128 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Objects in 

 Landscape 

 Composition 

 According to 

 their Design 

 Value 



any chosen object almost to the exclusion of objects nearer and farther 

 away. It is impossible for the eye to see clearly at the same instant 

 objects which are at widely different distances. If, therefore, the at- 

 tention is called to an object, the eye focuses upon it, and objects at 

 other distances are consequently thrown out of focus and make less 

 appeal to attention. This fact makes it possible in landscape com- 

 position to use as a dominant object something subtending a very small 

 proportion of the visual angle. For instance, a very distant mountain 

 of marked form but not notable size may serve in a landscape view as a 

 perfectly satisfactory climax, but in no ordinary photograph of that 

 view will it appear other than insignificant. 



It is to be noticed that while the painter has a definite and dis- 

 tinct frame surrounding his picture, in a landscape composition it is 

 more or less a matter of arbitrary definition whether a certain object 

 shall be considered as a portion of the frame or as a subordinate mass 

 in the composition (see Drawing II, opp. p. 30) ; and furthermore, as 

 we have seen, an object which helps to enframe one composition may 

 play a dominant part in another. 



Whether a landscape composition be formal or not formal, the de- 

 signer will be concerned with arranging it so that the attention may 

 be held at one point or led from point to point in an ordered manner. 

 He will introduce and arrange objects in his composition on account of 

 the specific functions which they can serve in this way. Some objects, 

 for instance, serve best to segregate one open area from another, like 

 simple informal planting masses or formal walls and fences (see Plate 

 33 and Drawing XIV, opp. p. 112) ; some objects serve to decorate the 

 surface of the ground, like fields of grain or fallen leaves or formal 

 carpet-bedding and paths and pools (see Plates 29 and 30) ; some objects 

 serve to call attention directly to themselves and thus play a dominant 

 part in the whole design, or, according to their scale, in some subordinate 

 part of it. (See again Plates 29 and 30, and also Drawing XX, opp. p. 

 158.) Such an object might be a mountain, a great oak tree, a flowering 

 shrub, or a house, a pavilion, a hooded seat, or a sundial. While the 

 essential esthetic functions of well-composed objects are definite in 

 any scene, whether it be formal or informal, still they are more easily 

 understood and explained when they manifest themselves in formal 



