Pictorial beauty on the screen (1923)

EYE TESTS FOR BEAUTY 41 feel much with ease, while an ugly line or combination is one in which we cannot see or feel much except with great difficulty. The terms "ease" and "difficulty" apply both to eye-work and brain-work. One reason why we see much with ease in a beautiful line is evidently that any one part of the whole is a kind of key to some adjoining or corresponding part. Thus in line A the lower curve is very similar to the upper curve and leads into it with the smoothest continuity. And this same lower curve of A is so similar to the lower curve of B that we can see instantly the balanced relation between them. In ugly lines, on the other hand, there are no such visual helps. Yet, if some kind of balance or repetition is adopted, it may be that lines which are ugly when considered singly take on a kind of beauty or interestingness when considered as a group. Thus lines E, F, and G, are not as pleasing when standing alone as they become when considered in relation to a similar line symmetrically placed. Therefore, the combinations EF or FG, or even EFG are more pleasing than any one of their parts. Now let us apply these principles of continuity and repetition to the lines in a picture. If you turn to Paxton's "Daylight and Lamplight," facing page 39, you will observe instantly the beautifully curving line of the woman's back and also a balancing line down the side of the urn. That sweep of line gives at once the key to the arrangement of the picture.* In other words, you can see much of that picture with ease, * Out of fairness to the painter it must be added that this canvas, as the title indicates, is also a study in the balancing of cool and warm colors.