[Illustration:  Diagram XVI.

ILLUSTRATING SOME OF THE MAIN LINES ON WHICH THE RHYTHMIC UNITY OF THIS
PICTURE DEPENDS.]

[Illustration:  Plate XXXVIII.

THE RAPE OF EUROPA.  BY PAOLO VERONESE (VENICE)

A composition of rich full forms and rich full colour. (See the diagram on opposite page for analysis of line rhythm.)

Photo Anderson]

Another rhythmic form the lines at the basis of a composition may take is a flame-like flow of lines; curved lines meeting and parting and meeting again, or even crossing in one continual movement onwards.  A striking instance of the use of this quality is the work of the remarkable Spanish painter usually called El Greco, two of whose works are here shown (page 172 [Transcribers Note:  Plate XL]).  Whatever may be said by the academically minded as to the incorrectness of his drawing, there can be no two opinions as to the remarkable rhythmic vitality of his work.  The upward flow of his lines and the flame-like flicker of his light masses thrills one in much the same way as watching a flaring fire.  There is something exalting and stimulating in it, although, used to excess as he sometimes uses it, it is apt to suffer from lack of repose.  Two examples of his pictures are reproduced here, and illustrate his use of this form of movement in the lines and masses of his compositions.  Nowhere does he let the eye rest, but keeps the same flickering movement going throughout all his masses and edges.  The extraordinary thing about this remarkable painter is that while this restless, unrestrained form of composition makes his work akin to the rococo work of a later period, there is a fiery earnestness and sincerity in all he does, only to be matched among the primitive painters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and very different from the false sentiment of the later school.

Blake was also fond of this flame line, but usually used it in combination with more straight lines than the energetic Spaniard allowed himself.  Plates III and V in the Job series are good examples of his use of this form.  In both cases it will be seen that he uses it in combination with the steadying influence of straight lines, which help to keep the balance and repose necessary in the treatment of even the most violent subjects in art.

A continual interruption in the flow of lines, and a harsh jarring of one against another in an angular, jagged fashion, produces a feeling of terror and horror.  A streak of fork lightning is a natural example of this.  The plate of Blake’s No.  XI, p. 148 [Transcribers Note:  Plate XXXII], reproduced here, is also a good example.  I have had it put sideways on so that you may see that the look of horror is not only in the subject but belongs to the particular music of line in the picture.  The effect of the harsh contrasts in the lines is further added to by