Measured Proportions of Limbs

One should walk in such a way as to remain entirely free from error and general rebuke. The firmly established rules themselves sufficiently teach us what we are to express. For when more than one rule is given, all drawn from the unencumbered nature of examples, it follows that at least bodies can be well proportioned in various ways. If a human figure with 7 heads can be as impeccable as one with 8 or 9 heads, indeed sometimes even more might be possible. Who can dispute that by choosing an intermediate proportion, figures with 7 1⁄2, 7 3⁄4, or 8 7⁄8 heads long could not be well made. Even Albert Durer, who seems to have made so much confusion over such, so that everyone nearly follows from so many measure-lessons and proportion-rules, wanted to relieve his readers from this difficulty. He observed, without a doubt, that it is not easy for weary minds to inquire; whether so many rules, so many measurements, and so much time should be spent on the proportioning of images. I would not command, he said, the fixed measurement as intensely as I would learn that through diligence and persistence in tracing nature, a certainty founded in solid reason can be sought; for those who have attained such stability in their eyes and hands will not be demanded a more precise measurement of the images. And truly, when the eyes are prepared by the rules of art, the vision itself becomes a rule; and the hand can

Translation Notes

'Menschbeeld' is translated as 'human figure'. The measure of heads refers to a unit of proportion used in figure drawing, where the height of a head is used as a base unit to determine the height of the entire body.