File:A treatise on painting - In four parts The whole illustrated by examples from the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, and Dutch schools (1837) (14784031802).jpg

Identifier: treatiseonpainti00burn (find matches)
Title: A treatise on painting : In four parts ... The whole illustrated by examples from the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, and Dutch schools
Year: 1837 (1830s)
Authors: Burnet, John, 1784-1868
Subjects: Painting
Publisher: London : James Carpenter
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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e to recommend them. In this design we have thefigures gradually declining from the sides to the centre of the circle on theforeground, which enables the spectator to view the whole of the personsemployed : to assist which arrangement, Raffaelle has placed the Apostleson an elevated plane; and, by placing the principal in the centre, hasenabled them to acquire that consequence their diminution would other-wise have deprived them of. The regularity of the composition is alsoincreased by the division of the group into seven figures on each side,and no one, except Ananias and Sapphira, performs an action that isnot repeated. Thus simply has Raffaelle contrived not only to tell hisstory, but also those circumstances which preceded and followed it. Thisregularity will strike the student as being particularly suited to religioussubjects; but a few attempts, to make such uniformity appear a naturalemanation, will compel him to exclaim with the poet, Within that circle none durst walk but he.
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COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 25 As I shall have occasion to speak of the repetition of form, as being-no less essential towards the production of harmony than the repetition ofcolour, I may call the students attention to it in this place. In compo-sitions embracing many figures, a repetition of form and action is oftenfound to be indispensable; a single figure, in such case, being found toosmall to give importance to any action, is referred to the next for assist-ance; as, in colouring, one colour is often made to depend upon theadjoining for its shadow or enlargement. But, independently of itsacquiring a consequence by such extension, harmony requires, that astrong action should be as it were broken down and diffused through thegroup. In writing, this is generally the case, and the reader is preparedfor one sentence by what has preceded it. This simplicity and harmo-nious communication is to be found in nature, in the antique, in the bestItalian masters, and in many of the Dutch, particu

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