The artists repository and drawing magazine: exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches (3.1789)

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arm ; but the hand might, for ought that ap-
pears to him, be united to the shoulder. This
is an extreme instance of a principle denomi-
nated forejhortening. The same may be the
situation of the leg: and, in fafs, all the
members are capable os it from joint to joint,
in a greater or less degree. To comprehend
this more fully, you have only to survev a
plaster figure; and you will find that as you
move round it, the members assume an insinite
variety of aspedts. Suppose it, for insiance, to
be kneeling, in which case the leg from the
knee to the foot is parallel to the ground; on
one side of the sigure you see the whole leg at
its full extent, but walk round it a little, and
the distance between the knee and foot seems
gradually to lessen and lesisen, till, at last, the
further parts are greatly concealed by the nearer
parts: or, at least, they become more receding,
and, as it were, ssying off. This is evidently
the effedt of Perspedtive but is reducible to
no laws, whose application is determinable,
since what may apply to one member may not
suit another.
Foreshortening is perhaps of the greatest
consequence, where only this flying off, or
recession, is to be represented : and such in-
stances are perpetually occurring ; no attitude

can