GROUP

From Agepedia

GROUP (Italian groppo or gruppo) ; a term employed, in painting and sculpture, to signify an assemblage of several objects, such as figures of men, beasts, fruits or the like, which have some relation to each other, arranged in such a manner as to present to the eye one connected whole. To group objects, is to arrange them according to their magnitude, direction, apparent motion, &c, so as to form one whole. Rules for the disposition and employment of groups are derived from philosophical principles of art. These rules require a unity of interest, which is by no means inconsistent with variety of expression. Thus, in historical paintings, all the figures have reference to the principal one, to which the attention is chiefly directed. The groups must also be easily embraced by the eye, and agreeable. This depends upon a skilful arrangement of the figures and distribution of the light. The cone, the pyramid, and a bunch of grapes, have been taken as models of a group. Titian regarded the bunch of grapes as a model, because, in its outlines and surfaces, it exhibits a unity connected with the most agreeable variety, and all the necessary differences of light and shade and reflections. In the pyramid we have the model of the relation between a small height and broad surface. Mengs advises to bring the larger masses into the centre, and the smaller to the circumference, which gives lightness and grace to the group; not to arrange the figures in succession, nor to bring out various prominent parts of the figure, for instance, heads, so as to form together straight, horizontal, perpendicular or oblique lines; to avoid geometrical figures, too great regularity and repetition, and to exhibit only the most beautiful portions. He also thinks it advantageous to unite the groups of figures in uneven numbers, and to observe the same rules in collecting the groups into pictures. Of the even mini bers, he says, the most tolerable are those which are made up of two uneven numbers ; for example, 6, 10, 14; but those formed of two even numbers, such as4, 8, 12, can never be introduced with grace. The reason is, that such a disposition serves to avoid uniformity. If monotony of figures in a group is intolerable, a monotony of groups in a picture is as little to be endured; and one pyramidal group at the side of another gives to the whole a stiff and constrained appearance. Moreover, objects apparently separate may often serve to unite two groups, otherwise distinct, which the artist effects by a skilful intermingling of light and shade.