Classic Landscape: Compare and Contrast

Classic Landscape was painted in 1932 by Charles Sheeler. It was painted on a canvas with oil. The First thing to catch my eye in this painting was how defined and straight the lines are. There are lines everywhere in this painting. I really like this painting because it’s abstract but not in a way most people would define abstract as. Metaphysical Interior with Bisquits was painted by Giorgio De Chirico in 1916. It was also painted with oil onto a canvas. These two paintings are very similar to each other but also contrast in elements as well.
As I said before, there are lines everywhere in Classic Landscape. Sheeler uses lines to make shape in the painting, and even as detail in the mounds on the left side of the painting. One line that really caught my eye was the diagonal of the railroad track. It makes our eyes follow and go deeper into the industrial part of the painting. In Metaphysical Interior with Bisquits, lines also play a very important role in the painting. The diagonal lines on the ceiling draw our eyes to objects that we would usually see as not important. There are also lines everywhere in this painting.Many of these lines are used as detail throughout the painting as well as a way to make shapes. Most of the lines in both of these paintings are straight and very bold. They are very defined by being black in color.
Sheeler does a great job of using shape in Classic Landscape. He mostly uses angular, geometric shapes. For example, the mounds of what I’m guessing to be either dirt or coal are in pyramid shapes, and the silos in the middle of the painting are a cylinder shape. Another shape Sheeler creates is rectangles. Most of them are buildings in the painting. Chirico uses both geometric and organic shapes throughout his painting. For example, he uses circles as bisquits and many rectangles for geometric shapes. There are also many shapes in this painting that are organic and not as defined as the geometric shapes are. Organic shapes in