The maidens in Corot's paintings, for example, seem to belong
as naturally to the landscape as the very trees themselves.
But the painter can depict the human body not merely as something
sensuously beautiful, but as expressive, through gesture and pose and
countenance, of character and thought. The complex psychic life of man
is thus open to him for delineation. In the portrait, through the
attentive study of the many varying expressions of the inner life,
leading to the selection of some characteristic pose or action, the
artist concentrates into a single image what seems to him to be the
distinctive nature of the man. And he can express this nature over
again, and so more effectively reveal it, in the mere colors and lines
which he uses. Thus Franz Hals has embodied the abundance and good
cheer of his burghers in the boldness and brightness of the lines and
colors with which he paints them; and Hogarth, in the "Shrimp Girl,"
through the mere singularity of line and color, has created the eerie
impression which we attach to the girl herself. The best portraits
subordinate everything else, such as costume and background, to the
painting of the inner life. Thus Velasquez brings before us the souls
of his little Infantas despite the queer head-dresses and frocks which
must have threatened to smother them. The background should serve the
same end; if elaborate, it should represent a fitting environment; and
if plain it should throw the figure into relief.
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