The Basilica of St Anthony, Padua

	Artist: William Crozier
	Title: The Basilica of St Anthony, Padua
	Year: 1924
	Medium: pencil on paper
	Dimensions:
	Suggested topic: built environment
	Source: RSA
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Description: In 1923 William Crozier won a travelling scholarship and used the money to spend some months in Paris, where he studied Cubism, and then to travel on to Italy. A companion of his on this trip was William Gillies. As well as working in museums and churches the young artists also made many sketches of the towns they visited.In this drawing Crozier focuses on the interaction of hemispheres, cylinders and rectangles, as well as the play of light on the building. As a student in Paris, Crozier would have been taught to see complex structures in these basic geometric forms. On the following page of the sketchbook, are the notes “Old brick building. Dome of lead colour, windows picked out in white. Strong sky. Light from behind church.” Crozier has followed a basic principle of Cubism. He has broken down the shapes of the buildings into cylinders, cubes, and flat planes. Other more complex organic forms such as trees have merely been outlined with a few lyrical marks that contrast with the strong geometric forms in the architecture. The shading shows the buildings in a strong light, the highlights on the cylindrical towers fading gradually into shadow. The sketch is incomplete especially around the edges where some of the rooftops are suggested by line.This leads the viewer's gaze in towards the centre. In Paris Crozier was exposed to Cubist influences that may have included the work of Cezanne. Cezanne's rapid drawings were full of life and energy and often reduced figures or scenes to simple geometric shapes. You could easily make a “still life” version of such a scene by using plastic bottles and cartons, painted white, and arranged at different heights. Use an adjustable lamp to create highlights and shadows on the scene, and make rapid sketches representing the tonal values of the arrangement.