The relationship between composition and posture in figurative paintings

In this study, which aims to analyze the reflections of the space and posture of the figures visualized by the artist in figurative paintings, the document analysis pattern of the qualitative research method was preferred. Within the scope of the study frame, examples of the figurative artwork samples are used from the sources such as private and public museums and galleries, and published sources as books, catalogues, brochures etc. are interpreted by depicting them with appropriate concepts and terms; in the context of composition, which are the essential elements in a figurative picture, and the relationship of the form, position, and location of the figures with the composition. Accordingly, the selected figurative paintings from different periods were analyzed by using Terry Barett's Formal Analysis and Edmund Burke Feldmann's Process-Based Art Criticism methods. In these figurative paintings, which are the subject of analysis, the context between the posture of the figures and the composition has been tried to be expressed by investigating the structure of the composition performed by the artist in the artworks, with the help of guidelines through the image and by the use of the basic art principles such as movement, emphasis, balance, unity/variety, and harmony. The analysis of the data obtained within the scope of the study revealed that the artists who make figurative paintings compose the figures they use in their paintings according to a compositional scheme that they have determined in accordance with their own artistic understanding.