The text discusses the importance of understanding precise proportion in creating harmonious human figures in art. It explains how two artists, Telekles and Theodorus, managed to create a unified statue despite working separately, emphasizing the need for a precise grasp of proportion. The text advises focusing on essential exercises to understand proportions without overcomplicating the process.
Proportional Composition
There have been various examples that clearly show they understood it thoroughly. Telekles and Theodorus, each crafted half of the statue of Apollo Pythius, one was on the Island of Samos, and the other was at Ephesus. Yet, these pieces fit together so well that it would seem as if the statue had come from the hand of one master. This would not have been possible without their precise understanding of proportion. In terms of the general proportion of a beautiful human figure, it can be presented concisely and with little complication. It is not entirely necessary to gather as much labor, models, and commentary as some have done, who, even with all their varied examples, have done more than half too much, yet still not enough. For when one ventures into the study of human proportion, more than a few general only rules taken from the common correctness of humanity are necessary, as they find themselves compelled to a potentially infinite number of examples. Doing so causes too much strain and too little progress. One should chiefly bear in mind in this exercise that the precise rule of proportion can only be fittingly examined in a statue set in a simple, single, upright position, devoid of action. In such an image, as soon as it attempts to perform even the slightest movement or action, the bending and twisting of limbs and joints, not only in their size but also in the positioning of the muscles, according to ...