The text explains the importance of using full-sized models for achieving realistic proportions and folds in drawing. It also advises on using slightly aged cloth for draperies to create more natural folds and mentions ancient sculptors' techniques. Additionally, the text discusses the variety found in animal coverings like fur or feathers, highlighting nature's diversity.
METHOD FOR LEARNING
Whether the model is alive, or at least large like the natural form; it is then that the folds will be proportioned, or true, unlike when the model is small and the piece of fabric is proportional, you will never create something that conforms to nature, as it is impossible for the folds to fall appropriately and naturally on a model that is not of the ordinary size of a figure. Because no matter how fine and manageable the fabric is, it supports itself among the parts of a small model; but when it is large, it falls due to its own weight, and this is how the folds are well set. In short, you will never draw well from a small model as from a large one; and after you have made your design from a model as large as nature, you can execute it on a large canvas, without the fear of having made a mistake, or on a cardboard if you want to make tapestries, or paint a fresco.
It should also be noted that the cloth you will use for your draperies should not be entirely new, because it then creates sharp and cut folds, or unpleasant bulges, and it doesn’t adhere so well to the nude: it is believed that the Sculptors of Antiquity even wet their models' fabric, as shown in the works that remain with us today.
On the study of animals,
Most animals are covered with fur or feathers, and it is mainly in their production that nature shows us a wonderful diversity, be it in general, or in the specifics of each animal. How many different feathers on a bird...