asked for his conception of a perfect building, he
produced a circle. When Michael Angelo was appealed to, he designated the
cross. On both bases may good architecture and good pictures be founded.
If the extremities of the Greek cross be connected by arcs, a circle will
result, and if the Latin cross be so bounded we will have a kite-shape, or
ellipse. The two designs are, therefore, not as dissimilar as may at
first be supposed. In both, from the pictorial standpoint, they are the
framework by means of which the same given space may be filled.

The simple vertical line is monotonous. Its bisection produces balance; a
cross is the result. Again, two crosses placed together, the arms
touching, and three crosses in like position, will represent the picture
plan of the grouping so frequently used by Raphael--a central figure
balanced by one on either side, the horizon joining them, and behind this
the balance repeated in trees and other figures.

Pictorially, the vertical line is much more important than any other. It
is the direction of gravity; it represents man upright, in distinction
from the brutes; it also can stand alone, all other lines demanding
supports. Of two equally forcible lines, this would first be seen. In
composition, therefore, it has the right of way.

Let us start with a subject represented by a vertical line--a tree or
figure. The directness, rigidity, isolation and unqualified force of such
a line demands balance; otherwise, extension is the sole idea. With the
thought of a frame or sides of the picture comes the necessary horizontal
line, bisecting the vertical. Length and breadth have then been
represented, something in two dimensions started, and the four sides of a
frame necessitated.

In sculpture this consideration weighs nothing. A statue is framed by all
outdoors. The vertical of a single figure pierces the unlimited sky, and
the only consideration to the artist is that the mass looks well from any
point of view. The group by Carpeaux is a sample of plastic art unusually
picturesque, and would easily fit a frame, because in it the vertical
figure is supported by horizontals, both of lines and in the idea of
lateral movement. It is, therefore, solid and complete and sets forth in
its structure the thought of Alexander the Great when he had his artists
represent, in a design painted upon his equipments, lasting power as a
sword within a circuit.

This piece of sculpture is