Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS
Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS
Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS
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<strong>ARAS</strong> Connections Issue 2, 2012<br />
Proportionality<br />
In Modigliani's portrait (plate 14) the width of the canvas is divided by the<br />
front of the woman's blouse <strong>and</strong> by the edge of the plane behind her head. The<br />
whole composition seems to be based upon these two proportionalities.<br />
Boundaries<br />
Of <strong>Cézanne</strong>'s paintings Roger Fry said:<br />
One divines, in fact, that the forms are held together by some strict<br />
harmonic principle almost like that of the canon in Greek architecture,<br />
<strong>and</strong> that it is this that gives its extraordinary repose <strong>and</strong> equilibrium to<br />
the whole design |29|.<br />
In the portrait by the Master of Moulins (plate 11) boundaries are vividly<br />
felt. Because it creates proportionate sections, the vertical edges of the window<br />
frame are related to the boundaries formed by the sides of the rectangle. Because<br />
it creates proportionate divisions in depth, the window frame is also related to<br />
the painting's flat surface which forms another boundary. There are also<br />
boundaries between planes, established by line or by color difference. The<br />
boundaries between hills in the background are sharp, those in the foreground<br />
are blurred; each is consciously adjusted by the artist.<br />
Embodiment<br />
A plastic painting is a thing in itself, like a piece of jewelry, a physical<br />
reality of flat, paint-covered canvas in which form <strong>and</strong> proportion are incarnated.<br />
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