The text elaborates on the natural differences in human body proportions, affecting individuals' abilities to perform different actions. It discusses how specific physical attributes, like broad shoulders or long fingers, can influence skill in tasks such as weight-bearing or playing instruments. The text advises that children start practicing early to develop necessary physical flexibility and strength for arts like wrestling or tumbling.
Proper Proportions of the Body
This section discusses the natural distribution of proportions in the human body, highlighting variety and diversity. It explains how slight differences in proportion can lead one person to perform certain actions better than another, even with the same training. For example, a broad-shouldered person with strong hips and thighs can bear weight more easily than a person with a narrow and frail posture. Similarly, a wide, strong hand has more grip than a narrow, thin one. Long fingers are more adept at playing stringed instruments and writing than short, stubby fingers. A person with swift legs will run faster than someone with water-retaining or swollen legs. The text also mentions how wrestlers and acrobats require great physical adaptability, often observing many deficiencies in their bodies when it comes to jumping and tumbling. Consequently, they prefer children to start training their art to separate them from others from a young age by stretching and bending their backbones and joints in the arms and legs through lubrication. If a painter bases all his figures on one template, he risks depicting them with too few or too many movements.
Translation Notes:
- "Maatredige Ledenstemming" is translated as "Proper Proportions of the Body," highlighting balance and measurement.