BOOK II

ILLUSIONS IN THE PAINTER'S ART

INTRODUCTORY

THE painter is occupied in a perpetual struggle to produce an illusion. He does not directly aim for this, but except in the very highest art where ideals are realized, the better the picture he paints, the greater the illusion. The natural test of the value of his work is its correspondence with nature, and the nearer it so corresponds, the more complete the illusion. But the whole picture is never an illusion (we leave out of consideration those instances where artificial devices are used to conceal the surroundings of the actual painted surface), for the frame and other material evidence inform us of the art. The illusion, when it exists, is forced upon our minds from moment to moment as our eyes travel over the work. It occurs to us perhaps that a face "lives," that the drapery is true to life, that the tones are real, and so on, and obviously these circumstances cannot impress us in this way unless we are momentarily deceived. And it is a sign of good quality in the work when we are so struck. This does not mean

that the closer the imitation, the better the picture: on the contrary it is rare to find a good work of art produced by an exact imitator. The duty of the artist is to generalize everything that can be generalized without departing from the character of the thing represented. True there are degrees of generalization which depend on the nature of the design, the size of the work, the accessories, and other matters, but if a just balance of generalization be secured throughout, then the imitation is better than a closely detailed reproduction, because a work is always involuntarily judged from general, and not from particular, experience. A portrait for instance is a much better work of art if we can say of it "This is a good portrait of a man," than if we are compelled to confine ourselves to "This is a good portrait of Mr. Jones," even if the lineaments of the particular countenance are better defined in the latter example than in the former. The illusion would be stronger, for we are more intimately acquainted with "a man" than with "Mr. Jones." And so with accessories. An exceptionally fine rose or cabbage is never so good in a painting as one of these articles which is of an average type, because with this the illusion is more certain, for it is not likely to be disturbed with a mental inquiry into the unusual article.

The painter may produce his illusions then without sacrificing anything in his art, and with the surety that good paintings necessarily result in momentary illusions except when form or expression above life experience are dealt with.

The first and most important illusion in the art is

that of relief, for without this no other illusion can be produced. It is a general condition applying to all work on a flat surface. The other illusions that may be provided are: (a) of opening distance in landscape; (b) of motion in natural actions, as in flowing water; (c) of human and animal actions; (d) of suspension and motion in the air. The two first are dealt with under "Landscape"; the others are now considered.

CHAPTER I

ILLUSION OF RELIEF

THE greatest value in the illusion of relief lies in its assistance to recognition, for with the forms rounded by shading and separated with the appearance of relief which they have in nature, details of the work are less likely to complicate the design to the eye, than if the flat surface of the canvas be emphasized by the avoidance of relief. For the eye has to be considered before the mind, and it is of immense importance that the brain should have the least possible work to do in assisting the eye to interpret a thing of art. It would appear then that the minimum extent to which relief should be given in a painting is that point below which the things painted do not seem to have their three dimensions indicated. Beyond this the painter is at liberty to proceed as he pleases. Some great artists, notably Lionardo, were inclined to think that it is impossible to give too much relief to a figure, and this may be so theoretically, but practically there is a line to be drawn because life is limited, and after a certain point is reached, the work of shading for relief is so tedious an operation, that half a lifetime would be required to execute a picture of three or four figures

if the artist wished to produce the strongest illusion in his power to give. A Russian artist of high merit who essayed the task, spent an average time of five years in ceaseless toil on each figure he completed, and even then frequently remarked that he had not given to his figures the full relief he desired to exhibit. It is well known that Lionardo gave long and close attention to this matter in his pictures, and he produced some extraordinary examples of relief, of which the finest is, perhaps, the Litta Madonna,a but one cannot help regretting that he did not rest satisfied with a lower point of excellence in respect of the illusion, so that he could spend more time in general design.

Apart from the relief given by shading in painting, there is an important mechanical method of improving the illusion, though this can only be occasionally adopted. The figures in any well painted picture will appear to stand out in high relief if we lose sight of the frame and other surroundings which distinctly inform us that the work is a flat surface. This is why a painting invariably seems to improve if seen through a tube of such diameter that the frame is excluded from the vision. Advantage of this fact has been many times taken in the exhibition of single pictures, when, by the exclusion of the frame, the concealment of the edges of the work by curtain arrangements, and the concentration of all the available light upon the canvas, such perfect relief has been obtained that observers have been sometimes unable to distinguish the art from the life. It was a At the Hermitage. See Plate 21.