a cross within a cylinder, but on a flat
plane the principle is just as forcible, as will further be shown in the
picture by Israels.

[Alone--Jacques Israels (Constructive Synthesis upon the Vertical); The
Dance--Carpeaux (The Cross Within the Circle)]

"The Crucifixion," by Morot, is more statuesque than picturesque, and
would gain in effect if seen unembarrassed by the limitations of a frame.
Its strength in one situation is its weakness in another. The presence of
the frame creates three spaces, one above the horizontal and one on either
side of the vertical, and these are empty. Therefore, although the single
thought of the dying Saviour is sufficiently great to bear--nay, even,
perhaps, demand--isolation, it unites itself with nothing else within our
compass of vision, and, therefore, cannot be said to compose with its
frame. The reader is now in a position to appreciate the simple mechanics
which underlie the composition by Israels. In "Alone" the artist starts
with the figure of the man--a vertical. The next thought closely allied is
the woman. The two complete a cross. From either end two more verticals
are erected. On the left another horizontal joins the vertical in the top
of the table and unites it with another vertical, the shutter, and so on
to the edge of the picture. On the other side the basket top leads off
from the vertical and thence down the side to the floor and to the edge of
the picture by the lines of fagots. The circuit, which helps to keep the
vision in the picture and serves to render more compact the subject
proper, is developed by the shelf, weights of the clock, basket, cap,
items upon table, shutter and bedpost. For proof that the horizontal lines
in this composition were all placed there for the relief of the verticals,
with the first of which the picture starts, let us remove the table,
basket and bench and see how the arrangement becomes one of quadrangles,
paralleling instead of uniting with the sides. In every case, in the
accompanying illustrations, there has been an effort to reach out toward
the sides and take hold there. Those that have established these points
of contact most fully are the most stable and the most satisfying.

In the composition of the _"__Beautiful Gate,__"_ by Raphael, the two
pillars, in that they span the whole distance from bottom to top, destroy
all chance for unity. Three pictures result instead of one--a triptych
elaborate