Giacomo Balla's oeuvre was characterized by continual development. In the first phase of Futurism, Balla defined a type of dynamism that captured physical motion in the painted image. In parallel he developed colour-light schemes and varied them in a range of patterns. After 1915 Balla explored the potentials of expansive plastic forms that reflected a univerals Futurist theory of energy. In addition, he translated his pictorial approaches into craft applications. Dynamism of a dog on a leash (Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio) is the first Futurist painting in which Balla defined his position as if in a visual manifesto. He has divided the movements of a woman walking her dog into a multiple separeted motion sequences. A horse did not have four but twenty legs, mantained the "Thecnical Manifesto of Futurist Painting", which Balla among others signed in 1910. The device of multiplayng limbs was developed by reference to the chronophotographs of Etienne-Jules Marey, who back in 1882 sequentially reproduced the gait and flight of human beings, animals and birdsusing a special construction known as a photographic gun. Marey's analysis resultedin a graphic sequence of motions, which Balla copied almost exactly in studies maded in 1912.March 4, 2010
Giacomo Balla: dynamism of a dog on a leash
Giacomo Balla's oeuvre was characterized by continual development. In the first phase of Futurism, Balla defined a type of dynamism that captured physical motion in the painted image. In parallel he developed colour-light schemes and varied them in a range of patterns. After 1915 Balla explored the potentials of expansive plastic forms that reflected a univerals Futurist theory of energy. In addition, he translated his pictorial approaches into craft applications. Dynamism of a dog on a leash (Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio) is the first Futurist painting in which Balla defined his position as if in a visual manifesto. He has divided the movements of a woman walking her dog into a multiple separeted motion sequences. A horse did not have four but twenty legs, mantained the "Thecnical Manifesto of Futurist Painting", which Balla among others signed in 1910. The device of multiplayng limbs was developed by reference to the chronophotographs of Etienne-Jules Marey, who back in 1882 sequentially reproduced the gait and flight of human beings, animals and birdsusing a special construction known as a photographic gun. Marey's analysis resultedin a graphic sequence of motions, which Balla copied almost exactly in studies maded in 1912.