DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0235
III. ON COMPOSITION
195
the whole composition right, when otherwise it would have
been still and absurd.
224. If you look back to Fig. 48 you will see, in the
arrangement of the battlements, a simple instance of the
use of such variation. The whole top of the tower, though
actually three sides of a square, strikes the eye as a con-
tinuous series of five masses. The first two, on the left,
somewhat square and blank, then the next two higher and
richer, the tiles being seen on their slopes. Both these
groups being couples, there is enough monotony in the
series to make a change pleasant; and the last battlement,
therefore, is a little higher than the first two,—a little lower
than the second two,—and different in shape from either.
Hide it with your finger, and see how ugly and formal
the other four battlements look.
225. There are in this figure several other simple illus-
trations of the laws we have been tracing. Thus the whole
shape of the walls' mass being square, it is well, still for
the sake of contrast, to oppose it not only by the element
of curvature, in the ring, and lines of the roof below, but
by that of sharpness; hence the pleasure which the eye
takes in the projecting point of the roof. Also, because
the walls are thick and sturdy, it is well' to contrast their
strength with weakness ; therefore we enjoy the evident de-
crepitude of this roof as it sinks between them. The
whole mass being nearly white, we want a contrasting
shadow somewhere; and get it, under our piece of decrepi-
tude. This shade, with the tiles of the wall below, forms
another pointed mass, necessary to the first by the law of
repetition. Hide this inferior angle with your finger, and
see how ugly the other looks. A sense of the law of sym-
metry, though you might hardly suppose it, has some share
in the feeling with which you look at the battlements; there
is a certain pleasure in the opposed slopes of their top, on
one side down to the left, on the other to the right. Still
less would you think the law of radiation had anything to
do with the matter: but if you take the extreme point of
195
the whole composition right, when otherwise it would have
been still and absurd.
224. If you look back to Fig. 48 you will see, in the
arrangement of the battlements, a simple instance of the
use of such variation. The whole top of the tower, though
actually three sides of a square, strikes the eye as a con-
tinuous series of five masses. The first two, on the left,
somewhat square and blank, then the next two higher and
richer, the tiles being seen on their slopes. Both these
groups being couples, there is enough monotony in the
series to make a change pleasant; and the last battlement,
therefore, is a little higher than the first two,—a little lower
than the second two,—and different in shape from either.
Hide it with your finger, and see how ugly and formal
the other four battlements look.
225. There are in this figure several other simple illus-
trations of the laws we have been tracing. Thus the whole
shape of the walls' mass being square, it is well, still for
the sake of contrast, to oppose it not only by the element
of curvature, in the ring, and lines of the roof below, but
by that of sharpness; hence the pleasure which the eye
takes in the projecting point of the roof. Also, because
the walls are thick and sturdy, it is well' to contrast their
strength with weakness ; therefore we enjoy the evident de-
crepitude of this roof as it sinks between them. The
whole mass being nearly white, we want a contrasting
shadow somewhere; and get it, under our piece of decrepi-
tude. This shade, with the tiles of the wall below, forms
another pointed mass, necessary to the first by the law of
repetition. Hide this inferior angle with your finger, and
see how ugly the other looks. A sense of the law of sym-
metry, though you might hardly suppose it, has some share
in the feeling with which you look at the battlements; there
is a certain pleasure in the opposed slopes of their top, on
one side down to the left, on the other to the right. Still
less would you think the law of radiation had anything to
do with the matter: but if you take the extreme point of