this way, and Rubens’s Descent from the Cross is a masterly example of the same idea. These academic methods of older artists have become a standard for later art, though with less geometrical exactness. The aim in every case is to bring one object before the eye as the leading idea of the picture. In describing a picture to one who has not seen it, or in showing a picture to a child, we are unconsciously guided by this law of Principality in picking out the most important feature of the picture at the first glance.
Next to Principality let us note the law of composition most pleasing to the child: Repetition. No one who reads or tells stories to children can fail to observe the gurgle of delight which greets the recurrence of some repeated line. How eagerly the little listener waits for the catch phrase. The oldest storytellers made abundant use of this principle, as we see in the Old Testament literature, and it is the most captivating quality in popular verse and song.
Repetition is the simplest element in decorative design. One of the child’s never-failing amusements is to pick out the repetitive feature in the rugs and wall hangings. The first lessons in designing are based on this principle, and teachers often use the Doge’s Palace in Venice to illustrate the beauty of this device. Repetition occurs in a picture in many forms: in color, mass, or line. We see it illustrated in a very simple way in Landseer’s composition of the Newfoundland Dog where the cloud forms repeat the ripples in the water. A clever example of Repetition is found in the favorite school picture of Prince
