y because, besidesbeing done by the same artist, the were done in the same period of time. In both of thepaintings El Greco prefers the triangular and rectangular shapes to any other ones (theonly round forms that he uses are the shapes of the Saints faces), and the triangularforms are dominant over the rectangular ones. In Saint Francis Venerating the Crucifixthe big slab of rock in the background forms a triangle in an upper right corner (from theviewers perspective,) The kneeling position of St. Francis and his cape form a righttriangle, so does the crucifix leaning against the skull. The Christs body on the crucifixforms a number of triangles-first is formed by his legs being bent at the knees, second isformed by his body and a right arm, and yet another one is formed by his body and hisleft arm. The sides of the rock in front of which St. Francis is kneeling form rectangles,and the top of it, which is being used as a table, forms, again, a triangle. Two trianglesare also being formed by St. Franciss hands being crossed on his chest. In St. John theBaptist, on the other hand, the overall shape of St. Johns body is a vertical rectangle,whereas his hands each create a triangle with his body on each side. The top rock to theleft of St. John (viewers perspective) also forms a triangle, and the rock directly below itforms a rectangle. The triangles are also formed by an overall arrangement of the cloudsat the both sides of St. John. The sides of the rock upon which the sheep is laying, to theright of St. John, form rectangles, and so does the top part. The overall shape of the sheepitself forms another two triangles. Both paintings are asymmetrical, that is the forms of the details on the right andthe left sides of each picture do not match each other. However, even though they areasymmetrical, both pictures are perfectly well balanced. The big right triangle that isformed by St. Franciss body that takes up more than half of the format ...
