In the "Annunciation" by Botticelli the in-
troduction of a long perspective line beyond the
figures, continuing the lines of the foreground,
railroads the vision right through the subject,
carrying it out of the picture. If the attention
is pinned perforce on the subject, one feels the
interruption and annoyance of this unnecessary
landscape. The whole Italian school of \ the
Eenaissance weakened the force of its portraits
[S6]



PICTORIAL COMPOSITION

and figure pictures by these elaborate settings
which they seemed helpless to govern. In
Velasquez we frequently find the simplification
of background which saves the entire interest
for the subject ; but even he in his " Spinners "
and to a lesser degree in some other compo-
sitions, makes the same error. In the greatest
of Eembrandt's portrait groups, " The Syndics,"
his problem involved the placement of six
figures. Four are seated at the far side of a
table looking toward us, the fifth, on the near
side, rises and looks toward us. His head,
higher than those of the row of four, breaks this
line of formality ; but the depth and perspective
of the picture is not secured until the figure
standing in the background is added. This pro-
duces from the foreground figure, through one
of the seated figures, the transitional line which
pulls the composition forward and backward and
makes a circular composition of what was com-
menced upon a line sweeping across the entire
canvas.
