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ARCADIA

A TAXONOMY OF CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS

CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS

Bridge, repeated arch spans, usually middle distance
Trees, tree stumps, avenue of trees, cedars, palm trees
Repoussoir trees, tilted trees, dead trees
Gypsy encampment, man with a red waistcoat, Cooking pot, a tent/tents, Column of smoke
Castle battlements, Fences with gates (open/closed) stiles,
Ruined building, decrepit chapel, stone steps ascending, Palmer The Lonely Tower
Rude hut, obscured cottage with chimney smoke
Tombs (Poussin), plaques and memorials
Staffage, figures often with back to the viewer, playing stringed instrument or pipes
Solitary figure gazing into space (Friedrich)
Shepherd with sheep, goats
Processional figures, monks, pifferari, carriers of bodies (POUSSIN )
Cascades of water, artifice or natural? Passages of water, river flow, river banks, empty boats on the shore, reeds in the shallows
Distant Lakes (Francis Towne)
Angling, drifting pleasure boats
Trees, tree stumps, avenue of trees, cedars, palm trees
Coastal landscapes with harbours, shipping (Claude)
Plants, argarves,
Walls of dry stones
Haystacks, stooks, signs of Harvest
Rainbow
Birds, in the sky, game birds stalking
The Sun, behind clouds, through trees
The Moon, phases of, crescent Shepherds Full Moon, Palmer

COMPOSITIONAL

Left to right - Right to left -
Symmetry/asymmetry
Forms/objects outside the frame
Spiral composition
Times of the Day
Seasonal (Claude Dance of the Seasons)
Foreground, Middle Distance, Distance
Dark into Light (Francis Towne)

DETERMINANTS OF MOOD

Regretful
Melancholy
Loss
Yearning
Paradisic

 

FACTORS THAT DESTROY OR UNDERLINE THE ARCADIAN

Robust action, violent activity
Human habitation predominates, counterweight to the landscape
Violent weather
Supervening or distracting narratives
Social realistic depictions of agriculture and labour