Shaping the View: Symmetry and Balance

Lesson Two of the Curriculum Unit: Everything in its right place: An Introduction to Composition in Painting

Introduction

Artists often structure their compositions in particular ways in order to convey a sense of harmony in the picture. How do artists go about communicating stability and equilibrium through the organization of their paintings? Why might an artist choose to structure a painting in a way that conveys an asymetrical impression? In this lesson students will be investigating the use of symmetry and balance in painting, and how it is used by artists to convey information about the contents of the painting.

Students will use the viewing experiences of the activities in the first lesson of this curriculum unit, Shaping the View: Composition Basics as the basis for discussing some additional compositional techniques found in the images in this activity. The activities in this lesson provide a brief overview of a few techniques used by artists to guide their audience through their paintings. Some of these examples overlap with other important elements that students should be aware of when viewing works of art, such as color and line.

Guiding Questions

• What are symmetry and balance, and how do they affect works of art?

Learning Objectives

• Identify symmetry and balance in the composition of a variety of art works, and how these elements work to make the painting successful as a painting
• Explain how the artist's use of symmetry and balance work to guide the viewer's eye to important components of the image
• Discuss ways in which the use of symmetry and balance within a painting affects the tone of the painting, or communicates information or emotional content to the viewer

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

• Review the curriculum unit overview and this lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Note: All diagrams, line drawings, and questions for this lesson are available for students to download directly through the Student LaunchPad. You can access all of the diagrams for this lesson plan directly through the Teacher LaunchPad. You should read through the Student LaunchPad in preparation for teaching this lesson.

Suggested Activities

1. Mirror, Mirror: Symmetry in Painting

2. Balancing Acts

Symmetry is an element that is often used in paintings, although it is not always obvious at first glance. Paintings which exhibit a basic symmetry generally present a well-balanced and harmonious composition. In this activity students will view examples of paintings that will help them to recognize symmetry, even when it is not immediately apparent.

You may wish to begin this activity by discussing the definition of symmetry in the visual arts with students:

• Symmetry refers to the correspondence in size, shape, and relative position of elements within the picture plane. These elements are found on opposite sides of a dividing line or median point, usually, but not always, located at the central axis of the painting.

• Bergognone's The Assumption of the Virgin

The upper portion of this painting exhibits an immediately recognizable symmetry. The placement and number of figures on either side of the Virgin Mary are nearly mirror images-for every angel on the left side of the painting there is another angel on the right side. But does symmetry in art always appear as a mirror image?

Divide the class into small groups. Assign half of the groups to view one of the following paintings, and the other groups to view the other. Both of the following images are available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource The National Gallery of Art:

• Thomas Hart Benton's Trail Riders
• Hendrick Avercamp's Scene with a Tower to the Left

Ask students to identify similar objects or figures within the composition of this work. How do these objects relate to one another within the composition? Are they on opposite sides of the painting? On the same side? Once they have had a chance to examine the painting, ask students to work together to answer the following question:

• Does the painting exhibit elements of symmetry? Explain your answer.

Students assigned to the Benton image should recognize that while this image does not present as strictly an ordered mirrored composition as that found in the Bergognone image, students should not have difficulty in identifying the symmetry represented by the two mountains which appear on either side of the central peak. While there are differences in the foreground of the image- such as the shape of the lake and the placement of the two riders- students should also be able to find a rough symmetry in the two green slopes and two stands of trees. Students should remember that the correspondence between objects, figures, and landscape elements does not need to be exact.

For the students assigned to the Avercamp painting, they will see that unlike the Bergognone image—or even the Benton image—students may not find the symmetrical elements of this watercolor's composition immediately obvious. Many of the symmetrical elements found in this image are distanced from each other by the use of techniques such as atmospheric perspective (objects in the distance are painted in lighter shades with less clear details), giving the impression that some features of the landscape or figures are located far away from the viewer. Despite the placement of objects and figures at different positions within the imagined distance from the viewer, it is still possible to find symmetrical elements within Avercamp's painting.

As students view this image you may wish to direct their attention first to the two towers in the image-not only the one on the left, which is referenced in the title, but also the second tower, placed in the distance, on the right hand side of the picture plane. The two structures resemble each other in their shape and architectural style, and while the second tower is located at a distance within the field of the image, that resemblance creates a kind of symmetry within the frame of the picture. Students may also note the two row boats in the image, the first tied to the shore in the foreground, and the second being rowed with two passengers in the middle ground. Again, one appears close to the viewer, and one at a distance, but students will recognize that the objects are of one kind, and that they are even placed facing each other, making them resemble mirrored images.

Students may look at the ship that is moored in the waters before the distant tower and attempt to find something in the foreground which can be paired with it. They may note the appearance of a second ship in the further distance; however, astute observers may also note the resemblance between the ship's masts and the cross planted at the top of the rise in the foreground. They might also note the similarity between the shape of the ship's hull and the shape of the rise itself. Finally, they might note the greater correspondence between the ship on the right and the tower with the rise and tower on the left than between the more distant ship and any other geographic elements.

Once each group has had a chance to examine either the Benton or the Avercamp have the class gather together again where each group will present and discuss their findings.

After completing the previous activity students might wonder why artists would include symmetrical elements in the composition of their art works. One of the most important reasons is found in the pursuit of balance or equilibrium.

Students may recall learning about triangular compositions in an earlier lesson from this curriculum unit, Everything in its right place: An Introduction to Composition in Painting, Shaping the View. In that lesson students learned that a triangle is often chosen as the overall shape of a painting's composition because it lends a sense of stability and balance. Compositions that are well balanced are often visually harmonious and pleasing to the eye. Students should remember that the visual arts played a very important role in society- particularly before the invention of the camera- and presenting a pleasing representation of a scene or person was often a significant goal of the artist and the work of art.

Other important components that work together to create a sense of balance in a work of art include color (such as keeping all of the tones and saturation of a painting's color within a certain range) and proportion (keeping the relative size of objects and figures within the range of what we normally see). In the following activity students will be concentrating on balance within the composition of a painting.

Begin by having students return to or look again at the following image from Lesson 1, available from The National Gallery of Art:

• Cima de Conegliano's Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist

• Do you see an overall shape within the composition? Explain what shape you see and where important figures, objects, or elements within the composition make up and where they fall within that guiding shape. Why do you think the artist has placed the important components of the composition where he has placed them?
• What elements of symmetry can you find in this image? Explain your answer.

Students will recall Bergognone's image of The Assumption of the Virgin. Students viewed this painting in the first activity. This painting provides an example of symmetrical balance, in which the weight on the right and the left sides of the painting are equal and the focal point of the painting sits exactly at the center. Next, they should think of the Benton image they viewed in the course of that activity. In this case, the Benton provides an example of approximate symmetrical balance, in which the weight of the left and right sides are roughly equal to each other, and the focal point is at the center of the image.

Have students return to the following image, which they have already seen the previous activity.

• Hendrick Avercamp's Scene with a Tower to the Left

Ask students to work together to explain why they aren't equally "weighted."

Students should be able to identify a number of factors in their assessments. Some of the most important of these factors include:

• the unequal size of the two towers;
• the difference in clarity (the tower on the right is rendered less clearly in order to convey the sense that it is located in the distance);
• the level of detail that is included in the rendering of each tower.

Assessment

• Caravaggio's The Musicians
• William Blake's Job and his Daughters
• J.M.W. Turner's Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute
• Claude Monet The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil

• Edgar Degas' The Ballet Master
• Edgar Degas' Ballet Scene

Extending the Lesson

Return to curriculum unit overview-Everything in its right place: An Introduction to Composition in Painting

Previous Lesson

Next lesson

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  [http://www.metmuseum.org]
  • Bergognone's The Assumption of the Virgin
    [http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?
    dep=11&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=1&item=27%2E39%2E1]
  • Caravaggio's The Musicians
    [http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?
    dep=11&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=0&item=52%2E81]
  • J.M.W. Turner's Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute
    [http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?
    dep=11&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=0&item=99%2E31]
• The National Gallery of Art
  [http://www.nga.gov]
  • Thomas Hart Benton's Trail Riders
    [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?55107+0+0]
  • Hendrick Avercamp's Scene with a Tower to the Left
    [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?57388+0+0]
  • Cima de Conegliano's Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist
    [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?43+0+0]
  • William Blake's Job and his Daughters
    [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?30237+0+0]
  • Edgar Degas' The Ballet Master
    [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?48768+0+0]
  • Edgar Degas' Ballet Scene
    [http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?46208+0+0]
• The Art Institute of Chicago
  [http://www.artic.edu/aic/]