instance, the spreading dress on one side and the spaniel on the other helping to produce the desired effect. Many of Millet’s peasant figures, like the Milkmaid, the Man with the Hoe, and the Woman Churning, are posed in a way to suggest the pyramidal outline. In all these cases, of course, the apex of the pyramid is the focal point of the picture, the point the painter wishes you to see.
Some beautiful elliptical designs are illustrated in compositions by Botticelli, the Lippi, and Michelangelo. The Delphic Sibyl of the Sistine Chapel ceiling is drawn in this form. Trace the curve described by her scroll and continue it along the edge of her robe to form an arched line on the left side. This meets the complementary curve of her back and makes a complete ellipse. Even more wonderful, perhaps, is the Italian tondo, or circular design, so perfectly consummated in Botticelli’s Incoronata and Raphael’s Chair Madonna. Here the lines flow around in concentric circles, producing a charming effect which has been likened to the clustering petals of a rose. Titian had a way of bisecting his space with a diagonal line, as in the Pesaro Madonna, where the draperies fall in a sort of cascade across the picture. The portrait of Lavinia is designed in the same way, the foundation line being the long curve running diagonally across the canvas from upper left to lower right corner. Van Dyck and Rubens, who were Titian adorers, imitated this method with great success. Van Dyck’s St. Martin dividing his Cloak with a Beggar is constructed in
