or mass to mass will
comfortably fill the quadrilateral of the frame _as a linear design._

In all analyses of pictures the student should select the first or most
commanding and necessary line of the conception. Having found this thread
the whole composition will unravel and disclose a reason for each stitch.

Let a horizontal base line be assumed and verticals erected therefrom,
_without crossing it._ The reason why no picture results is because there
is no cross. Such a design would suggest many of Fra Angelico's
decorations of saints and angels; or the plan of the better known
decoration of "The Prophets" at the Boston Library by Sargent. These
groups, it must be remembered, are not pictorial and are not compositions
from the picture point of view. Their homogeneity depends not on
interchange of line or upon other mechanics of composition, but only upon
the unity of associated ideas. In instances, however, where some of
the figures of these groups are _joined_ by horizontal lines or masses
which bisect these verticals the pictorial intention begins to be felt.

[Sketches from Landscapes by Henry Ranger; Parity of Horizonatals and
Verticals; Crossings of Horizontals by Spot Diversion]

Of the accompanying _illustrations_ that of the view on the shore with
overhanging clouds shows a most persistent lot of horizontals with nothing
but the lighthouse and the masts of the vessels to serve for reactive
lines. At their great distance they would accomplish little to relieve
this disparity of line were it not for the aid of the vertical pillar of
cloud and the pull downward which the eye received in the pool below the
shore. The most troublesome line in this picture is the shore line, but
an effort is made here to break its monotony by two accents of bushes on
either side. What, therefore, would seem to be a composition "going all
one way," displays, after all, a strong attempt toward the recognition of
the principle of crossed lines.

The sketch shows the constructive lines of a picture by Henry Hanger, and
lacks the force of color by which these points are emphasized.

[Sketch from the Book of Truth--Claude Lorrain (Rectangle Unbalanced); The
Beautiful Gate--Raphael (Verticals Destroying Pictorial Unity)]

In the wood interior the stone wall is the damaging line. Not only does
it parallel the bottom line, always unfortunate, but it cuts the picture
in two from side to side. Above thi