Poore's plate of Detaille's painting: mounted officers saluting at left, a column of soldiers on foot at right, with a vertical line drawn down the center between the two groups and a fainter horizontal line across it.

Concept · Arranging the Picture

Symmetric Balance

Balance is how a picture's parts are spread so it feels steady. Symmetric balance mirrors one side in the other around a central axis.

Poore drew a center line through Detaille's scene to show two nearly equal groups. Dow called symmetry "the most common and obvious way of satisfying the desire for order."

  • Dow noted it turns up in "cheap and mean design" where beauty of form is ignored.
  • Poore linked strict, equal balance more with decoration than with pictures.

See

Image: Project Gutenberg · Public domain

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