Reconstruction:La Vie (Picasso)

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Two couples are <opposed>⁠DEF as verticalities: the naked adult couple on the left, and the mother and child on the right. The <opposition> is marked by <convexities>⁠DEF that follow the contour of figures painted in <light>⁠DEF colors: the naked bodies (the couple on the left and the paintings in the middle) and the <convex> <unity>⁠DEF of the mother cradling the child in contrast to the mother’s non-<light> clothing.

<Convexities>

Horizontal <conjunctions>⁠DEF are defined by horizontal bands supported by the canvases in the background: (1) the woman on the left and the child (cf. green highlight below), and (2) the man and the woman on the right (cf. red highlight below), whose <conjunction> is enforced by the perfect alignment of their heads:

<Conjunctions>

Then the sight-line of the woman on the left, linking to the man’s left wrist and going up along the hand at an angle, forms a <trajectory>⁠DEF that <crosses>⁠DEF the vertical and horizontal lines of <opposition> and <conjunction>, and emphasizes, as a tangent, <unity>.

<Trajectory> tangent to <unity>

Correlated painting: Des pauvres au bord de la mer

This painting uses a form of <trajectory> in the diagonal running along the woman’s forearm down the child’s right hand, the falling edge of his upper garment, and the man’s leg at an angle. The <trajectory> groups all three figures by <crossing> their vertical <opposition> and the horizontal <conjunction> (underlined by the man’s crossed arms) between the woman and the man. The <trajectory> projects into the parallel vector made by the faces of the man and the child as they both nod the same way, forming a <light> <unity> that contrasts the non-<light> clothing.