Composition - examples of note

[Mike McCarty]

I too wonder how this kind of information was disseminated back when. It leads me to believe that it is possible to come to proper conclusions while stewing along in one's own soup. I also wonder if these genius painters would have been better, or worse, had they had the benefit of so much information. In our age we have the benefit of almost ALL that has ever gone before us, and yet there is not a Rembrandt or a Beethoven on every corner.

It makes no sense that painters and musicians from hundreds of years ago would be so much better than anyone living today. They had so little to draw on and we have everything. I tend to conclude that it is a combination of three factors: a purely genius mind, combined with an appreciative and supportive social culture, and the absence of our distracting modern life. I think there are the genius minds living today, but the other two factors detract from the sum of the parts.

I wonder if there is anything about Rembrandt that was not said before.

I doubt it Ant. It is Rembrandt that will continue to speak. People like me can only post his paintings in a convenient place.

And lest we begin to take ourselves too seriously, here is a drawing by Claude Monet: Petit Pantheon Theatral 1860. I think I can make out Leon Russell down at the bottom, Golda Meir, and possibly Richard Nixon, but the others escape me.

[Ant Carlos]

and the absence of our distracting modern life

Now this hat fits me all right, yes it does. The variety of things that my mind interests in seem to always carry me away from my focal point. Astronomy (I have a 10" Newtonian and large admiration for the skies), racing sports, movies, and so on. I am not kidding when I say that sometimes I wish I was back in the 17th century, when the artist would spend the whole day painting, and great part of the night talking art with his fellows, and that was it.
But here I am, before this computer, reading you and watching all these great pictures. Then it also comes to my mind that an important part of my clients come from different places around the world, with long distance commissions via Internet. Would I, or my art, survive without the modern technology?

Regards,

Ant

[Mike McCarty]

Ant,

I can only offer this, the opening line of the Dickens "A tail of two cities," describing England and France in the year 1775:

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

*****

And just when I was trying to battle out of my closely cropped period I happen upon this, from Jean-Leon Gerome, 0x15. This is enough to make a grown man cry. I am particularly drawn to these poses of children which show them at their less than chipper state. I have done more than a few of these myself.

[Jeanine Jackson]

Pass the tissues, Mike! Wow!

Coming back to the original composition subject, could it be said that within a single-subject painting, we find primary compositonal elements that can and should be counted?
In the exquisite Burne-Jones drawing you so kindly posted for me, I saw the whole, and following the initial "Ahhhh" response, I saw a composition of two eyes and a muzzle (mouth and base of nose as one element) forming a gorgeous triangle.

Ant:
We are in the midst of a post-Ernesto power outtage in CT. It is a clear reminder of how dependent we have become on tech. I'm going to log off, conserve batteries and go paint!

[Mike McCarty]

Jeanine,

Thanks for taking the hurricane heat off us Floridians.

could it be said that within a single-subject painting, we find primary compositional elements that can and should be counted?

As I continue here, practicing without a license - I'm not sure that "counting" is the necessary exercise. In the E B-J pencil drawing, his

[Michele Rushworth]

[quote]mechanisms to focus the viewer

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth

Can anyone think of others?

Point where lines are crossed or getting close, triangles pointing and anything happening in the middle part of the composition, as opposed to the outer parts along the frame.

Ps. Thoughts about the "Golden Section".
If the compositional center of interest is placed in the center of the picture it tends to lock the focus to that point because there is no natural direction to go. The eyes have found the "true" center of interest and no need to go anywhere else!
The Golden Section is an unbalanced division that encourage the eyes to search around and in that way incorporate the whole painting in the center of interest.
The golden section is a center that is closer to the middle than to the frame.