The Painter's Secret Geometry: A Study of Composition in Art

author: Charles Bouleau
name: Wayne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2016/08/13
date added: 2016/08/13
shelves: non-fiction
review:
'The Painter's Secret Geometry' by Charles Bouleau is a reprint of a book first published in 1963. I'm glad Dover republished it, because I really enjoyed reading it.

The book is all about the composition of art and how geometry came to claim a big part in how pictures were composed. The books chapters build on concepts like paintings on monuments, how pictures are framed within things like friezes and altar pieces. We move into geometry in the Middle Ages, then learn about the musical consonances that inform paintings. Eventually we see how modern painting tries to move away from geometry and how, even with those attemps, there are examples.

The book is full of paintings showing overlays of the geometrical lines. I've known some of this but to see how completely pervasive it is was just amazing. The planned orderliness of the figures is something you sense, but when you see it laid out, it's grand and a bit breathtaking. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the amount of planning went in to these works of art.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.


via Wayne's bookshelf: read http://ift.tt/2beZwFd