Faldoni, parts 2768 - 2771

 2768. Using the frame to chop off a major part of a difficult subject of a painting is an old and important trick in the painters trade, and there are many others whose employment, far from hurting a composition, makes the composition more complex and varied. We will need to discuss some of these odd devices and practices.

 2769. But before we talk of those tricks we must answer the question, what answer does the painter give to the question of why the shadow went out the left of the painting on the left, and out the right of the painting on the right? 

 2770. The painter will say, hoping to evoke a laugh from his critics, “Because the obelisk was painted in the morning when the sun was on the left hand side, and the dog was painted in the evening when the sun was on the right hand side, so that was just the way it was.”

2771. Leaves and branches are just like two other things, the bane of the painter’s existence, those things being hair, and the textures and little patterns of cloth.