Composition - examples of note

[Mike McCarty]

Out of curiosity I've tried to apply the Golden Section to the above Camuccini painting of Caesar's death. It would appear that some consideration was given to these principles.

Although, with the Golden Section calculations there doesn't appear to be any real guidelines as to where you start or when to finish. My thinking is that as long as you stick to the principles you can create as many sections as you wish and stop anytime. It just depends on how complicated the composition is. This composition having quite a few scattered elements it begged for more than a few of sections.

It's interesting how elements of the painting keep leading you back around and to the center of the action. The arm in the bottom left stops your eye and delivers you up to the statue which then points you to the right and across to the fellows (obviously only able to muster enough courage to flip the finger at Caesar, they're probably demanding a timetable for withdrawal) that again point back toward the action along with those at the bottom right.