The landscape picture presents a somewhat different problem.  It cannot be described as either ‘active’ or ‘passive,’ inasmuch as it does not express either an attitude or an event.  There is no definite idea to be set forth, no point of concentration, as with the altarpieces and the portraits, for instance; and yet a unity is demanded.  An examination of the proportions of the types shows at once the characteristic type.

P.    D.P.     Dg.     V.     Sq.     Or. 
Landscapes,     13     03     35     36     05     08

It is now necessary to ask what must be the interpretation of the use of these types of composition.  Must we consider the pyramid the expression of passivity, the diagonal or V, of activity?  But the greatly predominating use of the second for landscapes would remain unexplained, for at least nothing can be more reposeful than the latter.  It may aid the solution of the problem to remember that the composition taken as a whole has to meet the demand for unity, at the same time that it allows free play to the natural expression of the subject.  The altarpiece has to bring about a concentration of attention to express or induce a feeling of reverence.  This is evidently brought about by the suggestion of the converging lines to the fixation of the high point in the picture—­the small area occupied by the Madonna and Child—­and by the subordination of the free play of other elements.  The contrast between the broad base and the apex gives a feeling of solidity, of repose; and it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the tendency to rest the eyes above the center of the picture directly induces the associated mood of reverence or worship.  Thus the pyramidal form serves two ends; primarily that of giving unity; and secondarily, by the peculiarity of its mass, that of inducing the feeling-tone appropriate to the subject of the picture.

Applying this principle to the so-called ‘active’ pictures, we see that the natural movement of attention between the different ‘actors’ in the picture must be allowed for, while yet unity is secured.  And it is clear that the diagonal type is just fitted for this.  The attention sweeps down from the high side to the low, from which it returns through some backward suggestion of lines or interest in the objects of the high side.  Action and reaction—­movement and return of attention—­is inevitable under the conditions of this type; and this it is which allows the free play—­which, indeed, constitutes and expresses the activity belonging to the subject, just as the fixation of the pyramid constitutes the quietude of the religious picture.  Thus it is that the diagonal composition is particularly suited to portray scenes of grandeur, and to induce a feeling of awe in the spectator, because only here can the eye rove in one large sweep from side to side of the picture, recalled by the mass and interest of the side from which it moves.  The swing of the pendulum is here widest, so to speak, and all the feeling-tones