and the small bracts below the triangle form a

third rhythm. The highly focused close-up view

and strong photographic contrasts of black and
white accentuate the sense of speeding up.
Alternating Rhythm
Artists can intertwine multiple rhythms until
they become quite complex. The addition and
alternation of rhythms can add unpredictability
and visual excitement. In Palau, an island
group in the western Pacific, a traditional men’s
long house, called the bai, serves as a place for
meeting and ritual (1.9.11). The imagery above
the entry of this bai begins, at the bottom, with
the regular rhythms of horizontal lines of fish,
but the images above become increasingly
irregular as they change to other kinds of shapes.
The edges of the roof display a regular series of
symbolic icons that, together with the building’s
horizontal beams, frame the composition and
give the building’s facade a dynamic feel.
Rhythmic Design Structure
The idea of rhythmic structure helps us
understand how artists divide visual space into
different kinds of sections to achieve different
kinds of effects. In her painting of 1849 Plowing
in the Nivernais: The Dressing of the Vines, the
French artist Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) creates
a horizontal structure that leads our eye in
sequence from one group of shapes to the next
(1.9.12a and 1.9.12b). Bonheur expertly organizes
1.9.11 (above) Bai-ra-Irrai,
originally built c. 1700
and periodically restored,
Airai village, Airai State,
Republic of Palau
1.9.12a (below) Rosa
Bonheur, Plowing in the
Nivernais: The Dressing of the
Vines, 1849. Oil on canvas,
4'43⁄4" × 8'63⁄8". Musée
d’Orsay, Paris, France
1.9.12b (bottom) Rhythmic
structural diagram of 1.9.12a