Research Catalog

Title

The painter's secret geometry : a study of composition in art / Charles Bouleau ; with a preface by Jacques Villon ; [translated from the French by Jonathan Griffin].

Author

Bouleau, Charles, 1906-1987.

Publication

New York : Harcourt, Brace & World, [1963]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

268 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

This richly illustrated examination of visual arts in the European tradition shows how the great masters employed the 'golden mean' and other geometry patterns to compose their paintings. Discussion covers a variety of ancient and modern works: the Parthenon friezes, Italian mosaics, the Bayeux Tapestry, and Gothic stonemasons' marks of France and Germany as well as paintings by Picasso, Kandinsky, Klee, and Pollock. Includes such well-known works as Raphael's 'The School of Athens, ' Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus, ' Rubens' 'Descent from the Cross, ' and Renoir's 'Le Moulin de la Galette.' Advancing step by step through each painter's vast body of work. Though the book was originally published in the 1960's, it's tenets hold up well.

Uniform Title

Charpentes, la géométrie secrète des peintres. English

Alternative Title

Charpentes, la géométrie secrète des peintres.

Subject

• Composition (Art)
• Painting > Technique
• Painting > History
• composition (artistic arrangement)
• Painting
• Analyse
• Geometrische Konstruktion
• Komposition
• Malerei
• Rezeptionsästhetik

Genre/Form

History.

Note

• Translation of Charpentes, la géométrie secrète des peintres.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliography.

Contents

Monumental art -- The frame -- Geometrical compositions in the Middle Ages -- The musical consonances -- Geometry after the Middle Ages -- Dynamic compositions -- Compositions in space -- Picture framework in the nineteenth century -- Solutions of the problem in contemporary painting.

LCCN

63005657

OCLC

• ocm00475285
• 475285
• SCSB-13650244

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library