The surface of an orange may be so carefully painted or modelled in clay that the effect is a perfect sphere with no straight lines; or it may be painted or modelled in minute planes and no curved lines; or the use of planes may be carried so far the orange is represented by angles so sharp the shape is almost cubical—it is all a question of the extent to which the artist carries the use of plane surfaces. The fewer the planes used and the larger their size, the nearer the substance and more obvious the representation of mass.
The smaller the planes and the larger their number, the nearer the surface—the more superficial the representation.
The division of planes can be carried—geometrically—to such an extent that the unaided eye can no longer distinguish the minute flat surfaces, and the effect is a perfect sphere.
What is true concerning the painting or modelling of an orange is true of the painting or modelling of all objects.
“It has been charged that the new men are too much given to the geometrical. But geometrical figures are the essential elements of drawing. Geometry, the science which deals with extension, its measure and its relations, has ever been the basis of painting.
SEVERINI
The Milliner