More gesture funs (Delsarte prt 2)

Time for round two!  You lucky kids.

So the last blog post had the body split up the Delsarte way.  Head, heart, & body  (or, as a commenter before had mentioned, mental, moral, & vital.)  Head, torso, limbs--each with three more splits of the same.  And, in those  sections, there are even more divisions!

The eyes, for example, are split: head in pupil, iris is heart, and white is body.

 (There are also divisions for the nose, mouth, around the eyes, etc...it's a crash course so we can't get in to all of that.  But you can always read the google book.)

Hands (the head part of the body section) also have three parts:  palm = body, back = heart, side = head.

 So, it makes sense why holding the back of your hand to your forehead = romantic faint (heart to head) vs. palm of hand to head (more logical--do you have a fever?)

The power & movement behind the head/heart/body divisions also had those three parts.  The more powerful and convex  is body, the least powerful, more head = concave, and the happy middle is the heart.

 Delsarte took all these movements & pieces and created exercises and gestures that symbolized the characters' emotions & desires.

Here's a (rough) Delsarte gesture lineup:
 

1)  Romeo, with a convex gesture, legs splayed, left hand in body area, comes off as mostly passionate and sensual.  It's softened by his hat & feather, giving interest in the heart & head zone, as well as his right hand (giving him a more soliloquy feel.)

 2)  2 is strongly romantic, with both hands in the heart zone, and the hair ending in the heart zone as well.  Her arms are bent in more of a head way (Arms out = body, arms square = heart, and arms acute = head) which tempers the romantic with concave shyness (concave, head).

3)   This guy is a mix of all three parts.  His legs are in a head position, left hand in the head zone, but with one hand in the heart zone and both arms in heart gesture.  The belt or whatever that is adds contrast in the body zone, giving him a bit of a physical/sensuality

4) GOLLUM

 ^^ These examples are really terrible.  You're welcome.


 Ok so below we have our good friend the 1925 phantom, and then a Charlie Chaplin film.

 The tone of these two pictures are strikingly different.  Beyond the phantom trying to get Christine to Do It His Way & Charlie is giving the girl something, you can figure out why the emotions are so different using Delsarte.

 The logic part of the Phantom, with dark rings around his eyes, makes him look eccentric.  His gesture is splayed, which is very physical and forceful, and his hands are in the heart zone (almost in the head zone) making him look forceful, in love & complete fruit loops.  Staging and values help that out, where he's a dark figure towering over poor will-less, frightened (eyes and splayed fingers) & very romantic-feeling (both hands in heart zone) Christine.

Both of these characters are on equal standing--heart and head.  Both of them are in concave, less willful gestures.  Charlie has one hand in head, one hand in heart.  The girl's cupped hand = less force, hand in heart zone, a concave gesture of kneeling (a 90 degree heart gesture, leaning towards head).  Her left hand is in the body zone, but with the back out.  So the picture has a very romantically sweet feel to it.

Next time:  Colors and applications!