d every picture have.

In the foreground, or figure subject the same principles apply. The main
point is to capture the observer's interest with the theme, _which to his
mental processes shall unfold according to the artist's plan._ With
twenty objects to present, which one on the chessboard of your picture
shall take precedence and which shall stand next in importance, and which
shall have a limited influence, and which, like the pawns, shall serve as
little more than the added thoughts in the game?

[Circular Observation--The Principle; The Slaying of the Unpropitious
Messengers (Triangular Composition--Circular Observation)]

In "The Slaying of the Unpropitious Messengers," a picture of great power
and truly sublime in the simplicity of its dramatic expression, the vision
falls without hesitation on the figure of Pharaoh, easily passing over the
three prostrate forms in the immediate foreground. These might have
diverted the attention and weakened the subject had not they been
skillfully played for second place. Their backs have been turned, their
faces covered, and, though three to one, the single figure reigns supreme.
Note how they are made to guide the eye toward him and into the picture
and discover in the other lines of the picture an intention toward the
same end, the staircase, the river, the mountain, the angular contour of
the portico behind tying with the nearer roof projection and making a
broken stairway from the left-hand upper corner. See, again, the lines of
the canopy composing a special frame for the master figure.

Suppose a reconstruction of this composition. Behold the slain messengers
shaken into less recumbent and more tragic attitudes, arranged along the
foreplane of the picture; let all the leading lines be reversed; make them
antagonistic to the principles upon which the picture was constructed.
The subject indeed will have been preserved and the story illustrated, but
the following points will be lost and nothing gained: A central dominating
point of interest; the disparity between monarch and slave; the sentiment
of repose and quietude suggested by a starlit night and the coordination
of recumbent lines; the pathos of the lonely vigil, with the gaze of the
single figure strained and fixed upon, the distant horizon whence he may
expect the remnants of his shattered army.

The artist's first conception of this subject was doubtless that of a
pyramid; the head of Pharaoh is