FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  
ll portfolio of his charcoal reproductions or a few photographs of his pictures should be a part of the print collection of every artist. No better designer of small groups ever lived. With the amount of good art now coming from the camera it is strange that no groups of note have been produced.(12) In the field of _pure portraiture_ the attempt may as well be abandoned. The photographer can at best but mitigate conditions. The picture group can only apply when sacrifice and subordination are possible. A study of famous groups will settle this and other points mentioned, beyond question. In the religious group, where the idea of adoration was paramount, the principal figure was usually, though not always, given place in the upper part of the picture toward which by gestures, leading lines or directed vision our attention is drawn at once. Note the figures which sacrifice to this effect in the "Transfiguration," "The Immaculate Conception," "The Sistine Madonna," "The Virgin Enthroned," "The Adoration of the Magi," and in fact all of the world famous compositions of the old religious art. [The Decorative and Pictorial Group; Allegory of Spring--Botticelli (Separated concepts expressing separate ideas); Dutch Fisher Folk--F. V. S. (Separated concepts of one idea); The Cossack's Reply--Repin (Unity through a cumulative idea)] In one of the most famous of modern groups _"__The Cossacks Reply to the Sultan of Turkey,__"_ by the greatest of Russian painters Elias Repine, the force given to the hilarious frenzy of the group by the occasional figure in repose is easily apparent. The answer to a summons for surrender is being penned upon a rude table around which press close the barbaric leaders of the forces gathered in the distance. Some are lolling on wine casks, others indifferently gaze at the fingers of the clerk as he carefully pens the document, others smoke silently, one is looking out of the picture as though unconcerned. Yet life and movement are instinct in every part, for though the action is consigned to but a few,--these form a series of small climaxes through the entire circumference of the group and we feel in another moment that the passive expressions will in their turn be exchanged for the mad ribaldry of laughter which has seized their brethren. The group is a triumph for several aesthetic realities produced and heightened by contrast and subordination. The prin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

groups

 

famous

 

picture

 
sacrifice
 
figure
 

Separated

 
concepts
 

produced

 

religious

 

subordination


easily
 

apparent

 

answer

 

summons

 

repose

 
hilarious
 

frenzy

 

occasional

 

climaxes

 
surrender

triumph

 
aesthetic
 

penned

 

Repine

 

brethren

 

heightened

 

Cossack

 
contrast
 

realities

 

cumulative


greatest

 

Russian

 

painters

 

Turkey

 

Sultan

 

modern

 

Cossacks

 

barbaric

 

action

 

moment


document

 

carefully

 

expressions

 

passive

 

silently

 

entire

 
movement
 

unconcerned

 

circumference

 

fingers