Art Chowder January | February 2017, Issue 7 | Page 46

THE BALANCE OF PAINTERS OF ROGER DE PILES | Melville Holmes
GUERCINO (1591-1666) Lot and His Daughters , 1651, Louvre
Excellence in pictorial composition
does not come about when the parts
of a painting are like so many independent fragments, competing for the
viewer’s attention, but when the individual components are subordinated to
one another for the sake of the Whole
Together. Then there is a harmonious
whole, which de Piles likens to that of a
music concert, where each part is heard
distinctly but “agree together in a harmony which unites them…This is what
painting does, by the subordination of
objects, groups, colours, and lights, in
the general, of a picture.”

A paragon of clarity, this
composition represents an
episode in the flight of the
biblical family of Lot from the
destruction of Sodom. His two
daughters, fearing there was
no man left on earth and that
they would end up without
offspring, conspired to make
their father drunk to sleep with
him in turn on two consecutive nights, so as to preserve
their family. They became the
mothers of Ammon and Moab.
Sodom aflame is seen in the
distance and Lot’s wife, who
had been turned into a pillar
of salt when she looked back
at the city, can be identified in
the middle background.

The highest score for COMPOSITION
was attained by Guercino and Rubens,
two of only five painters to receive
18 points in any category. One of the
great Venetian masters, Jacopo Bassano, got only 6 for COMPOSITION, but
17 for color. Although de Piles never
mentioned specific pictures for his Balance, he had seen so many paintings
over the course of his long life that he
was weighing the broad scope of each
painter’s work. If we apply his stated
criteria to a few of the paintings illustrated here, which he may have seen, it
could yield a reasonable model for objective comparison of traditional art. It
may account for why Raphael received
a score of 17 in composition, Girolamo
Muziano a 6, and Sebatiano del Piombo
an 8.
Finally, we come to a thoughtful pause
in this first installment concerning The
Balance of Painters, with de Piles’ caveat on the critical evaluation of art.

For the rest: I am not so fond of my
own sentiments as to not think they
will be severely criticized: But I must
give notice, that in order to criticize
judiciously, one must have a perfect
knowledge of all the parts of a piece
of painting, and of the reasons which
make the whole good; for many
judge of a picture only by the parts
they like, and make no account of
those other parts which either they
do not understand or do not relish.

46 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE

GUERCINO

Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, 1640-41
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
The artist uses great economy of means to identify the incident from the Gospel of John when Jesus
engaged the Samaritan woman at the well. The jug and the rope that she holds, attached to a hook
lying at