It is a natural transition from this type to the V-shape of the landscapes by Aart van der Neer, Dutch Villages, 245 and 420, in the London National Gallery and in the Rudolphinum at Prague, respectively. Here are trees and houses on each side, gradually sloping to the center to show an open sky and deep vista. Other examples, of course, show the opening not exactly in the center.
In the Concert by Giorgione (758), in the Pitti Gallery, Florence, is seen the less frequent type of the square. The three figures turned toward each other with heads on the same level make almost a square space-shape, although it might be said that the central player gives a pyramidal foundation. This last may also be said of Verrocchio's Tobias and the Archangels in the Florence Academy, for the square, or rather rectangle, is again lengthened by the pyramidal shape of the two central figures. The unrelieved square, it may here be interpolated, is not often found except in somewhat primitive examples. Still less often observed is the oval type of Samson's Wedding feast, Rembrandt (295), in the Royal Gallery, Dresden. Here one might, by pressing the interpretation, see an obtuse-angled double-pyramid with the figure of Delilah for an apex, but a few very irregular pictures seem to fall best under the given classification.
Last of all it must be remarked that the great majority of pictures show a combination of two or even three types; but these are usually subordinated to one dominant type. Such, for instance, is the case with many portraits, which are markedly pyramidal, with the double-pyramid suggested by the position of the arms, and the inverted pyramid, or V, in the landscape background. The diagonal sometimes just passes over into the V, or into the pyramid; or the square is combined with both.
It is, of course, not necessary at this point to show how it is that such an apparently unsymmetrical shape as the diagonal, alone or in combination with other forms, nevertheless produces an effect of balance. In all these cases of the diagonal type the mass or interest of the one side, or the direction of subordinate lines backward to it, balances the impulse of the line descending to the other side. The presence of balance or substitutional symmetry is taken for granted in this treatment, having been previously established, and only the modifications of this symmetry are under consideration.
Now, in order to deal properly with the question of the relation of the type of composition to the subject of the picture, complete statistical information will be necessary. A table of the pictures, classified by subjects and distributed under the heads of the six major types, is accordingly subjoined.
| Pyramid. | Double-Pyr. | Diagonal. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.C. | D.C. | S.S. | S.C. | D.C. | S.S. | S.C. | D.C. | S.S. | |
| Altarpieces, | 49 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mad. w. C., | 40 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Holy Family, | 25 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Adorations, | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Crucifixions, | 11 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Desc. fr. Cross, | 12 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Annunciations, | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Misc. Religious, | 55 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Allegorical, | 20 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Genre, | 25 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 1 |
| Landscape, | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 6 | 0 |
| Port. Group, | 20 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Rel. Single Fig., | 20 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Alleg. S.F., | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Portrait S.F., | 179 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Genre S.F., | 15 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| V-shaped. | Square. | Oval. | |||||||
| S.C. | D.C. | S.S. | S.C. | D.C. | S.S. | S.C. | D.C. | S.S. | |
| Altarpieces, | 6 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mad. w. C., | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Holy Family, | 13 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adorations, | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Crucifixions, | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Desc. fr. Cross, | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Annunciations, | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Misc. Religious, | 20 | 14 | 2 | 9 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Allegorical, | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Genre, | 10 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Landscape, | 20 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Port. Group, | 10 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rel. Single Fig., | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alleg. S.F., | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Portrait S.F., | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Genre S.F., | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What types are characteristic of the different kinds of pictures? In order to answer this question we must ask first, What are the different kinds of pictures? One answer, at least, is at once suggested to the student on a comparison of the pictures with their groupings according to subjects. All those which represent the Madonna enthroned, with all variations, with or without saints, shepherds or Holy Family, are very quiet in their action; that is, it is not really an action at all which they represent, but an attitude—the attitude of contemplation. This is no less true of the pictures I have called 'Adorations,' in which, indeed, the contemplative attitude is still more marked. On the other hand, such pictures as the 'Descents,' the 'Annunciations,' and very many of the 'miscellaneous religious,' allegorical and genre pictures, portray a definite action or event. Taking together, for instance, in two groups of five each, the first ten classes in the table, we find that they fall to the six types in the following proportion:
| P. | D.P. | Dg. | V. | Sq. | Ov. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. | 66 | 13 | 05 | 13 | 03 | 0 |
| II. | 43 | 07 | 14 | 20 | 12 | 04 |
Inasmuch as II. contains also many 'contemplative' pictures, while I. contains no 'active' ones, the contrast between the proportions of the groups would really be sharper than the figures indicate. But as it is, we see that the pyramid type is characteristic of the 'contemplative' pictures in a much higher degree. If the closely allied double-pyramid type is taken with it, we have 79 per cent of the 'contemplative' to 50 per cent, of the 'active' ones. This view is confirmed by contrasting the 'Adoration,' the most complete example of one group, with the genre pictures, the most complete example of the other—and here we see that in the first all are pyramidal, and in the second only 26 per cent. A class which might be supposed to suggest the same treatment in composition is that of the portraits—absolute lack of action being the rule. And we find, indeed, that no single type is represented within it except the pyramid and double-pyramid, with 86 per cent. of the former. Thus it is evident that for the type of picture which expresses the highest degree of quietude, contemplation, concentration, the pyramid is the characteristic type of composition.
But is it not also characteristic of the 'active' pictures, since, as we see, it has the largest representation in that class too? Perhaps it might be said that, inasmuch as all pictures are really more 'quiet' than they are 'active,' so the type par excellence is the pyramidal—a suggestion which is certainly borne out by the table as a whole. But setting aside for the moment the pyramid and its sub-variety, we see that the diagonal V-shaped and square types are much more numerous in the roughly outlined 'active' class. Taking, again, the genre class as especially representative, we find 23 per cent. of the diagonal type, and 25 per cent. of the V-shaped. We have seen how closely allied are these two types, and how gradually one passes over into the other, so that we may for the nonce take them together as making up 47 per cent. of the whole. The type of picture which expresses the highest degree of activity, which aims to tell a story, has, then, for its characteristic type the V and its varieties.