The Comparative Analysis of The Burning of the House of Parliament and The Study of a Horse

The differences between The Burning of the Houses of Parliament and the Study of a Horse is that the Burning of the Houses presents itself in a more two-dimensional form and the Horse is in a three-dimensional form. The Horse drawing contains a better distinction between the focal point and the foreground where as in the Burning painting; it is more difficult to see just one focal point because it has equal detail and attention on all the components in the painting.

In relation to size the Horse seems most realistically proportionate and accurately defines the correct scale of size; while the House painting depicts an overall view of the scene by distance but not accurate proportion. It is easier to recognize the experience of movement in the House’s painting because of the use of diagonal lines around the corners of the work. The burning fire is smoking up towards the right and then connects to the diagonal edge of the bridge which comes forward to show another diagonal of people in dark contrast.

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Perhaps the purpose of the House is to create emotion and tension among the forms in the painting; while the drawing is good to show detail of living forms.

In The Burning of the Houses of Parliment painting by J.M.W. Turner he uses different tones of vivid color to capture the attention of the viewer and create drama between the figures of the work. His use of complimentary harmonies on the color scheme provides a huge contrast between the orange fire and the deep blue sky next to it.

He uses the correct values of the scene to offset the attention on just one focal point. The lightness of the fire and the brightness of the bridge create balance in the portrait connecting the elements together as one in unity. Since this painting is asymmetrical this balance is created by the different techniques of skills to achieve visual weight balance with lightness and heaviness. The fire, bridge, and people are the apparent heavy forms circulating around the lightest form; the water. To show the heaviness of the fire and bridge; size is of importance. Likely, to show the heaviness of the people he used darkness to create weight. He uses reflection by mirroring the similar colors orange and green in the water to also connect the painting together and provide fluid movement. The movement of the people in the scene isn’t obviously noticeable but the diagonal line representation of the bridge and the vertical alignment of the people toward the front suggest there is movement coming away from the fire. The people in the far distance are signified by his use of pointillism which he uses to show the distance of the people traveling to come forward. As the people come closer to the front they become larger and start to resemble a more human like form.

The principles of visual elements and design for the Study of a Horse by Leonardo Da Vinci are as follows. This is achieved in a different manner particularly because this is a drawing instead of painting so line, shape, texture, form, and value play a big role in the visual elements. “With chiaroscuro, artists employ values to record contrasts of light and shadow in the natural world that model mass for our eyes”(Getlein pg. 88). In this drawing the shadow on the underside of the horse and around his shoulders suggest the heaviness that the horse possesses. There are also visual texture elements on the horse that cue the eyes to perceive a conceptual feeling of touch that mimic the real folds of skin around the shoulders. The design is also of importance because capturing the natural proportions of the object makes the figure appear organic and realistic to living forms. The visual weight and composition of the horse are in balance making the scale seem an appropriate size. The artist used emphasis on the horse by capturing our attention to it by using the value of dark lines against a white background. It creates focus on the horse also because it is of relative size compared to the background and is in the center of the drawing.