The text discusses the proportional comparison of male and female figures in art, explaining that while the general length is considered equal, women should be depicted as slightly shorter to prevent them from appearing bulky. It notes specific differences in body structure, including broader hips in women and broader shoulders in men. The text also mentions that broad-shouldered women were often seen as fertile by some historical scholars.
The Images of Humanity.
Similarly to how we have divided the male figure into 8 heads, you can see in the adjacent explanatory sketch, the female figure is proportioned in the same manner. From the explanation given beyond the summary here, it's clear what has been said about the man’s figure can also be seen. Only regarding the female figure, it is noted that it stands longer in general size compared to the male. Though the relative proportion compared to the male in length is equal, arranged by each other, a woman must be approximately one eighteenth shorter in body length than a man. The reason is that when the woman has the same height as a man, due to her round plumpness, she will appear much larger and bulkier, carved more like a mass; her body broken more by muscles and fleshy parts that appear to be assembled from various parts. But when making female figures in particular, one has the freedom to make them as long as one likes, and only the mutual agreement of limbs must be taken into account.
If one examines the noticeable differences between male and female bodies concerning thickness, many well-shaped bodies will be found where the male shoulder is about a nose's length wider than that of the female. And the woman's hips are about a nose's width wider than the man's. It was considered a distinctive mark by some wise scholars that women who are masculine and broad-shouldered are very fertile.