The text discusses the importance of accurately portraying the textures and characteristics of different fabrics in art. By studying how folds and reflections behave on a mannequin, artists can learn to depict draperies realistically. The repetition of this practice with various materials helps artists understand how different fabrics behave under light and shadow.
Principles
It is essential, as previously mentioned, that the form of the folds, their shadows, and their reflections characterize the nature and type of fabric, so that one can judge whether it is linen, wool, silk fabrics, etc. But how can we capture what belongs to each of these different types of draperies, if the forms of folds, lights, shadows, and reflections vanish every moment and never appear in their initial state, especially when the fabrics are light and fragile?
Here is the method used to remedy this issue and to study more conveniently the nature and difference of draperies: it is of great help, especially for beginners. One throws any fabric over a lifeless figure, but of natural size and proportion, which we call a mannequin; there is no painter or draftsman who is not familiar with it. We place this figure in the chosen pose: then we draw the drapery as we see it: it can be imitated at will in the folds, shadows, lights, and reflections, by the comparison one makes. This study must be repeated with different fabrics so as to get used to treating them differently, as the forms of draperies are more sustained in certain fabrics and tear or break more or less in others. It will also be observed that the tops of the folds are more or less pinched, and the reflections more or less clear; it is through all these well-rendered truths that one knows the draperies were drawn from nature.