Line and Form (1900) Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration (f090): Informal Composition: Expression of Repose and Action.]

Draw a figure sitting rigid, tense, and alert, and you destroy the sense of repose at once, and you are obliged also to resort to angles, still more emphatic where strong action is to be expressed; while to express continual or progressive movement, a choice of a.s.sociated lines of action in different stages of progress leading up to the crescendo of the final one (as in a group of mowers) would be necessary (see ill.u.s.trations, p. 161[f090]). We cannot, then, in any composition have too definite a conception. We must, at any sacrifice of detail, bring out the main expression and meaning. Every group of figures must be in the strictest relation to each other and to the central interest or expression of the design. You cannot, for instance, in a procession of figures, make your faces turn all sorts of ways without stopping the onward movement which is essential to the idea of a procession. This would not preclude variety, but the general tendency must be in one direction. Every line in a composition must lead up to the central idea, and be subordinated or contributory to it (see ill.u.s.tration, Nos. 1 and 2, p. 163[f091a]).

[Ill.u.s.tration (f091a): (1) and (2) Movement in a Procession]

The same with ma.s.ses: you cannot put a number of forms together without some sort of relation, either of general character and contour or some uniting line. We may learn this principle from nature also. Look at a heap of broken stones and debris, which in detail may contain all sorts of varieties of form, as we find them tumbled down a steep place, as the rocky bed of a mountain stream, a heap of boulders upon a hillside, or the debris from a quarry or mine; in each case the law of gravity and the persistence of force working together arrange the diverse forms in ma.s.ses controlled by the lines, which express the direction and degree of descent, and the pressure of force. The same thing may be seen on any hilly ground after heavy rain; the scattered pebbles are arranged in related groups, combined and composed by the flow of miniature streams, which channel the face of the ground and form hollows for their reception (see Nos. 3 and 4, p. 163[f091b]). The force of the tides and currents upon the sea-sh.o.r.e ill.u.s.trates the same principle and affords us magnificent lessons in composition, not only in the delicate lines taken by the sculptured sand, but in the harmonious grouping of ma.s.ses of shingle and sh.e.l.ls, weeds and drift, arranged by the movement of the waves.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f091b): (3) Lines Left by a Watercourse, (4) Lines Governing Fallen Debris from a Quarry.]

[Principles of Harmonious Composition]

So that we may see that the principles of harmonious composition are not the outcome of merely capricious fancy or pedantic rule, but are ill.u.s.trated throughout the visible world by the laws and forces of the material universe. It is for the artist to observe and apply them in his own work of re-creation.

CHAPTER VII

Of the Relief of Form--Three Methods--Contrast--Light and Shade, and Modelling--The Use of Contrast and Planes in Pattern Designing--Decorative Relief--Simple Linear Contrast--Relief by Linear Shading--Different Emphasis in relieving Form by Shading Lines--Relief by means of Light and Shade alone without Outline--Photographic Projection--Relief by different Planes and Contrasts of Concave and Convex Surfaces in Architectural Mouldings--Modelled Relief--Decorative Use of Light and Shade, and different Planes in Modelling and Carving--Egyptian System of Relief Sculpture--Greek and Gothic Architectural Sculpture, influenced by Structural and Ornamental Feeling--Sculptural Tombs, Medals, Coins, Gems--Florentine Fifteenth-century Reliefs--Desideriodi Settignano.

We come now to the consideration of the various means and methods of expressing relief in line and form.

We may define a form in outline and give it different qualities of expression by altering the quality and consistency of our outline, and we may obtain very different kinds of decorative effect by the use of lines of various degrees of thickness or thinness; but if we want to give it force and colour, and to distinguish it from its background more emphatically, we must add to our outline.

[Three Methods of Expressing Relief]

There are three princ.i.p.al methods or systems of giving relief by adding to our outline.

One is the method of giving relief to form by contrasts of tone, colour, or tint.

Another by means of the expression of light and shade: and the third by means of modelling in relief.

Now, still keeping to expression by means of line, the three arms I have sketched (p. 167[f092]) ill.u.s.trate: (1) the form in outline alone; (2) the contrast method; and (3) the light and shade method. The three pots underneath ill.u.s.trate the same three stages in a simpler manner.

In number one we see the outline defining the form pure and simple: in number two the form is relieved by a half-tone formed of diagonal lines, forming a plane or background behind it. The arm is still further relieved by the dark drapery. Number three shows the relief carried further by lines expressive of the modelling of the arm and the rounding of the pot, and also by cast shadows from the forms.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f092): The Relief of Form: (1) By Outline, (2) By Contrast, (3) By Light and Shade.]

The system of expressing relief I have termed relief by contrast includes two kinds of contrast: there are the contrasts of line and form, and there are the contrasts of planes of tone or tint and local colour. We may consider that the contrast method covers generally all forms of pattern and certain kinds of pictorial design. The method of expressing relief by means of line covers generally all forms of design in black and white, graphic sketching, pen-drawing, and work with the point of all kinds.

[Of the Use of Contrast and Planes]

Taking the principle of contrast as applied to pattern design, we can, even within the limited range of black and white and half-tint (as expressed by lines), get a considerable amount of decorative effect. In the first place by bringing out our pattern, previously outlined, upon a black ground (as in Nos. 1 and 2, p. 169[f093]), increasing the richness of effect, and getting a second plane by treating the lower part in an open tint of line.

Simple contrasts of dark upon light or light upon dark are effective, and sufficient for many purposes, such as borders (as in Nos. 2 and 3, p. 169[f093]).

When a lighter kind of relief and effect is required, the recurring forms in a border are often sufficiently emphasized by a tint of open lines: movement and variety being given by making them follow the minor curves of the successive forms, as in this instance (No 4, p. 169[f093]) the movement of the water is suggested behind the fish.

The relation of the plain ground-work to the figure of the pattern is also an important point; indeed the plain parts of the pattern, or the interstices and intervals of the pattern, are as essential to the pattern as the figured parts.

In designs intended for various processes of manufacture, such as printed or woven textiles, wall-papers, etc., where blocks or rollers are used to repeat the pattern, the extent of plain in proportion to figured parts must be governed in some measure by the practicable size of the repeat: but within certain limits great variety of proportion is possible.

A simple but essentially decorative principle is to preserve a certain equality between the figured ma.s.ses and the ground ma.s.ses. The leaf patterns (Nos. 6 and 7, p. 169[f093]) consist simply of the repet.i.tion and reversal of a single element. An emphatic effect is obtained by bringing the leaves out black upon a white ground (as in No. 6), while a flatter and softer effect is the result of throwing them upon a plane of half-tint expressed by horizontal lines, with a similar effect of relief to that which would be given by the warp, if the pattern were woven.

For larger surfaces, greater repose and dignity in pattern may be obtained by a greater proportion of the repeat being occupied by the ground (as in No. 5, p. 169[f093]).

[Ill.u.s.tration (f093): Relief of Form and Line in Pattern Design by Means of Contrast and the Use of Planes.]

Indeed we may consider as a general principle that the larger the inters.p.a.ces of the ground, plane, or field of the pattern, the lighter in tint they should be, or the necessary flatness is apt to be lost.

Relief in pattern design may be said to be adding interest and richness without losing the flatness and repose of the design as a whole. When pattern and ground are fairly equally balanced in quant.i.ty the ground may be rich and dark, and darkest as the interstices, where the ground is shown, become less. The figure of a pattern relieved as light upon a dark plane, as a rule, requires to be fuller in form than dark-figuring upon a light ground.

[Decorative Relief]

In decorative work the use of contrast in the relief of parts of a design is often useful and effective, as, for instance, the dark shading or treatment in black or flat tone of the alternating under side of a turn-over leaf border.

The decorative value of this principle is recognized by heraldic designers in the treatment of the mantling of the helmet, which in earlier times is treated simply as a hanging or flying strip of drapery with a lining of a different colour, by which it is relieved as it hangs in simple spiral folds. This ornamental element became developed by the designers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries into elaborate scroll designs springing from the circlet of the helmet and surrounding the shield: but the principle of the turned-up lining remained, often variegated and enriched with heraldic patterns (see ill.u.s.trations, pp.

172[f094a], 173[f094b]).*

[*] The increased importance given to the mantling in later times may have been due to the disappearance of the housings of the knight's horse and his surcoat, which originally displayed his arms and colours. The mantling of later times displayed the heraldic colours of the knight, when, being clad in plate armour, there was no other means of displaying them except on the shield.

Decoratively, of course, the mantling is of great value to the heraldic designer, enabling him to form much more graceful compositions, to combine diverse and rigid elements with free and flowing lines and ma.s.ses, and to fill panels with greater richness and effect, whether carved or painted, or both.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f094a): Decorative Relief: Counterchange, Treatment of Mantling, Fourteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.]

[Ill.u.s.tration (f094b): Decorative Relief: Treatment of Mantling.]

[Use of Diapered Backgrounds]

The principle, too, of counterchange in heraldry answers to our principle of relief by contrast, and though its chief charm lies in its ornamental range of form and colour combinations, it can be expressed in black and white, and it remains a universal principle throughout decorative art. The decorative effect and charm of the relief of large and bold forms upon rich and delicate diapers is also an important resource of the designer. The monumental art of the Middle Ages affords mult.i.tudes of examples of this principle in ornamental treatment. The miniaturist of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries constantly relieved his groups of figures upon a diapered ground. The architectural sculptor relieved the broad ma.s.ses of flowing drapery and the bold projection of his effigies and rec.u.mbent figures by delicately chiselled diapers upon the surface of the wall behind them. This treatment may frequently be seen in the recessed tombs of the fourteenth century.

The incisor of memorial bra.s.ses, again, more especially in continental examples, shows a fondness for the same principle. The long vertical lines of drapery of ladies and ecclesiastics, the broad ma.s.ses of the heraldic surcoat, or armour of the knights, the rich and heavy furred gowns of the burghers, are often relieved upon beautiful diapered or arabesque grounds, generally embodying some heraldic device, motto, or emblem of the person or family whose tomb it ornaments. Such decoration is strictly linear, yet within its own limits, and perhaps because of them, we find in this province of design extremely admirable work, no less for delineation of character and decorative treatment than for ornamental invention controlled by strict economy of line.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f095): Relief Upon a Diapered Ground: Bra.s.s of Martin De Visch, Bruges, 1452.]

[Relief of Form by Linear Shading]

This brings us to the consideration of our second method of relief by means of line.

Take any simple allied elements to form a repeating pattern, say spiral sh.e.l.ls, place them at certain rhythmic intervals, and we can unite and at the same time give them relief by filling in the ground by a series of waved lines to suggest the ribbed sand. Add a few dots to soften and vary the effect, and we get a pattern of a certain balance and consistency (No. 1, p. 177[f096a]).

[Ill.u.s.tration (f096a): Relief in Pattern Design by Means of Simple Linear Contrasts (1)]

With the more varied and complex floral form, but treated in a very abstract way, placing the daisies in a line, horizontally, and reversing the sprig for the alternate row, we have another motive, which is connected and steadied as well as relieved by the suggestion of gra.s.s blades in groups of three slightly radiated vertical strokes (No. 2, p. 177[f096b]). A pattern of two elements, again, may be formed in a still more simple way by linear contrast, as in No. 3, where the pyramidal trees are formed by a continuous serpentine stroke of the pen terminating in a spiral stem. The diagonal arrangement of the trees produces a chequer, the intervals of which can be varied by the contrasting black ma.s.ses of the birds.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f096b): Relief in Pattern Design by Means of Simple Linear Contrasts (2), (3)]

In graphic drawing, lines to express forms in the relief of light and shade are often needed to give additional force even where no great degree of realism is desired. A tint formed by horizontal lines is sufficient to relieve a face from the background and give it solidity, while local colour may be given to the hair, and at the same time serve to relieve the leaves of a wreath encircling the head (see ill.u.s.tration, p. 178[f097a]).