Artist: Degas
Title of Work: The Rehearsal
Year Produced: 1873-78
Medium: Oil on canvas
Source: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas/ballet/
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Title of Work: The Birth of Venus
Year Produced: 1486
Medium: Tempera on Canvas
Source of image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_%28Botticelli%29
Compositional space basically just means the way in which things are arranged in the piece. Even though this is a simple concept, it is a very important one. The top two pieces are good examples of effective composition. The top one easily draws you into the piece through the placement of the sitting man ballerinas in a slant from the bottom left corner toward the middle of the page, with the sitting man effectively blocking your eye from leaving the page due to his size and dark color. The bottom piece’s composition causes your eye to move towards the main focal point, Venus, but arranging the three people around her so they lead in towards her, with the right pictures arms even pointing towards her.