e man carrying a portfolio. At his
distance, together with the lighted objects he easily balances the
important group on the other side of the centre. Indeed, with the
attractiveness of the clock, vase, plaque, mantel and chest, his face
would have added a grain too much, and this the artist happily avoided by
covering it with the portfolio.

[Lady with Muff--Photo A. Hewitt (Steelyard in Perspective)]

In the portrait study of "Lady with Muff," one first receives the
impression that the figure has been carelessly placed and, indeed, it
would go for a one-sided and thoughtless arrangement but for the little
item, almost lost in shadow, on the left side. This bit of detail enables
the eye to penetrate the heavy shadow, and is a good example of the value
of the small weight on the long arm of the steelyard, which balances its
opposing heavy weight.

This picture is trimmed a little too much on the top to balance across the
horizontal line, and, indeed, this balance is the least important, and, in
some cases, not desirable; but the line of light following down from the
face and across the muff and into the lap not only assists this balance,
but carries the eye into the left half, and for that reason is very
valuable in the _lateral_ balance, which is _all important to the upright
subject._

One other consideration regarding this picture, in the matter of balance,
contains a principle: The line of the figure curves in toward the flower
and pot which become the radius of the whole inner contour. This creates
an elliptical line of observation, which being the arc on this radius
receives a pull toward its centre. There is a modicum of balance in the
mere weight of this empty space, but when given force by its isolation,
plus the concession to its centripetal significance, the small item does
great service in settling the equilibrium of the picture. The lines are
precisely those of the Rubens recently added to the Metropolitan Museum,
wherein the figures of Mary, her mother, Christ and John form the arc and
the bending form of the monk its oppositional balance.

In proof of the fact that the half balance, or that on either side of the
vertical is sufficient in many subjects, see such portraits in which the
head alone is attractive, the rest being suppressed in detail and light,
for the sake of this attraction.

It is rarely that figure art deals with balance over the horizontal
central line _in conjunction_ w