Mark_, etc. (1091), in the Doge's Palace, Venice, and _Esther before Ahasuerus_ (566), in the Uffizi, Florence.

In both, the ma.s.s, direction of interest, movement and attention are toward the left, while all the lines tend diagonally to the right, where a vista is also suggested--the diagonal making a V just at the end. Here, too, the effect is of magnificence and vigor.

If, then, the pyramid belongs to contemplation, the diagonal to action, what can be said of the type of landscape? It is without action, it is true, and yet does not express that positive quality, that _will_ not to act, of the rapt contemplation. The landscape uncomposed is negative; and it demands unity. Its type of composition, then, must give it something positive besides unity. It lacks both concentration and action; but it can gain them both from a s.p.a.ce composition which shall combine unity with a tendency to movement. And this is given by the diagonal and V-shaped type. This type merely allows free play to the natural tendency of the 'active' picture; but it constrains the neutral, inanimate landscape. The shape itself imparts motion to the picture: the sweep of line, the concentration of the vista, the unifying power of the inverted triangle between two ma.s.ses, act, as it were, externally to the suggestion of the object itself. There is always enough quiet in a landscape--the overwhelming suggestion of the horizontal suffices for that; it is movement that is needed for richness of effect; and, as I have shown, no type imparts the feeling of movement so strongly as the diagonal and V-shaped type of composition. It is worth remarking that the perfect V, which is of course more regular, concentrated, quiet, than the diagonal, is more frequent than the diagonal among the 'Miscellaneous Religious'

pictures (that is, it is more _needed_), since after all, as has been said, the final aim of all s.p.a.ce composition is just the attainment of repose. But the landscapes need energy, not repression; and so the diagonal type is proportionately more numerous.

The square and oval types, as is seen from the table, are far less often used. The oval, most infrequent of all, appears only among the 'active' pictures, with the exception of landscape. It usually serves to unite a group of people among whom there is no one especially striking--or the object of whose attention is in the center of the picture, as in the case of the Descent from the Cross. It imparts a certain amount of movement, but an equable and regular one, as the eye returns in an even sweep from one side to the other.

The square type, although only three per cent. of the whole number of pictures, suggests a point of view which has already been touched on in the section on Primitive Art. The examples fall into two cla.s.ses: in the first, the straight lines across the picture are unrelieved by the suggestion of any other type; in the second, the pyramid or V is suggested in the background with more or less clearness by means of architecture or landscape. In the first cla.s.s are found, almost exclusively, early examples of Italian, Dutch and German art; in the second, pictures of a later period. The rigid square, in short, is found only at an early stage in the development of composition.

Moreover, all the examples are 'story' pictures, for the most part scenes from the lives of the saints, etc. Many of them are double-center--square, that is, with a slight break in the middle, the grouping purely logical, to bring out the relations of the characters.

Thus, in the _Dream of Saint Martin_, Simone Martini (325), a fresco at a.s.sisi, the saint lies straight across the picture with his head in one corner. Behind him on one side, stand the Christ and angels, grouped closely together, their heads on the same level. Compare also the _Finding of the Cross_, Piero della Francesca (1088), a serial picture in two parts, with their respective backgrounds all on the same level; and most of the frescoes by Giotto at a.s.sisi--in particular _St. Francis before the Sultan_ (1057), in which the actors are divided into parties, so to speak.

These are all, of course, in one sense symmetrical--in the weight of interest, at least--but they are completely amorphous from an aesthetic point of view. The _forms_, that is, do not count at all--only the meanings. The story is told by a clear separation of the parts, and as, in most stories, there are two princ.i.p.al actors, it merely happens that they fall into the two sides of the picture. Interesting in connection with this is the observation that, although the more anecdotal the picture the more likely it is to be 'double-centered,'

the later the picture the less likely it is to be double-centered.

Thus the square and the double-center composition seem often to be found in the same picture and to be, both, characteristic of early composition. On the other hand, a rigid geometrical symmetry is also characteristic, and these two facts seem to contradict each other. But it is to be noted, first, that the rigid geometrical symmetry belongs only to the Madonna Enthroned, and general Adoration pieces; and secondly, that this very rigidity of symmetry in details can coexist with variations which destroy balance. Thus, in the _Madonna Enthroned_, Giotto (715), where absolute symmetry in detail is kept, the Child sits far out on the right knee of the Madonna. Compare also _Madonna_, Vitale di Bologna (157), in which the C. is almost falling off M.'s arms to the right, her head is bent to the right, and a monk is kneeling at the right lower corner; also _Madonna_, Ottaviano Nelli (175)--all very early pictures. Hence, it would seem that the symmetry of these early pictures was not dictated by a conscious demand for symmetrical arrangement, or rather for real balance, else such failures would hardly occur. The presence of geometrical symmetry is more easily explained as the product, in large part, of technical conditions: of the fact that these pictures were painted as altarpieces to fill a s.p.a.ce definitely symmetrical in character--often, indeed, with architectural elements intruding into it. We may even venture to connect the Madonna pictures with the temple images of the cla.s.sic period, to explain why it was natural to paint the object of worship seated exactly facing the worshipper. Thus we may separate the two cla.s.ses of pictures, the one giving an object of worship, and thus taking naturally, as has been said, the pyramidal, symmetrical shape, and being moulded to symmetry by all other suggestions of technique; the other aiming at nothing except logical clearness. This ant.i.thesis of the symbol and the story has a most interesting parallel in the two great cla.s.ses of primitive art--the one symbolic, merely suggestive, shaped by the s.p.a.ce it had to fill, and so degenerating into the slavishly symmetrical, the other descriptive, 'story-telling' and without a trace of s.p.a.ce composition. On neither side is there evidence of direct aesthetic feeling. Only in the course of artistic development do we find the rigid, yet often unbalanced, symmetry relaxing into a free subst.i.tutional symmetry, and the formless narrative crystallizing into a really unified and balanced s.p.a.ce form.

The two ant.i.theses approach each other in the 'balance' of the masterpieces of civilized art--in which, for the first time, a real feeling for s.p.a.ce composition makes itself felt.

* * * * *

THE aeSTHETICS OF UNEQUAL DIVISION.

BY ROSWELL PARKER ANGIER.

PART I.

The present paper reports the beginnings of an investigation designed to throw light on the psychological basis of our aesthetic pleasure in unequal division. It is confined to horizontal division. Owing to the prestige of the golden section, that is, of that division of the simple line which gives a short part bearing the same ratio to the long part that the latter bears to the whole line, experimentation of this sort has been fettered. Investigators have confined their efforts to statistical records of approximations to, or deviations from, the golden section. This exalts it into a possible aesthetic norm. But such a gratuitous supposition, by limiting the inquiry to the verification of this norm, distorts the results, tempting one to forget the provisional nature of the a.s.sumption, and to consider divergence from the golden section as an error, instead of another example, merely, of unequal division. We have, as a matter of fact, on one hand, investigations that do not verify the golden section, and, on the other hand, a series of attempts to account for our pleasure in it, as if it were, beyond dispute, the norm. In this way the statistical inquiries have been narrowed in scope, and interpretation r.e.t.a.r.ded and misdirected. Statistically our aim should be to ascertain within how wide limits aesthetically pleasing unequal divisions fall; and an interpretative principle must be flexible enough to include persistent variations from any hypothetical norm, unless they can be otherwise accounted for. If it is not forced on us, we have, in either case, nothing to do with the golden section.