DOI article:
Otto Walter Beck, Lessons from the Old Masters—II
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29980#0041
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of it should be preceded by exercises in space divisions, practice in the
placing of lights and darks and in the interlacing of motive-lines with frame-
lines. No single picture can be at once explained to him who is not thus
prepared. To the trained student of art analysis means understanding, and
supplies him with that substantial equipment necessary to solve similar
problems with fair promise of success. Whatever the result thus arrived
at, it would prove interesting because based upon and deduced by rational
method.
Although it is impossible here to explain the structure of the accom-
panying portrait by Rembrandt, we may yet learn some things by distorting
it. For instance, let us imagine the dark and flat rendering of the dress
replaced by the detail-giving treatment of the average photograph and at
once we find the vigor departing from the whole picture. The gown would
assume undue prominence; the face would change in expression from self-
obliviousness to self-consciousness. Or, were we to change the shape of the
frame from an oval to an oblong-rectangle, at once the lines of the shoulder
would assume an importance out of all true relation to the other parts; the
circular lines of the face, ruff, and cap would grow cruelly sharp and
despotic, thus effecting a complete distortion of the face. Even so slight a
thing as the shadow thrown by the face upon the ruff, if altered in its
contour or enfeebled by graying its color, would unbalance the darks in the
face, cause the features to protrude and the ruff to become a source of
irritation. Imagine a Gainsborough background behind that head or the
folds of some drapery or a light tone to relieve the shoulders more, and with
each new attempt at improvement or change would be created a lack of
balance and a change of expression in the face.
Few photographers seem to understand that the unsatisfactory expres-
sion of the faces in their portraits are usually caused by lack of balance in
the several parts of the picture. Facial expression, as well as picture-
expression suffers from this fault. Treatment alone could suffice to make
and control these factors in portraits of the past and treatment alone can
achieve the same results to-day.
Otto Walter Beck.
31
placing of lights and darks and in the interlacing of motive-lines with frame-
lines. No single picture can be at once explained to him who is not thus
prepared. To the trained student of art analysis means understanding, and
supplies him with that substantial equipment necessary to solve similar
problems with fair promise of success. Whatever the result thus arrived
at, it would prove interesting because based upon and deduced by rational
method.
Although it is impossible here to explain the structure of the accom-
panying portrait by Rembrandt, we may yet learn some things by distorting
it. For instance, let us imagine the dark and flat rendering of the dress
replaced by the detail-giving treatment of the average photograph and at
once we find the vigor departing from the whole picture. The gown would
assume undue prominence; the face would change in expression from self-
obliviousness to self-consciousness. Or, were we to change the shape of the
frame from an oval to an oblong-rectangle, at once the lines of the shoulder
would assume an importance out of all true relation to the other parts; the
circular lines of the face, ruff, and cap would grow cruelly sharp and
despotic, thus effecting a complete distortion of the face. Even so slight a
thing as the shadow thrown by the face upon the ruff, if altered in its
contour or enfeebled by graying its color, would unbalance the darks in the
face, cause the features to protrude and the ruff to become a source of
irritation. Imagine a Gainsborough background behind that head or the
folds of some drapery or a light tone to relieve the shoulders more, and with
each new attempt at improvement or change would be created a lack of
balance and a change of expression in the face.
Few photographers seem to understand that the unsatisfactory expres-
sion of the faces in their portraits are usually caused by lack of balance in
the several parts of the picture. Facial expression, as well as picture-
expression suffers from this fault. Treatment alone could suffice to make
and control these factors in portraits of the past and treatment alone can
achieve the same results to-day.
Otto Walter Beck.
31
