The Visual Center of Gravity and Composition Balance for Paintings
| Autor: | JENG, JING-YI, 鄭靜宜 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 106 Composition balance is usually an important concern for a painter to arrange and organize pictorial elements on a canvas during artwork creation. The mastery of picture balance is even regarded as one of the differences between masterpieces and lower artistic quality works (Vartanian, Martindale, Podsiadlo, Overbay, & Borkum, 2005). However, whether the visual balance of a painting has a physical base and whether the center of gravity of the picture can be quantified? The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of quantification of the center of gravity for a painting and other quantification indexes related with its form. There were 361 famous paintings analyzed by using image processing software, Imagej to calculate the position of the center of gravity and the proportion of the figure area. The paintings with various theme and painters, including classical religious, El Greco, Holbein, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Cezanne, still life, human figure, Kandinsky, Mondrian, were analysed to explore the distribution of the center of gravity, the proposition of the figure area to the whole of an artwork, and the ratio of width-length of painting frame. The results of analysis showed that the average position of gravity center was (50%, 54%), which located near the center with slightly downwards. The average positions of the X-axis of gravity center of all paintings are very close to the mid-point, and it suggests that those artists had put great effort to reach left-right balance. The position of the gravity center on Y axis is more affected by the theme of the painting, with upward or downward offsetting. For most of the human figure paintings, the center of gravity tends to be at lower place. The centers of gravity of portraits were also slightly downward. The position of gravity center for abstract paintings (Kandinsky and Mondrian) is slightly above mid-point on the Y-axis. For the proposition analysis of the area of images on a painting, the area of figure make up about 30% to 50% of the whole area of a painting, with an average of 39%. The width-length ratio of canvas is also influenced by the theme or the painter's style. The figure areas of classical religious and still life paintings occupy relatively higher proportions on canvas, with nearly 50% of the canvas area, but the portraits being only about 30%. The aspect ratio of width-to-length of a painting is also significantly influenced by the theme and the personal style of the artists. The results demonstrated that the location of the Y-axis of the center of gravity, the figure occupancy proposition, and the aspect ratio of canvas are significantly affected by the theme and the individual style of a painter. Only the maintenance of left-right balance is the general rule for painting composition. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
| Externí odkaz: |
|