PROPORTION (n.)
TERM USED AS TRANSLATIONS IN QUOTATION
PROPORTION (fra.)TERM USED IN EARLY TRANSLATIONS
PROPORTION (fra.)FILTERS
LINKED QUOTATIONS
Quotation
{Of lamenesse.} The first absurdity is of proportion naturall, commonly called lamenesse, that is, when any part or member is disproportionable to the whole body, or seemeth through the ignorance of the Painter, to bee wrestled from his naturall place and motion […] : and it is ordinary in countrey houses to see horsemen painted, and the rider a great deale bigger then his horse.
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An easie way to take the naturall, and lively shape of the leafe of any hearbe or tree, which thing passeth the Art of man to imitate with Pen or Pensill.
First take the leafe that you would have, and gently bruise the ribs and veines on the backe side of it, afterwards wet that side with Linseed-oyle, and then presse it hard upon a peece of cleane white paper, and so you shall have the perfect figure of the said leafe, with every veine thereof, so exactly exprest as being lively coloured, it would seeme to bee truly naturall, by this we learne, that Nature being but a little adjuvated or seconded with Art, can worke wonders.
Now for the farther information of such as are desirous of exemplarie instruction, I have set downe in order following the delineation of the proportion of such things as in my judgement seemed most necessarie for young beginners, and those in such easie demonstrations as for the most part they consist of equall squares, and require no more for their right understanding, then diligent observation, I might have filled a whole Booke of such like: but having considered that what I had done, was a sufficient ground for a farther procession, I thought fitting to leave each person to the exercise and practise of his best Invention.
BATE, John, [Mains et pieds], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 116.
BATE, John, [Proportions d'un cheval 1], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 119.
BATE, John, [Proportions d'un cheval 2], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 120.
BATE, John, [Proportions d'une femme], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 114.
BATE, John, [Proportions d'un enfant], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 115.
BATE, John, [Proportions d'un homme], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 113.
BATE, John, [Têtes de cheval], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 118.
BATE, John, [Têtes d'homme et de femme], estampe, dans BATE, John, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art : Conteined in foure severall Tretises, The first of water workes The second of Fyer workes. The third of Drawing, Colouring, Painting, and Engraving. The fourth of divers Experiments as wel serviceable as delightful: partly Collected, and partly of the Authors Peculiar Pratice, and Invention, London, Ralph Mab - Thomas Harper, 1634, p. 117.
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Of Painting,
The principall end and subject of this Art, is to set out things both in proportion of parts, and livelinesse of colour.
For the former, the proportion of parts, I have given sufficient information for the meanest capacitie in the precedent part of this tractat
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The foundation of Proportion consists in severall particular figures, by which I would have you enter your Drawings ; as the Circle, Ovall, Square, Trangle, Cilinder : Each of these have their effects. […].
{How to draw by Copyes.} Begin your Example, by a Copie or Print, of those severall forms of figures ; as the Sun, full-Moon, […].
{Of severall members of the body.} Then, practise by severall members of the body ; in some Print ; as the Eare, Eye, […].
{Head and shoulders.} The next is by a Print, or Copy of a Head and shoulders of a Man or Woman, […]. [...] {The best Prints.} The best Prints, for true proportion ; take Raphael or other old Artizans well graven.
Coltius, (a Hollander of Harlem,) varies his postures, very much ; […].
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Of the Parts of a Piece
{Five Principa parts in a Picture.} In a PICTURE from Nature, there are five Principall parts..
1. Invention or Historicall Argument.
2. Proportion, Symmetry.
3. Colour, with Light or Darknesse.
4. Motion, or Life, and their Action and Passion.
5. Disposition, or œconomicall placing, or disposing, or ordering the work.
The four first, are observed in all sorts of Pieces.
Disposition only in those Pictures, that have many figures ; not to appear mingle-mangle ; but, in all and every part of the Piece, to observe a decent comlinesse, or grace, in a mutuall accord, of all five.
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{2. Proportion.} Of Proportion.
It’s called Symmetry, Analogie, Harmony.
Proportion is of any part ; a Hand fitted to the bigness of a body.
Symmetry is the proportion of each finger to that bigness ; Analogie or Harmonie. All together in one ; a Concinnity of Harmony ; A congruence, or equality of parts and members ; or due connexion, in reference of all parts, one to the other, and all to the whole, which produceth a perfect Nature, or beauty.
{Of true beauty.} Whatsoever is made, after a conceived or Intelligible thing is Fair.
Whatsoever is made, after a thing generated, is not faire.
Beauty, may be perfectly conceived.
{Naturall and conceived.} True beauty in any Creature, is not to be found ; being full of deformed disproportions, far remote from truth ; for sinne is the cause of deformity.
Beauty in truth, is, where Joynts and severally every part with the whole, hath its due proportion and measure ; and therefore hard to describe.
Beauty should consist but of One at the most ; and deformity contrariwise, measured by many : for the eeven Lineaments and due proportion of fair and goodly Persons, seem to be created and framed, by the judgement and sight of one form alone, which cannot be in deformed persons ; as with blub cheeks, bigg eyes, little nose, flat mouth, out chin, and brown skin, as it were moulded from many ill faces ; and yet some one part considered about, to be handsome, but altogether become ugly ; not for any other cause, but that they may be Lineaments of many fair women, and not of One. The Painter, did well, to procure all the fair maides naked, to judge of each severall and single perfection ; and so from the Idea of fancie, to shape a Venus. {By the Idea.}
{His brave and unpattern’d and unparallel’d Piece of Artimesia.} And thus, by often exercise from severall beauties, you shall fixe a conceived Idea is your mind of accomplished Pulchritude grace or comlinesse, according to the true rule of Symmetry. […].
A Beauty may be expressed by a comely body, though not of delicate features ; rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. It is seen at the first sight. Favour more than Colour ; and yet that of decent and gratious motion, more than that of favour.
There is no excellent beauty without some strangeness in the proportion, and both Apelles and Albert Durer, doe but trifles out the time and trouble us ; The One to compose a Personage by Geometricall proportion ; and Apelles by collecting the best parts from severall faces, to make one excellent. Indeed a Painter may make a better personage than ever was seen since the first Creation ; which he does by a kind of felicity, not by Rule, as a Musician doth his French Aires, not by true Method of setting.
[…]. [...] And so have we done with an Example of all in One : For
Invention allures the mind.
Proportion, attracts the Eyes.
Colour ; delights the Fancie.
Lively Motion, stirs up our Soul.
Orderly Disposition, charmes our Senses.
{Conclude a rare Picture.} These produce gracefull Comliness, which makes one fairer then fair ; […].
This Grace is the close of all, effected by a familiar facility in a free and quick spirit of a bold and resolute Artificer ; not to be done by too much double diligence, or over doing ; a careless shew, hath much of Art.
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Chap. XIII, Of Drawing, Limning, and Painting: with the lives of the famous Italian Painters, p. 128
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For your first beginning and entrance in draught, make your hand as ready as you can (without the help of your compasses) in those generall figures of the Circle, ovall, square, triangle, cylinder, &c. for these are the foundation of all other proportions. As for example, your ovall directs you in giving a just proportion to the face. Your Square or Cube for all manner of ground plots, formes of fortification; wherein you have no use of the Circle at all. Your Circle again directs you in all orbicular forms whatsoever, and so forth to the rest.
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Chap. XIII, Of Drawing, Limning, and Painting: with the lives of the famous Italian Painters, p. 128
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Having made your hand fit and ready in generall proportion, learn to give all bodies their true shadows according to their eminence and concavity, and to heighthen or deepen, as your body appeareth nearer or farther from the light ; which is a matter of great judgment, and indeed the soul (as I may say) of a picture.
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Chap. XIII, Of Drawing, Limning, and Painting: with the lives of the famous Italian Painters, p. 129
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{Albert. Durer.} Since, as I said, proportion is the principall and chief thing you are first to learn, I commend unto you that Prince of Painters and Grand-master Albert Durer, who beside that his pieces for proportion and drapery are the best that are, he hath written a very learned book of Symmetry and proportions, which hath been since translated out of high Dutch into Latine.
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IV. Drawing is, that whereby we represent the shape and form of any corporeal substance in rude lines onely.
V. It consists in proportion and passion, as it hath relation to motion and situation, in respect of Light and Vision.
VI. Sanderson saith, This Admirable Art is the Imitation of the surface of Nature in Colour and proportion, 1. By Mathematical demonstration, 2. By Chorographical description, 3. By shapes of Living creatures, 4. And by the forms of Vegetables, in all which it prefers Likeness to the life, conserves it after death, and this altogether by the sense of seeing.
VII. The proportion shews the true lengh, breadth or bigness of any part (in Known measures) in respect of the whole, and how they bear one to another : The passion represents the visual Quality, in respect of love or hatred, sorrow or joy, magnanimity or cowardise, majesty or humility, of all which things we shall speak in order.
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CHAP. X. Of Humane Proportion.
I. The length of an upright body is equal to Eight times the length of the face or head ; The arm hanging straight down, reacheth within a span of the Knee : [...].
II. Those parts of the body near to the Eye must be made greater and longer than those farther off, (because the eye judgeth so of them,) and according to the distance from the eye, so must you vary from that which is otherwise the real true proportion of those parts.
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Such is the Importance and Vertue of Proportion, that nothing can any way satisfie the Eye without the help thereof : So that whatsoever worketh any Pleasure or Delight in us, doth therefore content us ; because the Grace of Proportion consisting in the measure of the Parts, appeareth therein ; Wherefore all the Inventions of Men carry with them so much the more Grace and Beautie, by how much the more Ingeniously they are proportioned, whence Vitruvius saith, That whosoever will proceed in his Works with Judgment, must needs be acquainted with the Nature and Force of Proportion ; which being well and kindly understood, will make him not only an excellent Judge of ancient and late Workmen, but also an Inventor and Performer of Rare and Excellent Matters himself.
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Now the Effects proceeding from Proportion are unspeakable, the Principal whereof, is that Majestie and Beautie which is found in Bodies, called by Vitruvius, EURITHMIA. And hence it is, that when behold a well-proportioned thing, we call it Beautiful, as if we should say, Indued with that exact and comely Grace, whereby all the Perfection of sweet Delights belonging to the Sight, are communicated to the Eye, and so conveyed to the Understanding.
But if we shall enter into a farther Consideration of this Beauty, it will appear most evidently in things appertaining to Civil Discipline ; for it is strange to consider what effects of Piety, Reverence and Religion, are stirred up in mens Minds, by means of this suitable comeliness of apt proportion. A pregnant example whereof we have in the Jupiter carved by Phidias at Elis, which wrought an extraordinary sense of Religion in the People, whereupon the antient and renowned Zeuxis well knowing the excellency and dignity thereof, perswaded Greece in her most flourishing Estate, that the Pictures wherein this Majesty appeared were dedicated to great Princes, and consecrated to the Temples of the Immortal gods, so that they held them in exceeding great estimation ; partly because they were the Works of those famous Masters, who were reputed as gods amongt men ; and partly because they not only represented the Works of God, but also supplyed the defects of Nature : ever making choice of the Flower and Quintessence of Eye-pleasing delights.
Neither yet is this Proportion proper unto painting alone, but extendeth it self even unto all other Arts […] ; because it was the first pattern of all Artificial things : So that there is no Art, but is someway beholding to Proportion : yet notwithstanding the Painter as (Loo Baptista Albertus affirmeth) insomuch as he considereth mans Body more especially, is justly preferred before all other Artizans, which imitate the same, because antiquity meaning to grace Painting above all the rest, Handicrafts men exempting onely Painters out of that number.
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Of the Necessity and Definition of Proportion.
It was not without just Cause, that the antient Græcians (at which time the Art of Painting had fully attained to his Perfection, by the Industry of Timantes, Eusenidas, Aristides, Eupompus, Sicyonias and Pamphilus, the famous Macedonian Painter, and Master of Apelles, who also was the first learned Painter directing his Workes by the Rules of Art, above any of his Predecessors, and well considering that whatsoever was made without measure and proportion, could never carry with it any such congruity as might represent either Beauty or Grace to the judicious beholder) were wont to say, that it was impossible to make any tolerable, much less any Commendable Picture, without the help of Geometry and Arithmetick, wherefore they required the Knowledge thereof, as a thing most necessary, which saying was also approved by Philip Macedo. And surely it is impossible (to omitt the meere Artizans) that he who is ignorant of these two Sciences, should understand the exact measure and proprotion of any probable or true Body, the necessity of which proportions shall be shewed hereafter.
Il ne semble pas qu'un peintre du nom de Sicyonias ait existé. Browne évoque peut-être plus globablement un ou des artistes originaires de la ville de Sicyon.
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Proportion is a correspondency and agreement of the Measure of the parts between themselves and with the whole, in every Work, this correspondency is by Vitruvius called Commodulation, because a Modell is a Measure which being taken at the first measureth both the parts and the whole. […] and without this a Painter (besides that he is not worthy the name of a Painter) is like one which perswadeth himself he swimmeth above Water, when indeed he sinketh, to conclude then it is impossible to make any decent or well proportioned thing, without this Symetrical measure of the parts orderly united.
Wherefore my greatest endeavour shall be, to lay open the worthiness of this part of painting unto all such as are naturally inclined thereunto, by reason of a good temperature joyned with an apt Disposition of the parts thereof, for such men will be much affected therewith, to the end they may the better perceive the force of Nature : who by industry and help of a good conceipt, will easily attain to so deep a reach, that they will be able upon the sudden to discern any Disproportion, as a thing repugnant to their Nature : unto which perfection on the contrary Side they can never attain, whose Judgements are corrupted through the Distemperature of their Organical parts, I speak of such who not knowing the virtue of proportion, affect nothing else, but the vain surface of garish colours, wrought after their own humour, who prove only Dawbers of Images and Walls throughout the whole World ; moving the beholders partly to smile at their Follies, and partly to greive that the Art should be thus disgraced by such absurde Idiot’s : who as they have no judgement herein ; so do they run into divers other most shamefull errors, into which I never heard that any ever fell, who were acquainted with the Beauty of proportion, but have rather prooved men of rare Spirits and found Judgements, […].
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I am of opinion that Francis Mazzalinus would have proved the only rare Man of the World, if he had never Painted any other kind of Pictures (as rude, gross, and melancholly) then these slender ones which he representeth with an admirable dexterity as being naturally inclined thereunto ; so that if he had only represented Apollo, Bacchus, the Nimphes, &c. he had sufficiently warranted this his most acceptable proportion, which was ever slender, and oftentimes to sleight, but when he took upon him to express the Prophets, our Lady and the like in the same ; as appeareth by his Moses at Parma, our Lady at Ancona, and certain Angells not farr from thence, and divers other things quite contrary to the Symetry they ought to have, he gave a president to all other Painters to shunne the like error : which himself might also have easily avoided, being reputed little inferiour to Raphael Urbine, whom he might have proposed to himself as a patterne ; for Raphael ever suited his personages answerable to the variety of the Natures, and Dispositions of the Parties he imitated : so that his Old Folks seem stiff and crooked, his Young Men agile and slender and so forth in the rest, which example admonisheth us, that a Painter ought not to tye himself to any one kind of proportion, in all his Figures ; for besides that he shall lose the true Decorum of the History : He shall commit a great absurdity in the Art by making all his Pictures like Twinns : […]. And for our better understanding of this kind of proportion […] Raph: Urbine hath very well expressed it in St. George fighting with the Dragon, now to be seen in the Churches of St. Victore de Fratri in Milane ; in St. Michaell at Fontainblew in France, and in that George, which he made for the Duke of Urbine on a Peice richly guilt, according to which Observation of his, every Man may dispose of this proportion in the like young Bodies, […].
IL PARMIGIANINO (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola), Fresco, 1531 - 1539, fresque, Parma, Santa Maria della Steccata.
RAFFAELLO (Raffaello Sanzio) , Saint George et le dragon, v. 1506, huile sur bois, 28,5 x 21,5, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1937.1.26.
RAFFAELLO (Raffaello Sanzio) , Saint Georges luttant avec le dragon, 1503 - 1505, huile sur bois, 29 x 25, Paris, Musée du Louvre, INV. 609.
Browne cite ici une Madonne du Parmesan, semble-t-il conservée à Ancône, qui n'a pu être identifiée précisément.
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Whereas in every Work there is some one entire Figure, whereunto all the particulars of the whole History ought to be principally referred, the Painter ought not to imagine, […] that therefore he shall deserve commendation, but rather discredit, for it is most certain that Work will prove offensive, where some inferiour and by matter, is more curiously handled then the principal, and the rather, because the other Parts cannot chuse but loose their Grace. A thing which hath caused divers excellent Painters (as well new) as antient […] to leave their Works imperfect, which they could not remedy any other way, then by utterly defacing that which they had done, were it never so excellent.
A most pregnant example whereof we have in that antient Painter Euphzanor ; who being to draw the Twelve gods in Athens, he began with the Picture of Neptune, which he wrought so exquisitely both for proportion, colour, and all other points ; that purposing afterwards to make Jupiter with far greater perfection, he had so spent his conceit in the First Figure that he was not able afterwards to express any of other gods, much less Jupiter) the like Disgrace happened to Zeuxes by the Naturalness of his Grapes, and the Imperfection of the Boy, not unlike unto which was that of Leon: Vincent of late Dayes, who being to Paint Christ at his last Supper in the middst of his Disciples in the Refectory of St. Maria de Gratia in Milane, and having finished all the other Apostles, he represented the tow James’s with such perfection of Grace and Majesty, that endeavouring afterwards to express Christ, he was not able to perfect and accomplish that sacred Countenance, […]. Whence my Council is ; that for the avoiding of the like Errors, we examine the original thereof, having an especial regard to our proportions ; as the cheif Cause of the grossness, slenderness, clownishness, and daintyness of Bodies : whence all the Beauty and Ill-favourdness of Pictures proceedeth ; wherefore let each Body have his true and particular proportion […].
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Albeit Dame Nature, the cunningest Work-Mistress of all others, doth ordinarily observe so great variety, in all her Workes, that each of her particulars differeth in Beauty and Proportion ; yet notwithstanding, we find by experience, that she is more industrious, In shewing her Art and Skill in some few most Beautifull creatures, whereupon I (insomuch as Art being the counterfeiter of Nature, must ever endeavour to imitate the most absolute things) intending to handle the proportion of a Woman mean not to spend much time in discoursing of the several proportions of all the Sorts of Women which Nature affordeth […].
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{Proportion.} All which representations are after declared in that part of the Definition [ndr : la définition de la peinture p. 24], where it is said, that Painting, with proportionable lines maketh, &c. where we must Note that the Painter in his descriptions, doth not draw lines at randome, without Rule, Proportion, or Art, (as some vainly have imagined) since the Arrantest Bunglers that are, proceed with some little Method, and although Horace in his book de Arte Poetica saith : that
The Poet and the Painter, hath like Patent to invent,
A Story and dispose the same as shall him best content.
Yet that is thus to be understood, that it is lawfull for him to express a Figure, […] ; this only excepted the Painter is bound to proceed in all his Works according to proportion and art. Wherefore before you begin to Stell, delineate or trick out the proportion of a Man, you ought to know his true Quantity and Stature for it were a gross absurdity to make a Man of the length of Eight Faces, which is of Nine or Ten, besides this, we ought to know what proportion the Fore-head hath with the Nose, […], and in a Word to learn the true proportions of all things natural and artificial.
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Of Prospective Proportion.
First, Prospective Proportion differeth much from the former ; for according to the distance of the Eye from the thing, it judgeth of what Proportion it hath. As if one part of the Body comes nearer to the Eye then the other, it is to be represented so much bigger then the other part of the Body which twines away from the Eye […]. And so you are to observe the same Rule in any other part of the Body, that the Proportion must be lessened according to the distance that it is from the Eye ; which notwithstanding cannot be much in a Principal Figure. […]. As also many times many Figures stand far remote from the Eye, and some nearer, which you are to take special notice of, that you express those that are far off at a distance not too big nor plain, as I have mentioned in my foregoing Treatise of Landskips in Limning more particularly.
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Of Foreshortening.
The fourth Excellency in Good Drawing is Foreshortening, which is to take a thing as it appears to our Eye, and not to draw to the full length and proportion of every Part, but to make it shorter, by reason that the full length and bigness is hid from our sight. As if I were to design a Ship standing foreright, there can appear but onely her Fore-part, the rest is hid from our sight, and therefore must not be expressed. […]. Wherefore observe this Rule, that you must always rather imitate the Visible Proportion of things, then the Proper and Natural Proportions before mentioned by Measure ; for the Eye and the Understanding together being directed by the Prospective Art, ought to be the Guide and Measure to judge of Drawing and Painting. Observe therefore that in all Foreshortenings there must be a Proportion observed according to the judgment of the Eye, that what Limbs do appear may agree in Proportion as well as in Foreshortening.
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Drawing consists of several General precepts to be learnt of every one that is desirous to attian to Perfection therein ; the practice of which requires Observation, Discretion, and Judgement ; in which, Proportions, Motions, and Actions are with great care and diligence to be followed : And therefore he that will attain to the perfection of this excellent Practice, it is necessary he should not be ignorant of Mathematical Demonstration in the Rules of Geometry and Perspective ; of which in this Book you shall receive Instructions. Of all other proportions, the Body of man hath the pre-eminence for excellency, from which all other Arts are derived, as many of the learned have concluded ; for Vitruvius noteth, that the Architect hence took the observations of his Buildings, Man being the first pattern of all Artificial things ; and Antiquity hath so graced Painting, (as being the chief Mistress of Proportion) so that all other Artificers are called Handy-crafts or Mechanicks.
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SECT. IV. Of the inclining and Fore-shortned Face.
This is plainly seen by the Lines, how they concord together, and you may with facility draw in their proper places, the Nose, Mouth, and other parts with a little practice, and observing diligently the Example following.
In these Forms you must be very perfect, it being a Rule that in most Faces you may have occasion to make use of : for of all the parts of Mans body the Face is the most difficult. But having got the Proportions with their Measures, you will be able (which way soever a Face turns) to form it out, whatever proportion your Face is, you are to imitate, so must your out-stroke be formed, whether long, round, fat, or lean.
Because presidents are most useful, I have here thought good to give you the forms of several Eyes more at large, by which you may with more ease know the truth of their Proportions.
As also Ears, which are exactly to be known ; and then the forms of several Noses and Mouths ; all which are taken from eminent Masters, as Palma and others. [In the following Page.]
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SECT. IX. Rules of Symmetry or Proportion to be observed in Drawing the whole Body of Man or Woman.
For your further help in Drawing the following Figures, take notice of these necessary Rules : Begin at the Head, and so proceed by degrees, as your pattern directs ; and be careful that your parallel Joynts, Sinews, or Muscles, be directly opposite ; also that the Motion of the Body be answerable one part to another, and that the parts and limbs of the body have a due symmetry ; not a great Arm, and a small Leg ; or a small Hand, and a great Finger, &c. Let not one part be too long for another. Of all which, you must know, that at first you will be apt to commit many errours, but be not disheartned ;
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SECT. X. The Proportion of the Body of Man.
For your further information, and to direct your judgment in drawing of whole Bodies, observe these following Proportions.
A Man standing, from the top of the Head to the bottom of the Feet, is eight times the length of the Head.
The Arm hanging straight down, it reacheth within a span of the Knee.
A Hand must be the length of the Face, the Hand spread abroad must cover the Face, and no more.
Note, that in Drawing a Figure standing, you must first draw that Leg which the Body stands firmest upon ; otherwise your Figure will yield one way or other, as it were falling.
A Mans Arms extended is the just length of the whole Body.
The like proportion is observed for Women, and therefore one example serves for both.
The Proportion of a Child, according to our learned Author Lomantius, consists of five lengths of the Head, according to the Figure express’d in our Discourse, for an example to the Practioner.
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Proportion is of two sorts either Proper, Expressing the exact Proportion of the Thing to be Represented, or else in Perspective, in Respect of the Eye, differing very much from the other, for according to the Distance of the Thing from the Eye is Judgeth what Proportion the Head hath with the Body.
For should a Carver make a Statue according to true Proportion and place it on high, he that below beholds it will judge it Disproportionable, by Reason the upper Parts will come to the Eye in a Sharp Angle, and the lower Parts in a Blunt.
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So great is the Vertue of Proportion, that nothing delighteth the Eye without it, since the Grace of all Beautifull Forms consists in a Proportionable Measure of Parts, and as Vitruvious saith, that none can proceed with Judgment without Acquaintance with the Force thereof, it giving the Majesty and Beauty to Bodys, whence he calleth it Eurithmia.
It hath been of great Force in exciting Mens Minds to Reverence and Devotion, witness the Statue of Jupiter Carv’d by Phidias ; [...].
Proportion is a Correspondency and Agreement of the Measures of the Parts between themselves, and with the whole in every Work
. This Correspondency Vitruvius cals Commodulation, because a Modell is a Measure, which being taken at first, measures both the Parts and the Whole.
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Cap. XII, Rules of Proportion.
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Italiens (les)
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However I will here make him [ndr : au lecteur] an Offer of an Abstract of what I take to be those by which a Painter, or Connoisseur, may safely conduct himself, [...] VI. And Whether the Colours are laid on Thick, or Finely Wrought it must appear to be done by a Light, and Accurate Hand.
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So neither are there two Men, nor two Faces, no, not two Eyes, Foreheads, Noses, or any other Features : Nay farther, there is not two Leaves, tho’ of the same Species, perfectly alike.
A Designer therefore must consider, when he draws after Nature, that his Business is to describe That very Form, as distinguish’d from every other Form in the Universe.
In order to give this Just Representation of Nature […] I say in order to follow Nature exactly, a Man must be well acquainted with Nature, and have a reasonable Knowledge of Geometry, Proportion, (which must be varied according to the Sex, Age, and Quality of the Person) Anatomy, Osteology, and Perspective. I will add to these an Acquaintance with the Works of the best Painters, and Sculptors, Ancient, and Modern : For ‘tis a certain Maxim, No Man sees what things Are, that knows not what they Ought to be.
That this Maxim is true, will appear by an Academy Figure drawn by one ignorant in the Structure, and knitting of the Bones, and Anatomy, compar’d with another who understands these throughly :
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Apelles himself was so ingenuous to own so great a Proficiency therein, as might seem to add Confirmation, while in the Disposition, or Ordinance, he modestly yielded to Amphion ; in the Measures, or Proportions, he subscribed to Aschepiodorus ; and of Protogenes was wont to say, in all Points he was equal to him, if not above him ; but after all, there was yet one Thing wanting in them all, which was instar omnium, or, however, the Beauty and Life of all, which he only ascribed, and was proud in being the sole Master of himself, viz. his Venus by the Greeks, named ΧΑΡΙΣ a certain peculiar Grace, sometimes called the Air of the Picture, resulting from a due Observation and Concurrence of all the essential Points and Rules requisite in a compleat Picture, accompany’d with an unconstrained and unaffected Facility and Freedom of the Pencil, which together produced such a ravishing Harmony, that made their Works seem to be performed by some divine and unspeakable Way of ART ; and which (as Fr. Junius expresseth it) is not a Perfection of ART, proceeding meerly from ART, but rather a Perfection proceeding from a consummate ART.
HENCE it was that Apelles admiring the wonderful Pains and Curiosity in each Point in a Picture of Protogenes’s Painting, yet took Occasion from thence to reprehend him for it as a Fault quod nescivit manum tollere de tabula, implying, that a heavy and painful Diligence and Affectation, are destructive of that Comeliness, Beauty and admired Grace, which only a prompt and prosperous Facility proceeding from a found Judgment of ART, can offord unto us.