. The art of the Italian renaissance; a handbook for students and travellers. sition, which to the eye is normal, was achieved underdifficult conditions. The figure is thus, as it were, secured. It has acertain inevitability. Another example of the effect of such a tectonic aspect—if we may usethe expression—is the sitting and preaching St. John by Raphael (Tri-buna). It would have been easy to give him a more pleasing (or more 1 The portrait-heads in the Tornabuoni frescoes can hardly be instanced in thisconnection, for here it was not a question of formal intentions on the part of the artist
. The art of the Italian renaissance; a handbook for students and travellers. sition, which to the eye is normal, was achieved underdifficult conditions. The figure is thus, as it were, secured. It has acertain inevitability. Another example of the effect of such a tectonic aspect—if we may usethe expression—is the sitting and preaching St. John by Raphael (Tri-buna). It would have been easy to give him a more pleasing (or more 1 The portrait-heads in the Tornabuoni frescoes can hardly be instanced in thisconnection, for here it was not a question of formal intentions on the part of the artist, butof a definite social convention. This is evident from his other compositions. THE NEW PICTORIAL FORM 253 pictorial) attitude but, as he sitsthere, with the full breadth of hisbreast towards us and his headerect, not only the mouth of theprophet speaks, Ijut the whole formcries aloud to us from the eflect could not have Ijeenobtained in any other fashion. In their methods of illumination,again, Cinquecentists adopted simpleschemes. We find heads, which. Three Female Saints (fragment), by Sebaatianodel Piombo. seen en face are accurately di\ided by the line of the nose, one half is dark, the other light, and this method of distributing the light is compatible with the most perfect beauty. JMichelangelos Delphiea and Andrea del Sartos ideal youthful head are drawn in this wa^?. In other cases there was often an attempt to preserve a symmetrical shading of the eyes when the light was thrown strongly on the face, another device A\hich produces a very clear and restful effect. Examples are to be found in the St. John of Bartolommeos Pietti, and in Leonardos John the Baptist in the Louvre. This does not at all mean that this method of illumination was universal, for the axis of operation was not always so simple. But simplicity was understood, and its special value was realised. In the early picture by Sebastiano in S. Crisostomo at Venice threefemale .saint
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