The Artist's Repository, Or, Encyclopedia of the Fine Arts (Band 1): The Human Figure (London, 1808)

eec viii.] proportions op the figure. 1Q7

head, is half way between his hands and feet: but
when his arms hang down, the bottom of the trunk
becomes the half distance, as appears from adlual
measurements after nature,byGerard deLairesse.

By a scale of faces the lines would fall as follows :
(I.) From the crown of the head, to the bottom of
the nose. (II.) To the pit between the clavicula,
or collar bones. (III.) To the bottom of the breast.
(IV.) To the navel. (V.) To the bottom of the
trunk. (VI. and VII.) To the upper part of the
knee. The knee contains half a face. Two faces
from the bottom of the knee to the ancle, and half
a face from thence to the sole of the foot, complete
the whole measure of ten faces.

W hen a man extends his arms, he is between their
extremities as broad as he is high ; which measures
are thus reckoned : the hand, from the finger's end
to the wrist, one face ; to the elbow, one face and
half; to the joint of the shoulder, two faces; to the
pit between the claviculce, one face; making" five
faces and half: the same measures on the other side
would make eleven faces, but in the extension of the
limbs, the bones lose of their measures at the elbow
and shoulder (together) half a face, on each side ;
which reduces the whole to ten faces.

The lengths of the limbs are usually taken from
the bones, whose proportions being fixed, readily
admit of measurement; whereas the muscular parts
varying with every motion, continually change their
appearance and their dimensions. Very trifling,
therefore, are rules for the breadth of parts, except
where united by bones: as, for instance, across the

chest;