Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/60

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
26
HOW TO STUDY PICTURES.
[Nov.
ment of the forms. The throne actually has length, breadth, and thickness; so have all the figures, and they rest firmly upon the ground; the artist has called in the aid of perspective to enforce the reality of his group. Now how has he accomplished this appearance of reality? By the use of light and shade, and by making his lines express the structure and character of the object. Compare, again, for example, the figure of the infant Saviour in the two pictures. In Cimabue’s the drapery is scored with lines which vaguely hint at folds

“The Madonna Enthroned.” by Cimabue.

and obscure the shape of the limbs beneath; but in Giotto’s certain parts of the figure are made to project by the use of high lights, and others are correspondingly depressed by shade, while the lines of the drapery serve, as you notice, to indicate the shape of the for beneath.