mposition of three figures, although they need
not necessarily be formal in detail. A typical design of three
associated ideas treated emblematically would be the most natural use of
such an arrangement--as Faith, Hope, and Charity; Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity; Science, Art, and Industry; or the three goddesses Here,
Pallas, and Aphrodite, as choice and purpose might decide. A
semicircular scale plan would not only repeat in a safe and sound
manner, but would afford suggestive shapes in which to throw designs of
figures, and could be effectively utilized either for a wall or ceiling
repeat.

The inclosure formed by two spiral lines gives a graceful ornamental
shape for a half-reclining figure; while a series of floating or flying
figures linking their hands would be appropriately governed by similar
spiral lines, uniting them with the meandering wave line (see
illustration, p. 155[f087]).

[Illustration (f087): Formal Composition: Figure Designs Controlled by
Geometric Boundaries.]

Upon a series of semicircles or ellipses, alternating horizontally,
might be arranged a little frieze of children with skipping ropes, or
Amorini with pendent garlands; the up-and-down movement in the former
case being conveyed by a variation, each alternate semicircle being
struck upwards. This would restore the emphatic wave or spiral line,
which always conveys the sense of rhythmic movement in a design.

Such a line, vertically employed, will give again a good plan for a
series of seated figures, say emblematic of the Hours, where similarity
of attitude and type would be appropriate, while the emblems and
accessories might be varied. A severer treatment would be suggested by
making the controlling line angular (see illustration, p. 156[f088]).

[Illustration (f088): Formal Composition: Figure Designs Controlled by
Geometric Boundaries.]

Such are a few illustrations of what I have termed formal composition,
in which the geometric and structural plans of pure ornament or
ornamental line maybe utilized to combine, control, or even suggest
figure designs.

[Informal Composition]

II. While formal compositions, though naturally falling into classes and
types, may be varied to a very great extent, when we come to informal
compositions the variations are unlimited, and a vista of extraordinary
and apparently endless choice, invention, and selection opens out before
the designer, co