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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
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