66. Ask not, what is the shape of composition? You may in vain climb the pyramid, wind with the stream, or point the flame; for composition, unbounded like Nature, and her subjects, though resident in all, may be in none of these.
67. The nature of picturesque composition is depth, or to come forward and recede.
Coroll.—Pausias, in painting a sacrifice, foreshortened the victim, and threw its shade on part of the surrounding crowd, to show its height and length.[8]
68. Sculpture composes in single groups or separate figures, but apposition is the element of basso-relievo.
Coroll.—Poussin painted basso-relievo, Algardi chiselled pictures.
69. He who treats you with all the figures of a subject save the principal, is as civil or important as he who invites you to dine with all a nobleman's family, the master only excepted: this sometimes may be no loss, but surely you cannot be said to have dined with the chief of the family.