The preface discusses the usefulness of the book for those learning to draw, emphasizing the benefit of practice alongside theoretical study. It is intended as a resource in places lacking access to skilled instructors. The book is organized into eight chapters, focusing first on human anatomy and including illustrations to aid understanding.
Preface
For beginners to guide them in their studies, rendering this book more useful than all those published on this subject so far. It is well known that there are many things that are better and more easily demonstrated through practice and manual operation than through lengthy speeches. A skilled draftsman, pencil in hand, is more capable of instructing his students and teaching them the elements of his art than the most detailed book with the best reasoning could be. However, we must consider that reading this work, far from excluding the instructions one might receive from a skilled master, will instead help recall these ideas if they slip from memory. Moreover, in many remote places far from large cities, and even in many provincial towns where there is a total lack of available masters, young people eager to learn drawing would find no one able to guide them or indicate the path they should follow in their studies. In such circumstances, having a book to fill in for a master is a great fortune, and there is no doubt that this one would be of great assistance.
After highlighting the usefulness of this work, it remains only to explain the plan that has been proposed, and the order maintained in the instructions provided for beginners. As the Table of Contents, found at the end of the book, is almost sufficient to acquaint the reader with its contents, we shall merely summarize the purpose of each part here.
This work is divided into eight chapters. The first deals with the structure of the human body, providing a general idea of anatomy sufficient to enable a draftsman to understand all movements and the arrangement of muscles, as well as the structure and assembly of what supports the entire body mechanism. It will be easy for him to learn what he is obliged to know about this science, if, while reading the details provided here, he reviews the first six plates, which represent a skeleton and an anatomical figure, viewed from different angles. These engravings are based on original plates outlined by Titian for Vesalius' Book of Anatomy.
The second chapter reports the proportions of the human body according to the main authors who have written on this subject.