Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 2

by Unknown

It might at first be expected from the previous discussion that, in order not to shatter the repetition, the alternate statues must be alike, must be conventionalized into identity; but this is not the case. Another principle now comes into play. We demand variation in the human form whatever its place in art, even in the unimportant position of alternate in a repetition, and although they are kept as much alike in pose, size, level of head and feet, general character (i. e., cherubs do not alternate with old men, nor draped figures with undraped), yet there is some variation of pose or direction of glance, to keep them from being duplicates. We should expect this variety of repetition to be in danger of becoming fatiguing because of its lack of an unchanging rest-phase, but this difficulty was evidently felt in building them, for in every case some unchanging element has been supplied to the series to bind it together and to keep the constant changes of attention from upsetting the series. The cherubs of the Padua Basilica are in high relief against a uniform rectangular background which does not vary, and which furnishes an alternate just in character with the principal unit, the bas-relief. In the Cantoria of Donatello, although the dancing children move across the whole space, uniform double columns occur at intervals, and supply an unchanging alternate, while the children vary in position behind them. Around the pulpit of Lincoln Cathedral, although both units, reliefs, and statues vary, the pilasters behind the statues are invariable and supply a constant, unchanging factor in the series. In the alternating reliefs and statues of the Milan Cathedral or in the paintings of different sizes in All Souls Church, Oxford, an unchanging element is supplied in the frame, which is of like design in every case, so that in passing from one to the other an unvarying alternate is always present. In the Sienna font, and in the statue to Leonardo da Vinci, which are types of a vast quantity of repeated forms, there is uniformity in the minor pedestals and in the frames of the alternating bas-reliefs, which supplies the unchanging factor.

Moreover, another factor is noticeable in this kind of repeated series,—it is never long. The fatigue which would certainly result from a too long continuance of varied alternates, even with unvarying factors in the way of supports, pillars, and frames, is obviated in various ways. The series is either short and the whole has a definite bilateral symmetry, as in the Padua Basilica, and in the Oxford church; or, as in a great number of cases, the series goes around a fixed central point so that only three units are seen at a time. It is thus especially that this method is used in fonts, pulpits, and monuments, where from the circular arrangement enough can never be brought into the field at once to fatigue the attention.

This consideration of alternates which vary widely, as do human figures, even when they are alike in size, general shape, and character, and, moreover, the discovery that there is almost without exception an invariable element between the other alternating units, i. e., a third alternate; or behind them, as in the case of the pilaster behind the statue, may well bring up two questions:

(1) When the unchanging factor comes between the other two units, is not it in reality the alternate, and the two other units either variations of shape and size of one principal unit or two sets of principal units? In other words, do we not actually apperceive the two principal objects as the units of importance, and take the unvarying factor which comes between, no matter how slight it may be, as the alternate? Do we not demand the unvarying as our alternate, no matter how many variations may be in the other figures?

(2) When the unchanging factor comes behind the alternating statue, in the same plane with the bas-relief, do we not inevitably take it as the alternate in the series, and regard the statues more as episodes or attendants on the series but with real values of their own? Is not the fact that the unvarying factor and principal units are in the same plane an indication that they constitute a real series, while the statues or paintings which are in a plane by themselves make a series, harmonizing with the other, it is true, and in part coinciding with it, but felt in a different way? Therefore the actual repeated series conforms to the given conditions and is made to do so in every case by its unchanging alternate in the same plane; while human figures with values of their own never can be considered quite as alternates, but are really felt to be a series by themselves.

This introduces another question. In two more cases of varying alternates, there was variation in decoration above the level of the rest of the series. In the Borghese Casino, there is variation in the busts placed over the alternate windows. In the Venice rood-screens, there is variation in the carving of the alternating supports, which rise above the rest of the series. Is that part of the series above the level of the principal units really included in its perception? It would seem rather that when the series as a whole is being taken, those variations above the level of the main units (if they are not very marked, and they were not in either of these two cases) are ignored or only felt in a vague way as added richness. When, however, the attention is turned toward them especially, they form a series of their own, in which they become the principal units, and alternate with empty spaces. There is no limit to the changes possible in apperception, according to the level and plane of the alternating units.

There are three cases left; two where alternates vary in content with no system, and one with variation in distance. The first two are differently carved sections of railing on the side of Freiburg Cathedral, and a differently decorated frieze of squares and circles in the S. Lorenzo Cloisters, Rome. The effect is only of disconnected and fragmentary series in both cases, and especially in the latter case it is impossible to feel it as a repetition at all unless the variations are ignored, and the attention fixed on the unvarying factor of size.

The variation of distance is in the Beauvais Palais de Justice, where the first window is at an unequal distance from the others in the series. The effect is only of disorder and accident.

We have, then, surveyed all our examples of alternate repetition, and found that in the exceptions to the general principles laid down some other effect than repetition as such was sought. Either (1) symmetry for the series as a unity was required, which demanded variation of the end or central units. In so far, then, as it fulfilled the requirements of symmetry, those of repetition were disregarded.