( i6i )

NOTE of the EDITOR.
Notwithstanding I have studied with
indescribable pains to extract from the fetches
of Mengs, the rules which he would wish to
give upon the proportions os the human body,
I have found it impossible to compose from his
fragments any thing which can give satisfac-
tion, and serve for rules in a matter so impor-
tant and delicate; from whence I have thought
it proper to suppress the remainder of that
chapter, in order not to expose myself by pro^
posing errors for rules.
Whoever would wish to know the propor-
tions of the head only, may have recburse to
Winkelman, where he explains the system of
Mengs, in his first edition of the Hfory of the
Arts. But I believe, that not even Winkel-
man comprehended well that matter, and his
French transsator compleatly disfigured it ; so
that in the last edition of that book, this arti-
cle is almost suppressed. As for that of the
Italian translation, recently published at Milan,
it appears to me it has compleatly finiflied to
confuse and obscure the poor author.
It is in the power alone of some learned ar-
list of fine taste, and who has studied the works
of Mengs; but this is not to be hoped, except
from a youth well educated in the right rudi-
ments os the art, and not from thole already
professors, who hold nothing for good, ex-
pect what their own blind practice had im-
bibed in their early years, and know not how
Vol. III. M