Symmetry in Narrative
Piero di Cosimo’s Misfortunes of Silenus (c 1505/10)
Depictions in narrative order:
- The drunken Silenus falling off his horse (center)
- Unsuccessfully helping Silenus to his feet by his band of satyrs (half man, half horse) and lustful women (right)
- Boys rubbing mud on his forehead (left)
The same narrative relationship can be seen in Perseus Rescuing Andromeda (1513).
The spark of the story, not the climax, is depicted in dramatic fashion as the centerpiece of the visual narrative. Although analogies to time-based media like film are dubious because the viewer is shackled to the movie’s flow of time, a similar structure could be Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (2007). The climatic centerpiece (the explosion of Michael Clayton’s car) is also the first thing you see in the film and an event you come back to later as the film resets to a point before it.
