their groupings according to subjects.  All those which represent the Madonna enthroned, with all variations, with or without saints, shepherds or Holy Family, are very quiet in their action; that is, it is not really an action at all which they represent, but an attitude—­the attitude of contemplation.  This is no less true of the pictures I have called ‘Adorations,’ in which, indeed, the contemplative attitude is still more marked.  On the other hand, such pictures as the ‘Descents,’ the ‘Annunciations,’ and very many of the ‘miscellaneous religious,’ allegorical and genre pictures, portray a definite action or event.  Taking together, for instance, in two groups of five each, the first ten classes in the table, we find that they fall to the six types in the following proportion: 

P.     D.P.      Dg.      V.      Sq.      Ov. 
I.    66      13      05      13      03       0
II.    43      07      14      20      12       04

Inasmuch as II. contains also many ‘contemplative’ pictures, while I. contains no ‘active’ ones, the contrast between the proportions of the groups would really be sharper than the figures indicate.  But as it is, we see that the pyramid type is characteristic of the ‘contemplative’ pictures in a much higher degree.  If the closely allied double-pyramid type is taken with it, we have 79 per cent of the ‘contemplative’ to 50 per cent, of the ‘active’ ones.  This view is confirmed by contrasting the ‘Adoration,’ the most complete example of one group, with the genre pictures, the most complete example of the other—­and here we see that in the first all are pyramidal, and in the second only 26 per cent.  A class which might be supposed to suggest the same treatment in composition is that of the portraits—­absolute lack of action being the rule.  And we find, indeed, that no single type is represented within it except the pyramid and double-pyramid, with 86 per cent. of the former.  Thus it is evident that for the type of picture which expresses the highest degree of quietude, contemplation, concentration, the pyramid is the characteristic type of composition.

But is it not also characteristic of the ‘active’ pictures, since, as we see, it has the largest representation in that class too?  Perhaps it might be said that, inasmuch as all pictures are really more ‘quiet’ than they are ‘active,’ so the type par excellence is the pyramidal—­a suggestion which is certainly borne out by the table as a whole.  But setting aside for the moment the pyramid and its sub-variety, we see that the diagonal V-shaped and square types are much more numerous in the roughly outlined ‘active’ class.  Taking, again, the genre class as especially representative, we find 23 per cent. of the diagonal type, and 25 per cent. of the V-shaped.  We have seen how closely allied are these two types, and how gradually one passes over into the other, so that we may for the nonce take them together as making up 47 per cent. of the whole.  The type of picture which expresses the highest degree of activity, which aims to tell a story, has, then, for its characteristic type the V and its varieties.