GEOMETRIC COMPOSITION (_Continued_)
Here is another example of geometric composition. It is also by Raphael
and is painted on one of the walls in the same room that the _Disputá_
decorates. But, while the latter’s geometric plan was very noticeable,
this one is more disguised and the whole design has a much greater
appearance of freedom. It is recognised by artists as one of Raphael’s
most beautiful compositions, and one of the finest examples of space
decoration in existence.
But before we examine the plan on which the decoration of this space has
been built up, let us study the subject. It is usually called
_Jurisprudence_, that is to say the principle of Law--both the making
and the administering of laws. In the _Disputá_ the subject, as you
remember, was _Religion_; in two of the other panels in this same room
Raphael has represented _Philosophy_ and _Poetry_. Here he set himself
to represent the idea of _Law_. The _idea_, you observe. In all these
four panels, it is an idea, not an event or incident, that is
represented; but an idea--something that has existence only in the mind.
For all the subjects represent abstract ideas; ideas, that is to say,
abstracted or removed from the experience of the senses. We cannot, for
example, see religion or Law; nor touch, taste, smell, nor hear them. We
can see the policeman on his beat, or the judge in court, or the members
of the legislature--the men who, respectively, maintain, administer, and
make the laws; and we can see the record of the laws in books. But the
idea or principle of Law which has caused men to construct all this
machinery for the making and enforcing of the laws, exists only in the
mind.
Therefore, when Raphael was asked to paint the subject of
_Jurisprudence_ or _Law_, something that no one has ever seen or will
see, what did he do? He asked himself the question: When people have a
respect for Law, how does it show itself in their acts? In the first
place they are very careful in the making of the laws; they found them
upon the experience of the past and shape them to fit the needs of the
future; they exhibit PRUDENCE. Secondly, in the enforcing of the laws,
they exhibit two qualities: FIRMNESS and MODERATION. Though they firmly
uphold the law, they remember that
“earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.”
Raphael, then, determined to represent the idea of Law, by representing
three of its qualities: _Prudence_, _Firmness_ and _Moderation_. These
three again are abstract ideas. No one has ever seen them or will see
them; we can only see the results of them, the acts which they
influence man to do. So if _Prudence_, _Firmness_ and _Moderation_ have
no visible shape, how could he represent them to the eye? He probably
took a hint from a form of a stage play that was popular in his day. At
any rate he did what the authors of these “Moralities” or “Allegories”
were in the habit of doing. For they introduced as characters in their
plays the Vices and Virtues; making an actor, for example, personify
Gluttony or embody in his own person the idea of Gluttony. Thus, a fat
man would be chosen for the part, and he would pad himself so as to look
still fatter; he would make his face shining and greasy, and perhaps
cover the front of his coat with grease, to suggest what a greedy and
dirty feeder he was. He would come on the stage eating, and anything he
had to say or do would help the audience to realise that the only thing
he lived for was to stuff himself with food. This was called an
embodiment or personification of Gluttony; for the idea of Gluttony was
suggested in the person of the actor by the peculiarities of his body
and behaviour. While the personifications of the Vices were for the most
part comic, those of the virtues were beautiful or heroic, so that these
Moralities or Allegories were as popular with the crowd as with people
of taste. Sometimes the allegory was represented, not with figures
moving about the stage, speaking and acting, but as a stationary group,
in which the figures were raised on steps, so that a very imposing
composition or tableau was presented. And no doubt, when these were
given on a grand scale artists often arranged the spectacle.
On the other hand, the artists were not slow to adopt the same idea in
their pictures. The great altarpieces and large decorations, painted by
the Italian artists of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries are to all
intents and purposes allegories. Such certainly is this _Jurisprudence_
of Raphael’s. He has personified the three virtues of _Prudence_,
_Firmness_ and _Moderation_. To _Prudence_ he has given two faces. One
is old, for it gazes back over the long past; the other has the
freshness of youth, as it peers into the future. It is looking at itself
in a mirror. Why? For everything in these allegories is intended to
convey a meaning to the minds of the spectators. Perhaps there are two
reasons. The face is gazing at the reflection of itself, as it now is;
for Prudence, besides taking note of the past and looking toward the
future, must know the present. Again, since a mirror reflects what is in
front of it and shows us our face as others see it, it was used by the
artists as an emblem of Truth. And to know the truth is wisdom, and to
act according to truth and wisdom is prudence. So, when you see a figure
holding the emblem of the mirror, you may be sure the artist is
personifying the idea of Truth, or Wisdom, or Prudence, or all three
combined.
On the bosom of _Prudence_ is a winged head; perhaps intended for the
head of Medusa, which turned to stone every one who looked at it. If so,
it is an
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Jurisprudence. _Raphael._]
emblem here of the terribleness of _Prudence_, when offended. She is
gentle in herself, but a terror to evil doers. At her side a baby form
holds a torch. This was used as the emblem of that which enlightens the
world--Learning; and suggests here that Prudence is illuminated by
learning, perhaps also, that truth and wisdom and prudence are
themselves lights which lighten the darkness of the world.
The figure to the right of the Torch-bearer offers _Prudence_ a bit and
reins. It is with these that men control horses; so they were adopted by
painters as an emblem of control; and, knowing this, we recognise that
the woman who holds them is intended to personify _Moderation_. Her
whole bearing suggests modesty, which is a form of moderation, for both
words imply that a person has the sense to know how far it is right to
go, and where it is fit to stop.
But note the figure of the woman on the right. She is of powerful build,
seated in a positive sort of attitude that has nothing of the gentle
retiring character of the other figures. She is a personification of
_Firmness_, armed for defense, with helmet, cuirass, and greaves. But,
though she carries no weapon of offense, she holds in leash one of those
pumas with which the ancients used to hunt big game. She will, if
necessary, pursue and pull down the law’s transgressors. Meanwhile she
bears an oak branch, the emblem of strength and victory in civil life,
as opposed to the laurel of war, for her victories are those of peace.
The little Cupids, or _Amorini_, as the Italians call them, except the
two who carry the mirror and torch, are put in simply to increase the
beauty of the composition.
I have dwelt first upon the subject of this decoration, because it is a
key to so many of the old paintings and to many modern ones as well.
Their subjects represent abstract ideas personified, embodied in human
form; the particular idea being shown by the emblems which accompany
each figure. People had come to recognise that such and such an emblem
indicated such and such an idea, and, whenever a painter wished to
suggest that idea, he represented a figure with the familiar emblem.
Now, too, that we have grasped the meaning of this allegory of Raphael’s
we can better enter into his manner of representing it. Since the idea
is an abstract one, he has expressed it in an abstract way. That is to
say, he has not attempted to represent real life, or the figures as
doing any real thing. It is true they are life-like and their actions
are quite natural; but the positions in which they have been placed were
chosen in order that the arrangement of their limbs and bodies might
produce an effect of beautiful rhythmic balance. Perhaps this was
Raphael’s only thought, for he was above everything an artist, whose
work in life it is to create forms of beauty. Yet he had a mind so ready
to receive all kinds of impressions that, living as he did in a very
lawless age, when men were guided more by self than justice, he may have
realised how beautiful would be a reign of law and order.
Anyhow, this decoration in a wonderful way possesses just those
characteristics that would belong to a state of society in which justice
or justness were the natural habit and not merely a thing enforced by
law. How simple life would be if every man did to others what he would
have them do to him, and instead of rivalry and suspicion, what a
harmony there would be! It is harmony and simplicity that are the chief
characteristics of this decoration.
The simplicity is very marked. There are three principal figures. I
believe, if there were nothing else but these, the balance of the
composition would be complete, and certainly the allegory would be
explained. But balance is not necessarily harmony. In a school debate,
for instance, ten of you on the right of the room may say “aye,” and ten
on the left may say “no,” to a subject which is being discussed between
you. There is a balance--ten on one side, opposed to ten on the other.
But in this decoration there is harmony. You have only to look at the
picture to be sure of it. You cannot detect any rivalry between the
three figures, although one of them is so much more massive than either
of the other two. All of them seem drawn together into one chord of
feeling, the leading note of which is the head of Prudence, lifted above
the heads of her companions and seen alone against the open space of the
sky and in the place of chief importance--the center of the arc of
space. Please remind me presently to say a word about the placing of
this head, for just now I do not wish to interrupt the subject that we
are considering--the harmony of the composition.
This is brought about particularly by the _Amorini_ that, as it were,
bind the three figures into a garland of festoons. Note, first, the two
which are on the extreme right and left. The wing and arm of the former
and the inclination of the latter’s whole body suggest diagonal lines.
These cut across the angles of the space, or as they say in geometry,
subtend the angles; tying their two arms together and also offering a
strong contrast to their direction. The baby figures also keep the
composition from running away to nothing at the corners, for they serve
the purpose of making the pattern curl up at each end. Or suppose we
think of the pattern of the composition, as if it were partly made up of
a wreath, such as we use at Christmas time to festoon our houses.
Imagine a nail driven into the wall where the head of the baby on the
left hand is. Attach the wreath to it. Now drive another nail into the
puma’s head and between this one and the first nail, let a loop of the
wreath hang down so that it follows the direction of the baby’s body and
a bit of the oak stem. This direction, if you look at the picture,
suggests a festoon. Now continue to make festoons--first along the arm
of _Firmness_ up to the hand of the Cupid; now another from that point
along the line on the Cupid’s wing and arm and up the arm of the next
little figure; another from the top of the mirror, following the curve
of the arm of _Prudence_ up to her head. So far, on the left side of
the painting we have four small festoons. But I wonder if you can make
out another one a long one, the ends of which are fastened to the head
of _Prudence_ and that of the baby in the left corner. It follows the
slope of the figure of _Prudence_ until it reaches her foot, the
direction of which starts it across the gap between her and _Firmness_,
where the line reappears, following the folds of the latter’s drapery,
at first along the floor and then above her greave up to the baby’s
head.
And now for the right hand side of the painting. In the first place
there is a repetition of the long festoon. This one is suspended from
the head of _Prudence_ to the top of the wing of the Cupid in the right
hand corner. It dips down along the curve of the torch, down through the
folds of _Moderation’s_ drapery to her feet and then rises up and passes
round the back of the child. But hanging above this main festoon are
_two_ rows of smaller ones. Firstly we find a very shallow festoon from
the head of _Prudence_ to the hand which holds the bit; another from
this point to the top of the head of _Moderation_. Below this, however,
is again a festoon from the bit, along the droop of the reins to the
hand which holds them, from which point there is still another along the
arm up to the head.
Now, I do not for a moment wish you to think that Raphael chose points
in his composition and then arranged that the lines of the limbs and
draperies should form festoons between them. In examining his work, I am
trying not to tell you how he did it, but to explain what has been
done. And here, clearly visible, are what I have called, festoons. We
might describe them by some other name--as ripples of movement. For as
the water in some shallow brook ripples over and between the stones
dancing in the sunshine, so these curves of movement, now in light and
now in shadow, flow between these figures and flow over them, until the
whole composition is a woven mass of rhythmic undulations. Rhythmic?
Yes, it is just because these ripples or festoons present such a
beautiful example of rhythm, that I have dwelt upon them. In fact it is
the rhythmic movement of the composition that gives to this painting its
greatest charm.
In the following chapter I shall have more to say about the rhythmic
movements of the figures. Let us conclude this one with a few words
about the geometric plan on which the composition of the “Jurisprudence”
is based. As I have said, it is not nearly so apparent as that of the
_Disputá_. The latter’s plan looks as if it might have been laid out
with straight edge and compasses. It was, as I have told you, adapted
from a composition by Raphael’s master, Perugino, and he, very possibly,
may have adapted it from some one else’s plan; for in those days,
artists did not see any harm in starting with another man’s design, and
altering it a little, or perhaps making it more elaborate to suit their
own purpose for the moment. But in the short time that elapsed between
the painting of the _Disputá_ and the _Jurisprudence_ the pupil had made
great strides. He had found his own strength and was working in the
glory of it. Therefore the _Jurisprudence_ exhibits a freedom of design,
which so disguises the ground plan, that it is difficult to be sure of
what it is, although one still feels that it is geometrical.
The first thing we note is that the artist has strengthened the bottom
line of the lunette by repetition. He has carried a stone bench along
the entire width, which also serves as a seat for the figures. Do you
see the advantage of making the figures seated? If Raphael had
represented them in a standing position, he would have had to make them
smaller in order to get them entirely into the space; and this would
have lessened the feeling of bigness in the composition. So he invented
a device by which he could represent them seated. Further, he has raised
the bench in the center by the addition of another step, so as to lift
the composition naturally in the part where the space to be decorated is
highest.
Thus from the corners, or angles of the lunette there is on each side a
gradual rise up to the head of _Prudence_, that suggests a pyramid or a
triangle within the curved space. The same triangular effect is repeated
in the pattern, made by the figures of _Prudence_ and the Cupid who
holds the torch. The curve of the torch is so arranged as to balance the
slope of the woman’s legs. So the geometric plan may be the repetition
of a smaller, inside a larger triangle, contrasted with the curve of the
lunette. On the other hand, if you look at the painting again, you
notice that the Cupid with the torch is balanced by the one who holds
the mirror. Their bodies have a vertical or upright direction, and then
the tops of the torch and the mirror supply points which the eye seems
to join by a horizontal line, so that a rectangle occupies the center of
the composition as it does in the _Disputá_. This strong contrast of a
rectangular form to the curve of the lunette, and then again the
contrast of the diagonal lines, formed by the Cupids’ figures across the
angles of the space, may be the simple geometric elements out of which
this composition grew.