A Treatise on Painting, by Leonardo da Vinci
1721
Senex and Taylor, London
Chapter Display | |
In designing a Nudity, observe first, to give your Figure its entire Contour; afterwards chusing that part of it which you think best, and giving it a just proportion to the rest, proceed to finish it; for without this Method you will never be able to join the several Members together with the Symetry required: Lastly, to add a still further Grace to your Figure, observe that the Head be never turned the same way with the Stomach; that the Arm and Leg have never the same Direction; that if the Head be turn'd towards the Right Shoulder, it be made to stoop a little on the Left Side; that if the Stomach strut forwards, the Head may be turn'd to the Left Side, and the Parts of the Right Side represented higher than those of the Left.