Of the Relief of Form--Three Methods--Contrast--Light and Shade,
and Modelling--The Use of Contrast and Planes in Pattern
Designing--Decorative Relief--Simple Linear Contrast--Relief by
Linear Shading--Different Emphasis in relieving Form by Shading
Lines--Relief by means of Light and Shade alone without
Outline--Photographic Projection--Relief by different Planes and
Contrasts of Concave and Convex Surfaces in Architectural
Mouldings--Modelled Relief--Decorative Use of Light and Shade,
and different Planes in Modelling and Carving--Egyptian System of
Relief Sculpture--Greek and Gothic Architectural Sculpture,
influenced by Structural and Ornamental Feeling--Sculptural
Tombs, Medals, Coins, Gems--Florentine Fifteenth-century
Reliefs--Desideriodi Settignano.
We come now to the consideration of the various means and methods of
expressing relief in line and form.
We may define a form in outline and give it different qualities of
expression by altering the quality and consistency of our outline, and
we may obtain very different kinds of decorative effect by the use of
lines of various degrees of thickness or thinness; but if we want to
give it force and colour, and to distinguish it from its background more
emphatically, we must add to our outline.
[Three Methods of Expressing Relief]
There are three principal methods or systems of giving relief by adding
to our outline.
One is the method of giving relief to form by contrasts of tone, colour,
or tint.
Another by means of the expression of light and shade: and the third by
means of modelling in relief.
Now, still keeping to expression by means of line, the three arms I have
sketched (p. 167[f092]) illustrate: (1) the form in outline alone; (2)
the contrast method; and (3) the light and shade method. The three pots
underneath illustrate the same three stages in a simpler manner.
In number one we see the outline defining the form pure and simple: in
number two the form is relieved by a half-tone formed of diagonal lines,
forming a plane or background behind it. The arm is still further
relieved by the dark drapery. Number three shows the relief carried
further by lines expressive of the modelling of the arm and the rounding
of the pot, and also by cast shadows from the forms.
[Illustration (f092): The Relief of Form: (1) By Outline, (2) By
Contrast, (3) By Light and Shade.]
The system of expressing relief I have termed relief by contrast
includes two kinds of contrast: there are the contrasts of line and
form, and there are the contrasts of planes of tone or tint and local
colour. We may consider that the contrast method covers generally all
forms of pattern and certain kinds of pictorial design. The method of
expressing relief by means of line covers generally all forms of design
in black and white, graphic sketching, pen-drawing, and work with the
point of all kinds.
[Of the Use of Contrast and Planes]
Taking the principle of contrast as applied to pattern design, we can,
even within the limited range of black and white and half-tint (as
expressed by lines), get a considerable amount of decorative effect. In
the first place by bringing out our pattern, previously outlined, upon
a black ground (as in Nos. 1 and 2, p. 169[f093]), increasing the
richness of effect, and getting a second plane by treating the lower
part in an open tint of line.
Simple contrasts of dark upon light or light upon dark are effective,
and sufficient for many purposes, such as borders (as in Nos. 2 and 3,
p. 169[f093]).
When a lighter kind of relief and effect is required, the recurring
forms in a border are often sufficiently emphasized by a tint of open
lines: movement and variety being given by making them follow the minor
curves of the successive forms, as in this instance (No 4, p. 169[f093])
the movement of the water is suggested behind the fish.
The relation of the plain ground-work to the figure of the pattern is
also an important point; indeed the plain parts of the pattern, or the
interstices and intervals of the pattern, are as essential to the
pattern as the figured parts.
In designs intended for various processes of manufacture, such as
printed or woven textiles, wall-papers, etc., where blocks or rollers
are used to repeat the pattern, the extent of plain in proportion to
figured parts must be governed in some measure by the practicable size
of the repeat: but within certain limits great variety of proportion is
possible.
A simple but essentially decorative principle is to preserve a certain
equality between the figured masses and the ground masses. The leaf
patterns (Nos. 6 and 7, p. 169[f093]) consist simply of the repetition
and reversal of a single element. An emphatic effect is obtained by
bringing the leaves out black upon a white ground (as in No. 6), while a
flatter and softer effect is the result of throwing them upon a plane
of half-tint expressed by horizontal lines, with a similar effect of
relief to that which would be given by the warp, if the pattern were
woven.
For larger surfaces, greater repose and dignity in pattern may be
obtained by a greater proportion of the repeat being occupied by the
ground (as in No. 5, p. 169[f093]).
[Illustration (f093): Relief of Form and Line in Pattern Design by Means
of Contrast and the Use of Planes.]
Indeed we may consider as a general principle that the larger the
interspaces of the ground, plane, or field of the pattern, the lighter
in tint they should be, or the necessary flatness is apt to be lost.
Relief in pattern design may be said to be adding interest and richness
without losing the flatness and repose of the design as a whole. When
pattern and ground are fairly equally balanced in quantity the ground
may be rich and dark, and darkest as the interstices, where the ground
is shown, become less. The figure of a pattern relieved as light upon a
dark plane, as a rule, requires to be fuller in form than dark-figuring
upon a light ground.
[Decorative Relief]
In decorative work the use of contrast in the relief of parts of a
design is often useful and effective, as, for instance, the dark shading
or treatment in black or flat tone of the alternating under side of a
turn-over leaf border.
The decorative value of this principle is recognized by heraldic
designers in the treatment of the mantling of the helmet, which in
earlier times is treated simply as a hanging or flying strip of drapery
with a lining of a different colour, by which it is relieved as it hangs
in simple spiral folds. This ornamental element became developed by the
designers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries into elaborate
scroll designs springing from the circlet of the helmet and surrounding
the shield: but the principle of the turned-up lining remained, often
variegated and enriched with heraldic patterns (see illustrations, pp.
172[f094a], 173[f094b]).*
[*] The increased importance given to the mantling in later times
may have been due to the disappearance of the housings of the
knight's horse and his surcoat, which originally displayed his
arms and colours. The mantling of later times displayed the
heraldic colours of the knight, when, being clad in plate armour,
there was no other means of displaying them except on the shield.
Decoratively, of course, the mantling is of great value to the
heraldic designer, enabling him to form much more graceful
compositions, to combine diverse and rigid elements with free and
flowing lines and masses, and to fill panels with greater
richness and effect, whether carved or painted, or both.
[Illustration (f094a): Decorative Relief: Counterchange, Treatment of
Mantling, Fourteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.]
[Illustration (f094b): Decorative Relief: Treatment of Mantling.]
[Use of Diapered Backgrounds]
The principle, too, of counterchange in heraldry answers to our
principle of relief by contrast, and though its chief charm lies in its
ornamental range of form and colour combinations, it can be expressed in
black and white, and it remains a universal principle throughout
decorative art. The decorative effect and charm of the relief of large
and bold forms upon rich and delicate diapers is also an important
resource of the designer. The monumental art of the Middle Ages affords
multitudes of examples of this principle in ornamental treatment. The
miniaturist of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries constantly relieved
his groups of figures upon a diapered ground. The architectural sculptor
relieved the broad masses of flowing drapery and the bold projection of
his effigies and recumbent figures by delicately chiselled diapers upon
the surface of the wall behind them. This treatment may frequently be
seen in the recessed tombs of the fourteenth century.
The incisor of memorial brasses, again, more especially in continental
examples, shows a fondness for the same principle. The long vertical
lines of drapery of ladies and ecclesiastics, the broad masses of the
heraldic surcoat, or armour of the knights, the rich and heavy furred
gowns of the burghers, are often relieved upon beautiful diapered or
arabesque grounds, generally embodying some heraldic device, motto, or
emblem of the person or family whose tomb it ornaments. Such decoration
is strictly linear, yet within its own limits, and perhaps because of
them, we find in this province of design extremely admirable work, no
less for delineation of character and decorative treatment than for
ornamental invention controlled by strict economy of line.
[Illustration (f095): Relief Upon a Diapered Ground: Brass of Martin De
Visch, Bruges, 1452.]
[Relief of Form by Linear Shading]
This brings us to the consideration of our second method of relief by
means of line.
Take any simple allied elements to form a repeating pattern, say spiral
shells, place them at certain rhythmic intervals, and we can unite and
at the same time give them relief by filling in the ground by a series
of waved lines to suggest the ribbed sand. Add a few dots to soften and
vary the effect, and we get a pattern of a certain balance and
consistency (No. 1, p. 177[f096a]).
[Illustration (f096a): Relief in Pattern Design by Means of Simple
Linear Contrasts (1)]
With the more varied and complex floral form, but treated in a very
abstract way, placing the daisies in a line, horizontally, and reversing
the sprig for the alternate row, we have another motive, which is
connected and steadied as well as relieved by the suggestion of grass
blades in groups of three slightly radiated vertical strokes (No. 2,
p. 177[f096b]). A pattern of two elements, again, may be formed in a
still more simple way by linear contrast, as in No. 3, where the
pyramidal trees are formed by a continuous serpentine stroke of the pen
terminating in a spiral stem. The diagonal arrangement of the trees
produces a chequer, the intervals of which can be varied by the
contrasting black masses of the birds.
[Illustration (f096b): Relief in Pattern Design by Means of Simple
Linear Contrasts (2), (3)]
In graphic drawing, lines to express forms in the relief of light and
shade are often needed to give additional force even where no great
degree of realism is desired. A tint formed by horizontal lines is
sufficient to relieve a face from the background and give it solidity,
while local colour may be given to the hair, and at the same time serve
to relieve the leaves of a wreath encircling the head (see illustration,
p. 178[f097a]).
[Illustration (f097a): Relief by Adding Shading Lines to Outline.]
The rich effect of clustered apples growing among their leaves could
hardly be suggested without the use of lines expressive of light and
shade, the interstices of the deepest shade running into solid black (p.
178[f097a]). In adding lines in this kind of way to give relief or extra
richness or force, the draughtsman is really designing a system of lines
upon his outline basis, which may have quite as decorative a quality as
the outline itself. At the same time nothing is more characteristic of
the artist than the way in which such lines are used, and of course the
choice of direction and arrangement of such lines will make all the
difference in the effect of the drawing.
[Diagonal Shading]
Where the object is to express the figure in broad masses of light and
shade, the use of a series of diagonal lines is an effective, and
probably the most ready and rapid, method when working with the pen (see
p. 179[f097b]). This system of expressing the broad surfaces of shade
was much used by the Italian masters of the Renaissance in their rapid
pen sketches and studies of figures, and a certain breadth and style is
given to their drawings owing in part to the simplicity of this linear
treatment.
[Illustration (f097b): Relief of Form by Diagonal Shading.]
[Emphasis]
No doubt the simpler the system of line adopted in giving relief to
figures the better, if the particular expression aimed at is
accomplished, and, as a general rule, we should endeavour to get the
necessary force and depth without the use of cross-line, or many
different directions of line in shading a figure: but, given any power
of draughtsmanship, the individuality of the artist is bound to come in,
and it is not likely, nor is it to be desired, that any two artists in
line should give exactly the same account of natural fact, or reproduce
the images in their minds in the same forms, any more than we should
expect two writers to express their ideas in the same terms.
The kind and degree of emphasis upon different parts, the selection of
moment or fact, would all naturally make considerable differences in the
treatment. The three sketches of the skirt dancer are given as instances
of the different effects and expression to be obtained in rendering the
same subject (p. 181[f098]).
[Illustration (f098): Different Method and Different Emphasis in
Relieving Form by Shading Lines.[A, B, C]]
In A the broad relief of the white dress against the tones of the floor
and background, and the darker note of the hair, are the facts chiefly
dwelt upon. In B the form of the figure is brought out in broad light
and shade and cast shadow, and the dress relieved by radiating folds. In
C quicker movement is given, the lines of the successive wave-shaped
folds radiating spirally from the shoulders being the chief means of
conveying this, while the head and arms are thrown into strong relief
against a dark background, the cast shadow being of a lighter tone.
The direction of line used in relieving forms, and expressing modelling
and details, must depend much upon individual taste and feeling as well
as knowledge of form. The element of beauty of design also comes in, and
the question between this and force or literalness--the difference
between a study or direct transcript from nature, and a design with a
purely ornamental aim, or a composition directed mainly to the
expression of a particular idea or emotion.
Such considerations will ultimately determine the choice and use of
line, the degree of relief and emphasis, for these and the direction of
the line itself are the syllables and the words which will convey the
purport of the work to the mind of the beholder.
Study of the masters of line--Durer, Titian, Mantegna, Holbein--will
inform us as to its capacities and limitations. The limitations, too, of
method and material will be a powerful factor in the determination of
style in the use of line and in the economy of its use.
The bold firm line suitable to the facsimile woodcut, the broad and
simple treatment of line with solid black useful in the plank-cut line
block to be used with colour blocks, the comparatively free and
unconditioned pen-drawing for the surface-printed process block--all
these will finally give a certain character to our work beyond our own
idiosyncrasies in the use of the pen or the brush.
[Illustration (f099): Albert Durer's Principle in the Treatment of
Drapery: From the Woodcut in the "Life of the Virgin" Series.]
Useful things may be learned by the way, such as Albert Durer's
principle of giving substance to his figures and details, more
especially seen in his treatment of drapery, when the lines run into
solid black and express the deeper folds and give emphasis and solidity
to the figure (p. 183[f099]). The reproductions here given of sketches
of drapery by Filippino Lippi and Raphael also show the same principle.
[Illustration (f100): Albert Durer: Pen-Drawing.]
A figure or object of any kind, seen in full light and shade, is
relieved at any of its edges either as dark against light, or as light
against dark, and we recognize it as a solid form in this way; the
boundaries of natural light and shade defining it, and projecting it
from the background upon the vision. There may be infinite modulations,
of course, between the light part, the half-tones, and the darkest
parts; but this broad principle governs all work representing light and
shade.
[Illustration (f101): Filippino Lippi: Study of Drapery.]
It is, in fact, _the principle of the relief of form_ represented upon a
plane surface.
[Illustration (f102): Raphael: Studies of Drapery.]
[Relief by Light and Shade Alone]
If the draughtsman's object be to represent the _appearance_ of a figure
or any object in full natural light and shade with the pen or other
point, he could do so without using outline at all, but by simply
observing this principle and defining the boundaries of light on dark or
half-tone in their proper masses and relations. The pen sketch of the
man with the hoe (p. 188[f103a]) is intended to illustrate this method.
[Illustration (f103a): Relief by Means of Light and Shade Alone, in
Pen-drawing Without Outline.]
There is also the method of representing form in relief by means of
working with white line only upon a dark ground, the modelling and
planes of surface being entirely expressed in this way (as in A, p.
189[f103b]). This may be termed drawing by means of _light_, and may be
contrasted with the opposite method of working by means of black line
only on a light ground, or drawing by means of _shade_ (as in B, p.
189[f103b]).
[Illustration (f103b): Relief of Form: (A) By White Line Only on Dark
Ground, and (B) By Black Line Only on Light Ground.]
Yet another method, and one in which the effect of relief can be
obtained more readily and rapidly, perhaps, is by working on a
half-toned paper, drawing in the form with pencil, chalk, or brush,
blocking in the darker shadows and heightening the highest lights with
touches of white. These white touches, however, should be strictly
limited to the highest lights. This method is represented by the
half-tone blocks used in this book, those which were taken from drawings
made on brown paper and touched with white.
[The Principle of the Photograph]
The definition of form by means of light is strictly the principle of
the photograph, which comprehends and illustrates its complementary of
relief by means of shade, and I think it is due to the influence of the
photograph that modern black-and-white artists have so often worked
on these principles. The drawings of Frederick Walker and Charles Keene
may be referred to as examples. I shall, however, hope to return to this
branch of the subject later.
[Relief in Architectural Mouldings]
So far we have been considering the relief of form by means of line. We
now come to what may be termed the relief of form by actual form and
plane, or modelling in actual light and shade, as in architecture and
sculptors' and carvers' work. Then relief is gained by the contrast of
actually different planes, forms, surfaces, and textures. The simplest
illustrations of the principles of modelled relief are to be found in
architectural mouldings, by means of which buildings are relieved and
enriched, and important structural or functional parts are emphasized,
as in cornices and ribs of vaults, arches, and openings.
Place a concave moulding side by side with a convex one either
horizontally or vertically, and a certain pleasant effect of contrasting
light and shade is the result, reminding one of the recurring concave
and convex of the rolling waves of the sea (A, p. 191[f104]).
A series of flat planes of different widths and at different levels also
produces a pleasant kind of relief useful in a picture frame or the jamb
of a door (B).
All architectural mouldings might be said to be modifications or
combinations of the principles illustrated by these two.
Very different feeling may be expressed in mouldings, and if we compare
the two types, the classical and the Gothic, the comparatively broad and
simple effect of the former (C, D, E, F, G) contrasts with the
richness and variety and the stronger effect of light and shade,
produced by deep undercutting, in the latter (H, I, J, K).
[Illustration (f104): Relief in Architectural Mouldings.]
The Romans, however, produced rich and highly ornate effects in the use
of these types of mouldings, as they reappeared in the Corinthian order,
the ovolo cut into the egg and dart, with the Astralagus beneath, the
Cyma recta above the brackets of the cornice casting a bold shadow, and
both in the cornice and the hollow beneath the dentils enriched with
carving, as seen in the splendid fragment of the Forum of Nerva.
[Illustration (f105): Roman Treatment of Corinthian Order, Forum of
Nerva, Rome.]
When we pass to the more complex problems of figure modelling and
sculpture, it is but carrying on and developing the same principle of
the contrast of planes, of the relief of plane upon plane, of forms upon
one plane, to forms upon forms in many planes. From the contrast of bead
and hollow we come to consider the contrast between the rounded limb and
the sinuous folds of drapery; from the rhythm of the acanthus scroll we
turn to the less obvious but none the less existing rhythm of the
sculptural frieze.
Line, we may say, controls the modeller's and sculptor's composition,
but form and its treatment in light and shade give him his means of
ornament. The delicate contours of faces and limbs contrasted with the
spiral and radiating folds of drapery, or rich clusters of leaves and
fruits, the forms of animals and the wings of birds--these are his
decorative resources.
[Egyptian Reliefs]
The early stages of sculpture in relief may be seen in the monumental
work of ancient Egypt.
Simple incised work appears to have been the first stage, and the
forms afterwards slightly modelled or rounded at the edges into the
hollow of the sunk outline.
Large figures and tables of hieroglyphic inscription were thus cut upon
vast mural surfaces, and carried across the joints of the masonry,
without disturbing the flatness and repose of the wall surface (p.
195[f106]). The Egyptians, indeed, seem to have treated their walls more
as if they were books for record and statement, symbol and hieroglyphic.
[Illustration (f106): Egyptian System of Sculptured Relief: Thebes.]
Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez, in their "History of Ancient Art in Egypt,"
speak of three processes in the treatment of Egyptian reliefs (vol. ii.,
p. 284):
1. That followed by the Greeks, in which the figures are left standing
out from a smooth bed, sometimes slightly hollowed near the contours
(see illustration, p. 196[fig106]).
2. Where the figures are modelled in relief in a sunk hollow, from an
inch to one and a half inch deep.
3. Where the surface of the figures and the bed or field of relief are
kept on one level (see illustration, p. 196[f107]), the contours
indicated by hollow lines cut into the stone; very little modelling,
little more than silhouette, in which the outline is shown by a hollow
instead of by the stroke of a pencil or brush.
One would be inclined to reverse the order of these three processes, on
the supposition that No. 3 was the earliest process, and that it arose,
as I have conjectured, from the practice of representing forms by
incised lines only.
There is certainly a strong family likeness as to method between the
Egyptian reliefs and the Assyrian, the Persian, and the archaic Greek;
and there is a far greater difference in treatment between archaic Greek
relief sculpture and the work of the Phidian period than between the
archaic work of the three races named.
The strictly mural and decorative conditions which governed ancient
sculpture no doubt gave to Greek sculpture in its perfection a certain
dignity, simplicity, and restraint, and also accounted in a great
measure for that rhythmic control of invisible structural and ornamental
line which asserts itself in such works as the Pan-Athenaic frieze. It
was strictly slab sculpture, and became part of the surface of the wall.
[Illustration (f107): Greek Relief. Eleusis. Egyptian Relief. Denderah.]
[Gothic Sculpture]
The structural and ornamental feeling also asserts itself strongly in
Gothic sculpture, owing to its close association with architecture, as,
when it was not an integral part of the structure, it was always an
essential part of the expression of the building, and it was this which
controlled its treatment decoratively, in its scale and its system and
degree of relief.
In the porches of the Gallo-Roman churches of France of the twelfth
century, the figures occupying the place of shafts became columnar in
treatment, the sinuous formalized draperies wrapped around the elongated
figures, or falling in vertical folds, as in the figures in the western
door of Chartres Cathedral (p. 199[f108]). The lines of the design of
the sculptured tympanum were strictly related to the space, and the
degree and treatment of the relief clearly felt in regard to the
architectural effect (p. 201[f109]).
[Illustration (f108): Chartres Cathedral: Carving on the West Front.]
[Illustration (f109): Chartres Cathedral: Tympanum of the Central Door
of the West Front.]
[Architectural Influence]
In the sculptured tombs of the Middle Ages, with their recumbent figures
and heraldic enrichments, again, we see this architectonic sense
influencing the treatment of form and relief, as these monuments were
strictly architectural decorations, often incorporating its forms and
details, and often built into the structure of the church or cathedral
itself, as in the case of the recessed and canopied tombs of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
As sculptures became detached from the building and wall, and appeared
in full relief in the round, though still, as it were, carrying a
reminiscence of their origin with them in the shape of the moulded
pedestal, architectural control became less and less felt, statues in
consequence being less and less related to their surroundings. The
individual feeling of the sculptor or the traditions of his school and
training alone influenced his treatment, until we get the incidental and
dramatic or sentimental isolated figure or group of modern days.
[Medals and Coins]
It is noteworthy, however, that even in the smaller works of the
modeller, carver, or sculptor of the Middle Ages or the early
Renaissance, a sense of decorative fitness and structural sense is
always present. We see it in the carved ornaments of seats and
furniture, in the design and treatment of coins and seals and gems and
medals. These latter from the time of the ancient Greeks afford
beautiful examples of the decorative treatment of relief in strict
relation to the object and purpose. The skill and taste of the Greeks
seemed to have been largely inherited by the artists of the earlier
Italian Renaissance, such as Pisano, whose famous medal of the Malatesta
of Rimini affords a splendid instance not only of the treatment of the
portrait and subject on the reverse perfectly adapted to its method and
purpose, but also of the artistic use of lettering as a decorative
feature (see p. 203[f110]).
[Illustration (f110): Medals of the Lords of Mantua, Cesena, and
Ferrara, by Vittore Pisano of Verona (Middle of the Fifteenth Century).]
The treatment and relief of figures and heads upon the plane surfaces of
metals and coins, the composition controlled by the circular form, have
always been a fine test of both modelling and decorative skill and
taste. Breadth is given by a flatness in the treatment of successive
planes of low relief, which rise to their highest projection from the
ground, in the case of a head in profile, about its centre. The delicate
perception of the relation of the planes of surface is important, as
well as the decorative effect to be obtained by arrangement of the light
and shade masses and the contrast of textures, such as hair and the
folds of drapery, to the smooth contours of faces and figures, and the
rectangular forms of lettering.
In gems we see the use made of the concave ground, which gives an
effective relief to the figure design in convex upon it. Bolder
projection of prominent parts are here necessary in contrast to the
retiring planes, the work being on so small a scale, and also in view of
its seal-like character; for, of course, it is the method of producing
form by incision, and modelling by cutting and hollowing out, that gives
the peculiar character to gems and seals; and it is in forming human
figures that the building up of the form by a series of ovals, spoken of
in a previous chapter, becomes really of practical value: the method of
hollowing the stone or metal in cutting the gem or making a die and
the character of the tool leading naturally in that direction.
[Desiderio di Settignano]
Perhaps the most delicate and beautiful kind of sculptured or modelled
relief is to be found in the work of the Florentine school of the
fifteenth century, more especially that of Donatello and Desiderio di
Settignano, who seem indeed to have caught the feeling and spirit of the
best Greek period, with fresh inspiration and suggestion from nature and
the life around them, as well as an added charm of grace and sweetness.
It is difficult to imagine that marble carving in low relief can be
carried to greater perfection than it is in the well-known small relief
by Desiderio di Settignano of the "Madonna and Child," now in the
Italian Court of the South Kensington Museum. The delicate yet firmly
chiselled faces and hands, the smooth surfaces of the flesh, and the
folds of drapery, emerging from, or sinking into, the varied planes of
the ground, for refinement of feeling and treatment seem almost akin to
the art of the painter in the tenderness of their expression.