Proportions of the Human Body - Carl Schmidt's Method

From The Proportions of the Human Figure, According to a New Canon, for Practical Use ... By William Wetmore Story, American Sculptor. A printed copy is available at Amazon.com: The Proportions Of The Human Figure: According To A New Canon, For Practical Use (1864)

"Other methods of proportion have been suggested, and argued with elaboration and ingenuity, which differ essentially from these arbitrary schemes of measurement, and are scientific and geometric in character. Among these may be mentioned the systems of Carl Schmidt, C. G. Carus, A. Zeising (another reference to Zeising in Proportion: science, philosophy, architecture By Richard Padovan), D. E. Hay, and John Gibson."

"Mr. Schmidt proposes a scheme founded upon the skeleton. He draws a line, a b, from the bottom of the spine (os cocygis) to the top of the spine, where it joins the skull. This he divides into four parts, the first of which establishes the navel, (#) the second, the top of the ribs; the third, the middle point of the sternum (z); the fourth, the end of neck where it joins the skull (a).
Upon this line a b he constructs his proportions in this wise ;—through the third point {z) he draws a horizontal line (c d) equal to | a b, intersected by a b into two equal parts (c d), showing the os humerus. At the base of the line a b he draws another horizontal line (e f) — \ a b, and divided thereby into two equal parts, and showing the thigh heads. He then draws diagonal lines from the opposite points of c d and e f, so as to cross each other
From c and d above he draws two lines diagonally crossing at a, the fourth division of a b, extending it beyond that half its length, and of this surplus making a diamond or square, set edgeways on the top of a, and this is the head of the figure.
He then draws a line (z g) parallel to a c; and from the point g, representing the nipple, draws one line to e (the right hip) and one to / (the left hip). This first line is the length from the hip to the knee, and the second the length from the knee to the ankle.
From c he then draws a line to h (the left nipple), and this is the length of the upper arm to the elbow ; from g to x (i. e., from the nipple to the navel) he again draws a line, and this is the measure of the fore-arm to the wrist, and x e=hand.
The accompanying diagram will give a clearer notion of this system than any explanation."



This was the method used by Joseph Meyer's in his encyclopedia Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.

Prof. Dr. Carl Heinrich Stratz used a nearly identical method of describing the proportions of the female in his 1911 book Die Rassenschoenheit des Weibes. Some examples from the b ook are at the Czech website: Vzpřímené postavení.

He was "one of the first researchers in growth and development. After 1900 he became more and more engaged in observations of the child's development from the new-born to the adolescent. His publications, especially his graphs and pictures of morphological changes in the childs body and the signs of puberty, have the following years deeply influenced our knowledge on "orthology" within the medical problems of youth." - H. Grimm, Arztl Jugendkd. 1979 Jun;70(3):177-92.

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Amazon, Doryphoros and Diadumenos Sculptures

Published in a book by the engraver J. Hagger of London there is this description of a competition between the Greek sculptors Polycletus, Phidias, Cresilas, and Phradmon.

According to an unanthenticated legend, it is supposed that the sculptors Polycletus, Phidias, Cresilas, and Phradmon competed in the production of an Amazon. Pliny says: ''It was agreed upon, to cause the most perfect of the competing statues to be selected by the decision of the masters themselves; in order that it might be set up in the Temple of the Ephesian Artemis. Following a very wholesome principle, that statue was selected, which each artist had declared to be the best, after his own; and this was the statue executed by Polycletus. That by Phidias was declared to be the second best, that of the Cydonian Cresilas third, and that of Phradmon fourth in order of merit. The antiquarians may be left to decide how much of this legend is true; but such tales are never quite destitute of foundation, and as a matter of fact a number of such Amazon statues have come down to us, which have so identical an expression of melancholy, and so much similarity of position as to render the idea of some such competition highly probable. The Amazon in the Braccio Nuovo of the Museo Chiaramonte in the Vatican, is generally ascribed to Phidias. The right arm, which is so effective towards the entire expression of the Statue, has been restored, and was for a long time considered to have been badly done, just as the arm of the Laocoon by Montorsoli, until lately a gem has been brought to light which treats the same subject as the statue, and also represents the Amazon with her right arm bent over her head. She is holding a spear upon which she is leaning either to rest herself, or to use it as a leaping pole. The Amazon from the Villa Mattel is a statue of noble proportions; the nude portion and the drapery are here equally important and well executed. The torso is elegant and yet unconstrained and simply draped; the treatment of the folds is masterful. Altogether the history of these Amazon-statues is very obscure; even the intention of the artists can only be guessed at; hence of course, it is almost impossible for us to decide, whether the one or the other is the most successful, or the most artistically valuable.




This is a sculpture after Polycletus' Amazon. And a drawing of the the sculpture after Polycletus.

From the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "Polycletus was of the school of Argos, a contemporary of Pheidias and in the opinion of the Greeks his equal. He made a figure of an Amazon for Ephesus which was regarded as superior to the Amazon of Pheidias made at the same time; and his colossal Hera of gold and ivory which stood in the temple near Argos was considered as worthy to rank with the Zeus of Pheidias."

Link to the Amazon myth.

Amazon Sculpture on Ebay

Link to a web page about Polycletus' Doryphoros, his famous canon on human proportions, which became the basis for Johann Gottfried Schadow's Atlas Zu Polyclet Oder Von Den Maassen Des Menschen Nach Dem Geschlechte Und Alter or
The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.



Diadumenos after Polycletus in the Skulpturhalle Basel. Notice the weight on the right foot giving the figure Polycletus' characteristic S-curve or the natural shift of weight to one leg known as contrapposto.



Two copies of Polycletus' (Polyclitus) Doryphorus and a link to an article about Polycletus' Canon of Proportion.

Some more notes on the Doryphorus.

And an essay about the biological basis for experiencing beauty in art by Deric Bownds, using the Doryphorus as an example.

A page about the Doryphorus: The Doryphoros or Canon, 450-440 BC, Polykleitos (or Polycletus) of Sikyon, 212 cm marble copy from Pompeii (original bronze), now at the Museo Archaeologico, Naples in Italy.

Tribhanga: Strike A Pose a web site comparing eastern sculpture on the Adinatha temple to the Doryphorus.

Canons of Proportion and the Ideal, Part 1 from isculpt.org.

Here is a post titled "Is beauty in the brain of the beholder?" which talks about a study by Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti of the University of Parma, and his colleagues, who look at the perceptions of beauty using brain imaging. They manipulated images of classical sculptures to increase or shorten the length of the legs or torso and found out that the sculptures constructed to the proportions of the golden ratio did produce higher levels of activation in specific areas of the brain including the insula, the region associated with emotion.



Doryphoros by Polykleitos showing the canonical version in the center and the two manipulated versions.

Link to the actual paper: "The Golden Beauty: Brain Response to Classical and Renaissance Sculptures", by Cinzia Di Dio1, Emiliano Macaluso, Giacomo Rizzolatti1.


Slide show of some of the images used in the study.


Drawing the Draped Figure at Amazon.com



The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form
Or download a copy at Figure-Drawings.com.

  

Link to the Plaster Cast Gallery at the Lindenau Museum for examples of plaster casts used by art students: Die Gipsabguss-Galerie - Das erste Aktmodell. Another link.

Antique Statuary from the Gallery of Florence

Before figure drawing students began drawing from models they drew from copies of antique statuary. These copperplate prints are from a book published in four volumes between 1789 and 1804 which cataloged the art work in the Gallery of Florence.

The book is called Tableaux, statues, bas-reliefs et camées de la galerie de Florence et du palais Pitti. by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar; Louis Joseph Masquelier; Claude Louis Masquelier; Antoinne Mongez. It was listed by Abebooks as one of the ten most expensive books sold in 2007.

You can search for a copy yourself at Abebooks.com. Use the search terms "Tableaux, statues, bas-reliefs de la galerie de Florence".

Occassionally individual prints show up on Ebay.

Three volumes of the original four sold at auction for $17.00 here is a description from American Book Prices Current, a record of books etc. sold at auction in New York, Boston and Philadelphia in 1917. "GALERIE. Galerie de Florence. Tableaux, Statues, Bas- reliefs et Camées, de la Galerie de Florence et du Palais Pitti. Dessinés par Wicar. avec les explications par Mongrez. Paris, 1789-1804. 4 vols., fol. Hf. cf., une. (in 3 vols., a few plates stained), Hirsch, A.,Oct. 19, '16. (223) $17.00."

An unillustrated Catalogue de la R. Galerie de Florence in which you can find descriptions of these works is at Google Books.

A reprint of a similar catalog, or perhaps a later edition of the same catalog is available at Amazon.com: Galerie Impériale et Royale de Florence.

For more about the proportions of the human body as revealed by a study of antique statuary see my ebook The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form or the same book as a printed book The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.

Here is an example of an artist drawing from published sources contrasted with drawing from life. The drawing pictured is a copy of Plate II. from The Art Student's Guide to The Proportions of the Human Form. Next to it is a detail of Plate II from the book that he used to draw from, the details are line drawings showing the proportions demonstrated by the antique statues of Niobe's Daughter, the Venus de Medici, and Faustina.

The website where his work appears is: The Art of Carl von Marr: Self-Discipline and Nuance.

For a description of the transition from drawing from casts and printed examples to drawing from life you can check out my ebook: How to Draw the Human Figure - The Figure Drawings of Grace A. Young as an ebook, or How to Draw the Human Figure as a printed book.

Or other histories of drawing in Philadelphia:

Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist

Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia

A Drawing Manual by Thomas Eakins (Primary Sources in American)

Another book that encompasses a complete couse of learning to draw and is largely about drawing from the cast is Charles Bargue et Jean-Leon Gerome. Cours de dessin. Here is an interesting review of the book: Charles Bargue Drawing Course.

Another link: Patricia's Palette Charles Bargue: Learn to draw, learn to see.

Another link from a blogger who is drawing from the book: The Devil's Red Rose.