Human Limbs

Considerations on the Imperfections of Things, which people often want to maintain in their former glory: There is also a copy of a letter in our possession, where a woman complains to her husband who had traveled to India, that the entire beauty of her smooth belly was ruined after her childbirth. It seems that such a foolish woman did not think that one catches such fish in such waters. There are still many paintings and prints showing the navel of the belly more clearly through the upper garments, as if the figures were naked. If those masters could still read, I would ask them why they did not show the rest of the household in the same way? Said that decency teaches one to cover it: It is fine, we might otherwise be blamed; For we have always laughed at the hypocritical clothing of the swans-Hansen, and Hoosen-Latzen, who did not even feel ashamed in Frankfurt at a certain cemetery, next to the two crucified murderers at Golgotha, where they are depicted as if Jerusalem had been situated in Swabia: Indeed a blunt and shameless mistake. But let those aforementioned spirits tell us how the intelligent and careful art of painting can maintain what cannot naturally be seen; And how the greater things, which according to their manner cannot remain hidden, can be covered, as if they were not. Certainly those who wish to be so precise and exhaustive that they even show the muscles and doubtful fibers through the clothes, do not have a reasonable excuse for their artless nakedness to carelessly cover those.

Translation Notes

- "Menschelyke Ledematen" translates to "Human Limbs".

- "swans-Hansen" and "Hoosen-Latzen" likely refer to specific clothing styles or cultural references that might be unfamiliar to modern readers.