CHAP. I The work of Art as a Unity 115 time as well as in space and cannot be visually grasped at a single moment. Yet it is of the essence of the drama, as distinct for instance from the romance or novel, that the material is worked up into so distinct a shape that every part belongs to every other, and the conclusion carries the mind back through all the stages of the action to the very beginning. While the romance has no fixed limits, the more concentrated drama proceeds by well-marked stages, and can be apprehended as a whole just as much as can a great building or a sculptured group. In some cases the artistic whole thus constituted becomes in itself, as a single thing, in its broadest and most general aspects, an object for the æsthetic contemplation, and these cases will be discussed in the succeeding chapter. Most often, however, the secret of the effect is to be found in the more or less subtle disposition of the various parts or elements, whatever they may be, which combine to make up the whole, or, in other words, in what artists know as 'Composition.' The present chapter is accordingly designed to deal with the elements that are thus employed in artistic composition, while the method and laws of their combination will be discussed in subsequent sections. § 76. Visual impressions derived from the Arts of Form. Since we are only concerned in this book with the Arts of Form, the impressions we have to do with are visual impressions, and are known in common parlance as impressions of form and colour and light-and-shade. These are accordingly the elements which make up the effect of the arts of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, and to the analysis of these we must now turn our attention. Scientifically speaking, all our impressions of form, both those of extended surfaces and those of solids, are not direct but mediate—they only result from certain processes of synthesis and inference. These processes however go on so rapidly that we have come to lose all consciousness of them, and for all practical purposes the ordinary convention of language may be admitted and we may say that we see form just as we see colour and gradations of light. As a fact, in looking, for example, at a group of buildings, though we only see differently shaped patches of light and shadow we immediately use these to derive from them the assurance of the presence of solid objects of three dimensions. Further we claim the privilege of paying attention specially to the shape of these patches of light-and-shade, and by a useful convention of language we call these boundaries lines, though lines properly speaking do not exist in nature. In artistic parlance effects of differing degrees of light, or of light-and-shade, are often called effects of tone. Now light - and - shade or tone on objects (not in themselves luminous) depend on the amount of light reflected from their surfaces and this again on their greater or less distance from the eye, on the angle they present to the light, and on their greater or less degree of smoothness. A polished surface reflects almost all the light it receives, but when the surface is decidedly rough, its particles, being set at various angles to the impinging light, produce a play of extremely minute patches of light-and-shade over the whole space. Such roughness of surface results in the artistic quality of texture. Texture felt by the touch is some form or another of roughbut to the eye it is revealed as a delicate mottling or play of light-and-shade, and is therefore connected with the artistic effect of tone. If therefore we say that we see in nature Tones, Textures, Colours, Forms and Lines, our language will, for the matter in hand, be sufficiently precise and comprehensive. ness, CHAP. I Elements of architectural effect 117 The arts of form, creating new shapes in architecture, and in sculpture and painting reproducing for us under certain conditions and limitations the shapes of nature, supply us with these same impressions arranged according to that artistic 'order' which is meant by the word 'composition. Our next task is briefly to draw out the differences between architecture, sculpture and painting in the use they respectively make of these elements of artistic effect, and in doing this we shall endeavour to determine the special function of these several arts, and to form a clear idea of what to look for from each. § 77. The elements of effect in Architecture; Masses. From architecture, as we have already seen (§ 19), and as will be explained more at length in the sequel, we receive primarily the impression of mass, and architectural composition is first of all composition of masses. As our impression of solid forms in general is derived partly from our experience in moving up to and around them, so architectural masses are things that we know by walking round and about them and ascending them, and, especially, by measuring them against ourselves. This comparison with ourselves has not a little to do with our estimate of architectural magnitudes. The measure of a man' is necessarily applied to buildings intended for human occupation and use. Such features as doors, windows, steps, seats, balustrades, and the like, have their normal dimensions indicated for them in this way, and hence when they exceed these dimensions, though their actual size may be nothing extraordinary, they take on themselves at once an air of grandeur. This is the case with the three steps forming the approach to the platform of the Doric temple. They are too high to be mounted in the ordinary way, and accordingly give an air of dignity to the whole access, as if the building were for giants. § 78. Lines in Architecture. The architectural masses measured by us in this manner are bounded by definite contours, and architectural composition is in the second place composition of lines. The lines of architectural masses have their own distinct character. They are mainly rectilineal and have the general direction of horizontal and vertical-horizontal as corresponding with the level ground or base of the monument, and vertical as expressing elevation. The verticality of architectural lines is however modified by the statical requirements of an elevated structure which is more stable if broader at the base than in the upper portions. Hence the appearance of oblique lines in architectural compositions (which also occur for other reasons, as high pitched roofs for throwing off rain and snow), and M. Viollet-le-Duc has even made the triangle on this ground the generating figure of architectural masses.1 Curved lines in architectural compositions are mainly created by the use of the arch or vault in its various forms. In most cases the curves are parts of circles. The Assyrians, later Greeks, and Romans, when they used the arch on a monumental scale, employed it in the form of the half-round. The pointed arch in western medieval architecture consists of two segments of the same circle meeting each other at an angle more or less acute. The Renaissance reintroduced the half-round. Though there is greater variety in the curvature of the elliptical arches of the Sassanid builders, in the Arab horse-shoes, or the Tudor ogee, yet these are comparatively exceptional forms when compared to those generated by the revolving Dictionnaire de l'architecture française, Art. ' Proportion.' CHAP. I Elements of architectural effect 119 radius. The entasis of the Doric column is marked by a very delicate curve and so is that of the Ionic volute, the circle in both cases being discarded for curves of more varied contour, and this is also the case with most of the lines of carved ornament. The outline of an external dome like St. Peter's or St. Paul's or the Invalides is the most conspicuous and telling curved form in architecture, and though each side may be formed of a segment struck by the compasses, the shape of the whole mass is more pointed than that of a hemisphere. § 79. Light-and-Shade and Texture in Architecture. Light-and-shade form another important element in architectural effect. Wherever the general mass is broken into parts, that recede or advance or are set at varying angles to each other, the incidence and reflection of the light are altered; but apart from this broad effect of lightand-shade over the whole monument, advantage is taken of any constructive feature, such as the projecting buttress the recessed portal the overhanging cornice, to strike a strong mass or line of shadow into or along the more illumined portions. The influence of light-and-shade in giving the particular value of texture to architectural surfaces must not be overlooked. A good deal of the pleasure we derive from old buildings is due to the varieties of surface - texture caused partly by irregularities of material and workmanship, partly by the corroding influence of time. It is possible to carry admiration of this last accidental quality too far, and there is a touch of modern affectation in the sentimental delight some take in time-worn brick or stonework, which after all was meant by its builder to be sharp of angle and even of grain. To claim this quality of texture as a necessary condition of artistic excellence in construction |