55

strong horizontal line, squared up the format and finished with a sweeping curved line which may be a record of his checking how the figures related spatially or may suggest that he rejected this plan for the seven figures at this point by striking this out with a final flourish of his pencil. (Fig.15) which also references the Chasseriau, shows the seated figures and the dancing girl in the center. Picasso again crosses out this study with a swirl of lines.

STUDIES AFTER EL GRECO

El Greco's "Holy Trinity," 1577 (42A) contributed in a major way to the change from an horizontal format to the nearly vertical square composition. Picasso noted the pointed forms of the hat on the head of God the Father and the wings of the Holy Ghost, which have similar shapes when compared with the upraised arms in a central nude in his study done as early as March 1907, "Study of Seven Persons, Five Females, A Medical Student and a Sailor" in Sketchbook #3 (48). He lined the movement from the upper left to the bottom feet of Christ. The angel in blue and the dove relate to the upraised arms of Picasso's central nude. The head of Christ suggested the central hooded figure of the sailor, and the line under Christ's right shoulder and around the right pectoral changed angle at the right hip. Picasso drew a line along the beard of God the Father and took it to the top, returning along a light ray. Another line flowed along the left side of Christ and intersected the diagonal of Christ's left leg. Picasso continued this line to parallel the first diagonal line described above. The joining of the angel's right leg and Christ's right leg completed a triangle Picasso used at the base of his composition pointing into the design. The angel on the top right of "Holy Trinity" holding back the garment of God the Father was sketched in by Picasso, and he turned it into a breast formed from the wing of the angel in red. Picasso's squatting figure relates to the white oval shape of God the Father's left arm, and the rest of the lines for the body may be found in the lines and folds of the white robe. The shift from the rounded buttocks of "Composition Study with Seven Figures for Demoiselles d'Avignon" March 1907, (44), to the pointed triangleal Student and a Sailor" March 1907, (48), came from this same robe. The wedge-shaped head on the left developed from the angel in mauve and green. A triangle between the mauve bottom and the left calf of this angel was repeated in the study. The wing of this angel formed the pointed arm in the study. The leg of Picasso's third figure from the left and the

55