tain examples of
Michael Angelo, Rubens, Corregio and the great Venetians, yet while we
laud the successes of these men we should not forget their lapses nor the
errors in composition of their contemporaries.

Those readers who have been brought up in the creed and catechism of the
old masters, and swallowed them whole, with no questions, I beg will lay
aside traditional prejudice, and regarding every work with reference to
neither name nor date, challenge it only with the countersign "good
composition." This will require an unsentimental view, which need not and
should not be an unsympathetic one, but which would bare the subject of
that which overzealous devotion has bestowed upon it, a compound
accumulation of centuries.

The most serious work yet written on composition, Burnet's "Light and
Shade," was penned at a time when the influence of old masters held
undisputed sway. The thought of that day in syllogism would run as
follows: The work of the Old Masters in its composition is beyond
reproach. Botticelli, Raphael, Paul Potter, Wouvermans, Cuyp,
Domenichino, Duerer, Teniers et al., are Old Masters. Therefore, we accept
their works as models of good composition, to be followed for all ages.
And under such a creed a work valuable from many points of view has been
crippled by its free use of models, which in some cases compromise the
arguments of the author, and in others, if used by artists of the present
day, would only serve to administer a rebuke to their simple trust, in
that practical manner known to juries, hanging committees and publishers.

[Why Art Without Composition is Crippled: The Madonna of the
Veil--Raphael; The Last Judgement--Michael Angelo; Birth of the Virgin
Mary--Durer; The Annunciation--Botticelli; In Central Park; The
Inn--Teniers]

The slight advance made in the field of painting during the past three
centuries has come through this channel, and strange would it seem if the
striving of this long period should show no improvement in any direction.

Composition is the mortar of the wall, as drawing and color are its rocks
of defence. Without it the stones are of little value, and are but
separate integrals having no unity. If the reader agrees with this, then
he agrees to throw out of the category of _the picture_ all pictorial
representations which show no composition. This classification eliminates
most of the illustrations of scientific w