Now let us but bend the figure in a slight curve, as at C, and destroy its vertical direction, partly cover the disc of the sun so as to destroy the complete circle, and all this is immediately altered, our calm evening has become a windy one, our lines now being expressive of some energy.

[Illustration:  PLATE XXXIII.

FETE CHAMPETRE.  GIORGIONI (LOUVRE)

Note the straight line introduced in seated female figure with flute to counteract rich forms.]

To take a similar instance with vertical lines.  Let D represent a row of pine trees in a wide plain.  Such lines convey a sense of exaltation and infinite calm.  Now if some foliage is introduced, as at E, giving a swinging line, and if this swinging line is carried on by a corresponding one in the sky, we have introduced some life and variety.  If we entirely destroy the vertical feeling and bend our trees, as at F, the expression of much energy will be the result, and a feeling of the stress and struggle of the elements introduced where there was perfect calm.

It is the aloofness of straight lines from all the fuss and flurry of variety that gives them this calm, infinite expression.  And their value as a steadying influence among the more exuberant forms of a composition is very great.  The Venetians knew this and made great use of straight lines among the richer forms they so delighted in.

It is interesting to note how Giorgione in his “Fete Champetre” of the Louvre (see illustration, page 151 [Transcribers Note:  Plate XXXIII]), went out of his way to get a straight line to steady his picture and contrast with the curves.  Not wanting it in the landscape, he has boldly made the contour of the seated female conform to a rigid straight line, accentuated still further by the flute in her hand.  If it were not for this and other straight lines in the picture, and a certain squareness of drawing in the draperies, the richness of the trees in the background, the full forms of the flesh and drapery would be too much, and the effect become sickly, if not positively sweet.  Van Dyck, also, used to go out of his way to introduce a hard straight line near the head in his portraits for the same reason, often ending abruptly, without any apparent reason, a dark background in a hard line, and showing a distant landscape beyond in order to get a light mass to accentuate the straight line.

[Illustration:  Diagram X.

ILLUSTRATING, A, CALM RHYTHMIC INFLUENCE OF HORIZONTAL LINES SUCH AS A
SUNSET OVER THE SEA MIGHT GIVE; B, INTRODUCTION OF LINES CONVEYING SOME
ENERGY; C, SHOWING DESTRUCTION OF REPOSE BY FURTHER CURVING OF LINES. 
THE CALM EVENING HAS BECOME A WINDY ONE.]

[Illustration:  Diagram XI.

ILLUSTRATING, D, RHYTHMIC INFLUENCE OF VERTICAL LINES; E, THE
INTRODUCTION OF SOME VARIETY; F, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE VERTICAL AND
CONSEQUENT LOSS OF REPOSE.]