Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
The Alunno di Benozzo was concerned with the ordering of planes on the
picture surface. A diagonal thrusts back over the angel's wings and the slanting
rooftops. It is contained by a second diagonal which advances from the upper left
corner of the canvas to the lower right corner. Within this framework the
buildings create proportionate divisions of the rectangle, horizontally, vertically,
and in depth.
The push down and
forward of the yellow
paving is contained by the
pull up and back of the
yellow walls in the middle
distance. The dark-green
trees pull against the
Virgin's dark-green dress.
The reds and oranges pull
against each other and bind
the composition together.
Rather than disappearing
into the distance, the bright, sharply detailed clouds push forward and remain
related to the picture plane.
My eye is drawn back in a circular movement from the angel, to the left
side of the closest red roof, to the left wing of the rear building, to the clouds
behind the trees, and then forward again to the right wing of the rear building, to
the white columns, to the woman's red dress.
Plate 5-2 The Alunno di Benozzo. Florentine.
The Annunciation. ca 1490.
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