The text discusses the importance of selecting and enhancing the most beautiful aspects of nature while correcting its imperfections to create a well-composed figure. It highlights that beauty is distributed unevenly in nature and effective drawing involves supplementing where nature falls short. The text advises young artists to practice making compositions and softening their technique while also learning from books.
DRAWING
His art requires choosing what is most beautiful and correcting, with his genius, what is found to be weak or defective. In essence, one must repair the faults and capture the most pleasing forms before they escape notice. Bernard du Puy du Grez shares the same sentiment as du Frenoy: "It is not only a matter," he says, "of copying nature which can sometimes be thin and dry, small or large, unimpressive or extravagant. It's necessary to know how to compose a beautiful figure from a body that isn't perfectly beautiful, and if there is anything beautiful, one must know how to choose it, compensating for what is missing.
Indeed," he adds, "all bodies have beauty in some parts and lack in others; rare are nature's perfectly accomplished works. Often it refuses something to one that it grants to another; therefore, several models would be needed to make a figure that is perfect. But, as I have just said, the skill lies in supplementing where nature has neglected."
Before ending this Chapter, we repeat advice already given to young draftsmen, which is that while studying from models, they should occasionally create compositions from various stories, gradually easing their stiffness, and as they read a book, to put into sketches what they have learned from their reading.
Translation Notes:
- "Mesquin" can mean 'unimpressive' or 'meager' but in art context refers to lack of grandeur.
- "Effaçant leurs forces" refers to creating softer and more flexible gestures.