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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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