DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0193
DISPOSITION. 170
similar process, directed by his own exquisite judgement and taste, has exalted nature as it were
above herself, by giving her an aspect more beautiful, more animating, more sublime, than she
is really accustomed to wear.
Dominichino and Annibal Caracci come very near to Raphael, in many of their pieces, in point
of invention; and Poussin in some of his works, as for instance in his pictures of Esther before
Ahasuerus, and the Death of Geymanicus, lias shewn himself to be very great in the same qua-
lification.
But however ingeniously a piece may be imagined, that is, with what skill soever the painter
may have arranged in his imagination the attitudes and countenances of the characters in his
piece : if these figures (or in landscape painting, if the various component parts) are not arranged
and situated in the picture, in such a manner as to contribute in the highest degree to the un-
folding of his design, and to the production of delight in the spectator, he has done but half his
duty.
The disposition of the several parts of a picture ought to be such as to express, in the most
lively and obvious way, what the invention of the artist has provided.
The chief difficulty in disposition is to produce the most artful and ingenious arrangement, at
the same time that art shall be utterly imperceptible, and that the whole shall seem to be merely
the result of accident. A painter therefore must beware of imitating the dry formal manner
practised by the earliest modem artists, on the revival of painting; for they generally arranged
their figures like so many couples in a procession. Neither must he follow the example of still
more modern artists, particularly of the French school who, unable to express in the genuine
language of unsophisticated nature, the passions and feelings of their figures, have represented
them in a state of the utmost disorder and flattering agitation; as if they were brought together
for no other purpose but to quarrel and fight.
It was one of the admirable qualities of Raphael that he not only was able to'shake off the
yoke of education and prejudice early contracted, and in some measure consecrated by his respect
for his old master Pietro Perugino, but also possessed so much true taste and knowledge of human
nature, as to stop at the due point between formal frigidity and extravagant attitude and carica-
tural expression.
The disposition of his figures seems always, to the observer of taste, to be precisely what it
ought to be, and correctly suited to the subject of the painting.
As in a Dramatic or Epic Poem, or in a Romance there must be some hero or heroine, who
sustains the principal part in the conduct of the piece, and to whom all the other parts, however
subordinate, bear a due relation; so in painting there must be one principal figure, which must
arrest the eye and observation of the spectator, and to whom all the other figures must appear to
be more or less subservient.
This effect may be produced in a variety of ways; as by placing the figure in the front; 01-
some other conspicuous part of the picture ; by exhibiting it in a manner by itself; by making
the chief body of light to fall upon it; by giving it the most splendid and brilliant drapery; or
indeed by two, more, or all of these methods together.
Batista Albert! says that painters should follow the example of the best dramatic writers, who
generally composed their fable of the smallest possible number of persons ; and in this he certainly
judged
r
similar process, directed by his own exquisite judgement and taste, has exalted nature as it were
above herself, by giving her an aspect more beautiful, more animating, more sublime, than she
is really accustomed to wear.
Dominichino and Annibal Caracci come very near to Raphael, in many of their pieces, in point
of invention; and Poussin in some of his works, as for instance in his pictures of Esther before
Ahasuerus, and the Death of Geymanicus, lias shewn himself to be very great in the same qua-
lification.
But however ingeniously a piece may be imagined, that is, with what skill soever the painter
may have arranged in his imagination the attitudes and countenances of the characters in his
piece : if these figures (or in landscape painting, if the various component parts) are not arranged
and situated in the picture, in such a manner as to contribute in the highest degree to the un-
folding of his design, and to the production of delight in the spectator, he has done but half his
duty.
The disposition of the several parts of a picture ought to be such as to express, in the most
lively and obvious way, what the invention of the artist has provided.
The chief difficulty in disposition is to produce the most artful and ingenious arrangement, at
the same time that art shall be utterly imperceptible, and that the whole shall seem to be merely
the result of accident. A painter therefore must beware of imitating the dry formal manner
practised by the earliest modem artists, on the revival of painting; for they generally arranged
their figures like so many couples in a procession. Neither must he follow the example of still
more modern artists, particularly of the French school who, unable to express in the genuine
language of unsophisticated nature, the passions and feelings of their figures, have represented
them in a state of the utmost disorder and flattering agitation; as if they were brought together
for no other purpose but to quarrel and fight.
It was one of the admirable qualities of Raphael that he not only was able to'shake off the
yoke of education and prejudice early contracted, and in some measure consecrated by his respect
for his old master Pietro Perugino, but also possessed so much true taste and knowledge of human
nature, as to stop at the due point between formal frigidity and extravagant attitude and carica-
tural expression.
The disposition of his figures seems always, to the observer of taste, to be precisely what it
ought to be, and correctly suited to the subject of the painting.
As in a Dramatic or Epic Poem, or in a Romance there must be some hero or heroine, who
sustains the principal part in the conduct of the piece, and to whom all the other parts, however
subordinate, bear a due relation; so in painting there must be one principal figure, which must
arrest the eye and observation of the spectator, and to whom all the other figures must appear to
be more or less subservient.
This effect may be produced in a variety of ways; as by placing the figure in the front; 01-
some other conspicuous part of the picture ; by exhibiting it in a manner by itself; by making
the chief body of light to fall upon it; by giving it the most splendid and brilliant drapery; or
indeed by two, more, or all of these methods together.
Batista Albert! says that painters should follow the example of the best dramatic writers, who
generally composed their fable of the smallest possible number of persons ; and in this he certainly
judged
r