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

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