Che Hinds ID No.

0089381

Modern & Contemporary Art W. Kellman

25th October, 2018

A Critical Analysis of Giacomo Balla’s ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ (1912)

Figure 1. ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ painting by Giacomo Balla (1912)

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‘Dynamism of A Dog on a Leash’ was an oil painting done on canvas, approximately 89.8 x

109.8cm, created by Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla in 1912. His painting depicts a lady walking

her dog against a stark white background. Before the critical analysis, it is important that the

viewer should understand what Futurism is and how Giacomo Balla is situated in this early 20th

century art movement.

Background Information

Futurism began its journey on the 20th February 1909 when Italian writer Filippo Marinetti

jumpstarted this avant-garde movement with his denunciation of the status quo within art, and

the exalting of urban life and technological advancements of the industrial age. ‘Manifesto of

Futurism’ appeared on the front page of ‘Le Figaro’, the largest newspaper in France, stubbornly

proclaiming by its love of machine, speed, violence, change, energy, movement and dynamism.

This disruption in the continuity of traditional art allowed artists to envision and depict the

wonders of urban life and new technology. Consequently, artists of this ilk sought to represent

the sights of the ever-expanding industrial cities, the noise of urban life and the sweltering heat

of the metropolis.

Futurism was diverse in nature, not pinning itself down to any one medium. Its constituents

worked in many forms, often combining painting, sculpture, typography and photography. Their

main hallmark was their fascination with the phenomenon of chrono-photography. This art-form

was an early precursor of cinematography and it was where objects in motion were

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photographed, producing a sequence of movement. This in particular was of great inspiration to

Futurist artists like Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini who then sought to

translate this quality into their works of art. The result would be a kind of abstract blur of forms

which would present a particular rhythm to the eye of the observer; the illusion of speed

condensed into one frame.

Figure 2. ‘The City Rises’ painting by Umberto Boccioni (1910)

A good example of the Futurist style would be Umberto Boccioni’s ‘The City Rises’ (1910). ‘The

City Rises’ is widely considered to be the first Futurist painting. Within the work, we see that it

illustrates a conflict of some sort with a horse being the centerpiece. In the foreground we see

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distorted figures rendered with fragmented brushstrokes, confronting and trying to subdue the

horse. With the fragmented brushstrokes that are applied to the painting, its execution gives the

content a kind of tense sensation to the eye, almost like a blurred shot of a moving scene. Here

we see one of Futurism’s key characteristics, its eclectic use of the brushwork, inspired by Post-

Impressionism and Cubism which was used to abstract a literal scene into one more metaphorical

in nature. Moreover, the heavy use of red in the painting alludes to the ‘blood, sweat and tears’

that industrial workers of the era exerted in order to reap the fruits of technological advancement.

On another deeper level this can also represent man’s inner struggle with his wilder emotional

side, potentially taming it in order to reach a stage where he is able to re-direct his energies into

more scientific and technologic pursuits. Moving into the middleground we see more of the

same, horses in motion with figures distributed throughout the plane. This gives the viewer

context that the underlying symbol of a wild horse permeates the entire frame as though

signaling to the viewer that this frenzy is observed throughout society. Visuals of wild energy

and dynamic action, traits that would be carried forward with subsequent Futurist paintings.

Finally the background of the image seems to have depictions of tall buildings and factories.

Again, this grants the viewer a better understanding of where this conflict is taking place; the

buildings situate the scene in a modern era. This interpretation would be congruent with the

aesthetic choices of the Futurist philosophy as their purpose was to bring about better

appreciation for the modern age; hence the factories and the billowing smoke stacks which

directly reference the industrial age and its looming influence on the affairs on man in modernity.

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Figure 3. Photograph of Giacomo Balla

Giacomo Balla was born in Turin, Italy in 1871. His first schooling came from the Accademia

Albertina di Belle Arti and the Liceo Artistico in 1891. Shortly afterwards, he studied with Cesar

Lombroso at the University of Turin in 1892. Later in the decade, he eventually moved to Rome

and started to work providing illustrations, caricatures and portraits to his clientele. During this

time, he received recognition for his art because of his gallery shows at the Societa degli Amatori

e Cultori di Belle Arti in Rome. At the turn of the century, Balla found himself instructing other

artists in Divisionist painting techniques. These include eventual Futurists such as Umberto

Boccioni and Gino Severini. Soon after, his fame across Europe rose to a fever pitch as he soon

was exhibiting in Munich, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Venice and Paris from 1903 to 1909.

It was in 1909 that the first version of the ‘Manifesto of Futurism’ was published and it seemed

that Balla took such a liking to its principles that his signature can be found on the second

Futurist painting manifesto of 1910 along with his contemporaries, Boccioni, Severini, Carla

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Carra and Luigi Rossolo. Soon after, in 1913, Balla participated in his first exhibition as an

official Futurist.

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Description

‘Dynamism of A Dog on a Leash’ illustrates a lady walking her dog against a white background.

The forms are all depicted using black silhouettes. In the painting, Balla has cropped the lady’s

body out so that the viewer’s attention will be focused on the locomotion the dog, the leash and

the lady’s feet. Rhythm and movement are the key attractions of this painting with Balla’s use of

overlapping imagery and dabs of paint all working together to give a sensation of motion to the

objects within the painting.

Through the ‘compression’ of time being illustrated by the overlap of masses, there is the illusion

of movement coming from the focal elements of the picture. Both the dog and lady are facing the

left of the frame with diagonal lines seen in the background. Around the three objects in the

painting (the dog, the leash and the woman) there seems to be short, broken dabs of paint.

Looking closely at the dog for example, one can see short strokes of brown and red spread

throughout the overlap of transparencies. In terms of light and shadow, there is no indication of

three-dimensional form, Balla utilises only the silhouettes of the forms. It is only the leash that is

not darkly silhouetted, with it being painted with small strokes of white to distinguish the

highlights on its metal form. In this vain, Balla is intent on movement being the focal point so

much so that he removes all traces of three-dimensional form; erasing values on the forms that

would distract from the overall ‘compressed time’ effect of the dog and the lady.

With regards to the principles of art and design, Balla stays very minimal in his use of forms,

only painting the three forms which are absolutely necessary to the communicate the theme of

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the painting with the lady and the dog being visually connected by the leash, thereby unifying the

masses in this composition.

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Analysis

In ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’, there exists a lady walking her dog. With the dog itself,

there seems to be about ten or so impressions of the dog layered on top of each other in different

transparencies to create the illusion of movement. Funnily enough, with the impressions being so

closely overlapped, the viewer gets the sense that the dog is moving in one spot, a kind of

cartoon-like gesture used in modern shows today like the Looney Toons. The dog’s many feet

are all blurred together. This kind of effect was new to arena of painting as many painters of

previous traditions were more focused on the three- dimensional reality of the form itself, the

values and details, not with the explicit representation of movement.

Giacomo Balla took his inspiration from Etienne-Jules Marey, the man who invented chrono-

photography. With this technology, Marey could achieve successive still shots of a moving

object. This was revolutionary at the time. Such a phenomenon was so important that now many

artists in cinema, especially cartoonists, use this superimposing of images as a visual device

representing quick movement. This overlapping, multiplicative effect also allows artists who

work in still imagery to achieve the illusion of movement, adding a new layer of information to,

what would otherwise be, a static rendition of two-dimensional imagery.

The influence of Marey can be seen here in the ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’, with the

multiple limbs telling a story of sorts, a lady and her dog moving through space. Interestingly,

Balla chose the dog as the focal point of the painting, cropping the woman at the legs, this is also

quite fascinating because in the predominant academic traditions of Europe, figures were almost

always seen as the centerpieces of compositions, so for Balla to instead cut off the figure and

focus directly on the dog is a choice which is quite unorthodox.

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Again, the Daschund’s short stature and shuffling of paws are actually quite comical in a sense,

probably influenced from Balla’s previous work in caricature. The woman in the painting too is

moving awkwardly in place, an indication of movement, mirroring the dog’s own exertions with

her own flurry of motion, maybe she too finds it difficult to move across the frame, also

shuffling in place hurriedly, maybe even on the verge of falling over. Nowadays we can see

parallels between this and modern day cartoons which use effects similar to this in various visual

gags. Even the look and feel of Balla’s painting evokes a kind a sketchy cartoon.

Figure 4. Still frame of Looney Toons Cartoon

Next, there must be special attention paid to the diagonal lines on the background, this can

interpreted as air rushing past the moving masses but it could also function as a visual motif

similar to and pre-dates the fast-forward function on old tapes where when the function is

activated, various thin lines are seen on the screen indicating a speeding up of the images.

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Figure 5. Fast-forward function screen

What also generates a sense of movement is the stark contrast between the white background and

the heavy black masses in the painting. This employment of contrast further enhances the

movement of the objects and the dynamism of the forms.

In conclusion, ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ was crucial painting in the Futurist movement

because of its innovative use of overlapping shapes in communicating speed and movement.

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Reference List

Websites

https://arthistory365.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/futurism-dynamism-of-a-dog-on-

a-leash/

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/giacomo-balla

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-

dynamism-of-a-dog-on-a-leash-1912-giacomo-balla-1781174.html

https://pastelsandpaint.weebly.com/modernism/critical-analysis-of-giacomo-balla-

dynamism-of-a-dog-on-a-leash-1912

https://www.theartstory.org/movement-futurism.htm

https://www.wikiart.org/en/giacomo-balla

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