 |
| Thomas Jones Buildings in Naples 1782 oil on paper National Museum Cardiff (Wales) |
 |
| Thomas Gainsborough Portrait of Mary Robinson (earliest acknowledged mistress of the Prince Regent) 1781 oil on canvas National Trust, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire |
 |
| Arthur Hughes Ophelia 1852 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
 |
| Francesco Guardi Architectural Capriccio ca. 1770-78 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Henri Fantin-Latour Yellow Roses 1883 oil on canvas Southampton City Art Gallery |
 |
| Edwin Landseer The Monarch of the Glen 1851 oil on canvas Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
 |
| William Powell Frith Prayer 1878 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
"Why is pictorial balance indispensable? It must be remembered that visually as well as physically, balance is that state of distribution in which all action has come to a standstill. Potential energy in the system, says the physicist, has reached the minimum. In a balanced composition all such factors as shape, direction, and location are mutually determined in such a way that no change seems possible, and the whole assumes the character of "necessity" in all its parts. An unbalanced composition looks accidental, transitory, and therefore invalid. Its elements show a tendency to change place or shape in order to reach a state that better accords with the total structure. . . . Of course balance does not require symmetry. Symmetry in which, for example, the two wings of a composition are equal is the most elementary manner of creating equilibrium. More often the artist works with some kind of inequality. . . . It is only seemingly paradoxical to assert that disequilibrium can be expressed only by equilibrium, just as disorder can be shown only by order, or separateness by connection."
– Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception (University of California Press, 1954)
 |
| Anonymous Flemish Artist Wrestlers 17th century oil on panel York City Art Gallery |
 |
| William Etty Bound Model ca. 1828-30 oil on panel York City Art Gallery |
 |
| Hugh Hutton Stannus Head and Shoulders of an Angel (cartoon for decoration of St Paul's Cathedral) 1880 oil and tempera on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| Peter Paul Rubens The Bounty of King James I triumphing over Avarice (sketch for decoration of the Banqueting House ceiling) ca. 1632-33 oil on panel Courtauld Gallery, London |
 |
| Henry Stacy Marks A Select Committee 1891 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| Anonymous French Artist Study of a Sculpture of the Head of Jupiter ca. 1800-1820 oil on canvas National Trust, Hatchlands, Surrey |
 |
| George Dawe The Demoniac ca. 1811 oil on canvas Royal Academy of Arts, London |
 |
| Petrus Christus Man of Sorrows ca. 1450 oil on panel Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, West Midlands |