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| Luca Giordano Battle between Lapiths and Centaurs ca. 1685-90 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"The ancients observed in Picture these five principal points. Invention, or Historical argument. Proportion, or Symmetrie. Colour, and therein Light and Shadow, as also Brightnesse and Darknesse. Motion or Life, and therein Action and Passion. Disposition, or an Oeconomical placing and ordering of the whole worke. The foure first were carefully observed in all sorts of Pictures, whether they did consist of one figure, or of many. Disposition alone was observed in Pictures that had many figures: seeing a piece wherein there doe meete many and several figures shall be nothing else but a kind of mingle-mangle or a darksome and dead confusion of disagreeing things, unlesse they receive light and life by a convenient and orderly disposition."
– from the Argument to Book Three of The Painting of the Ancients by Franciscus Junius, first published in English in 1638 – edited by Keith Aldrich, Philipp Fehl and Raina Fehl for University of California Press, 1991
The paintings grouped below are all held in the 17th-century European collections at the Hermitage. Their purpose here is to demonstrate the virtues of Disposition for groups of figures as practiced by painters contemporary with Junius, and to display the practical avoidance of mingle-mangle.
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| Valentin de Boulogne Expulsion of the Money-changers ca. 1620-25 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Pierre Mignard Magnanimity of Alexander the Great 1670 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Nicolas de Largillière Provost and Municipal Magistrates of Paris discussing the celebration dinner at the Hôtel de Ville for Louis XIV upon his recovery from illness in 1687 1689 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| François Perrier Hercules among the Gods of Olympus before 1649 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Bartolomeo Schedoni Diana and Actaeon before 1615 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Georges Lallemand Adoration of the Magi before 1624 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Lucio Massari Mystic marriage of St Catherine before 1633 canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst Musical Party with Violinist 1640 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Giulio Cesare Procaccini Holy Family, St John the Baptist and Angel ca. 1620-25 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Joachim Wtewael Christ with Children 1621 oil on panel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Jacob van Oost Adoration of the Shepherds 1630s oil on panel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Francesco Solimena Allegory of Rule 1690 canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Laurent de La Hyre Mercury takes the infant Bacchus to be raised by Nymphs 1638 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
by Juno's suggestion. She then asked Jupiter, 'Please will you give me
whatever I ask for?' 'Choose!' he replied. 'I'll refuse you nothing.
To back my promise, I call on the power of the River Styx,
the god whom all the other gods fear, to witness my oath!'
Joyful in ruin, with too much power for her good, and destined
to die because of her lover's devotion, Semele said to him,
'Come to my bed as you come to your wife, when Juno embraces
your body in the pact of Venus!' Jupiter wanted
to gag her lips, but the fatal words had already been uttered.
Neither her wish nor his solemn oath could now be retracted.
And so, with a heavy sigh and a heavier heart, he ascended
the heights of the sky. As his face grew dark, the mists closed round him;
he gathered his threatening clouds, the gales with the flashing lightning,
the rumbling thunder and fearful bolts that none can escape.
But he did whatever he could to lessen his violent impact.
The flaming bolt with which he had hurtled the hundred-headed
Typhon to earth was left on the shelf, too deadly to use.
Instead he seized a less heavy weapon ('his everyday missile',
they call it in heaven), forged by the Cyclopes, giant smiths,
to be less fiery and fierce, less charged with the power of his anger.
Armed with this he entered the palace of Cadmus; but Semele's
mortal frame was unable to take the celestial onslaught.
His bridal gift was to set her ablaze. The baby, still
in the foetal stage, was ripped from her womb, and, strange as it seems,
survived to complete his mother's term stitched up in his father's
thigh. At first the child was secretly reared by Semele's
sister Ino. She handed him on to the nymphs of Nysa,
who hid him away in their private cave and fed him on milk.
– from Book 3 of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by David Raeburn