w of ordinary ornamentation. Thus the group of
two leaves, _a_, Fig. 31., is unsatisfactory, because it has no leading
leaf; but that at _b_ _is_ prettier, because it has a head or master
leaf; and _c_ more satisfactory still, because the subordination of the
other members to this head leaf is made more manifest by their gradual
loss of size as they fall back from it. Hence part of the pleasure we
have in the Greek honeysuckle ornament, and such others.

[Illustration: FIG. 31.]

Thus, also, good pictures have always one light larger or brighter than
the other lights, or one figure more prominent than the other figures,
or one mass of colour dominant over all the other masses; and in general
you will find it much benefit your sketch if you manage that there shall
be one light on the cottage wall, or one blue cloud in the sky, which
may attract the eye as leading light, or leading gloom, above all
others. But the observance of the rule is often so cunningly concealed
by the great composers, that its force is hardly at first traceable; and
you will generally find that they are vulgar pictures in which the law
is _strikingly_ manifest. This may be simply illustrated by musical
melody; for instance, in such phrases as this:

[Illustration]

one note (here the upper G) rules the whole passage, and has the full
energy of it concentrated in itself. Such passages, corresponding to
completely subordinated compositions in painting, are apt to be
wearisome if often repeated. But in such a phrase as this:

[Illustration]

it is very difficult to say, which is the principal note. The A in the
last bar is lightly dominant, but there is a very equal current of
power running through the whole; and such passages rarely weary. And
this principle holds through vast scales of arrangement; so that in the
grandest compositions, such as Paul Veronese's Marriage in Cana, or
Raphael's Disputa, it is not easy to fix at once on the principal
figure; and very commonly the figure which is really chief does not
catch the eye at first, but is gradually felt to be more and more
conspicuous as we gaze. Thus in Titian's grand composition of the
Cornaro Family, the figure meant to be principal is a youth of fifteen
or sixteen, whose portrait it was evidently the painter's object to make
as interesting as possible. But a grand Madonna, and a St. George with a
drifting banner, and many figures more, occupy the centre of the
picture, and first catch