The Analysis of Beauty: Written with a View of Fixing the Fluctuating Ideas ...
Por William Hogarth
the surfaces of even the most irregular figures, will gradually arrive at the knack of recalling them into his mind when the objects themselves are not before him: and they will be as strong and perfect as those of the most plain and regular forms, such as cubes and spheres; and will be of infinite service to those who invent and draw from fancy, as well as enable those to be more correct who draw from the life.
In this manner, therefore, I would desire the P. 10 reader to assist his imagination as much as possible, in considering every object, as if his eye were placed within it. As straight lines are easily conceived, the difficulty of following this method in the most simple and regular forms will be less than may be first imagined; and its use in the more compounded will be greater : as will be more fully shewn when we come to speak of composition.
But as fig. * may be of singular use to young designers in the study of the human form, the most complex and beautiful of all, in shewing them a mechanical way of gaining the opposite points in its surface, which never can be seen in one and the same view; it will be proper to explain the design of it in this place, as it may at
* Fig. 2. L. p. 1.
the same time add some weight to what has
been already said.
· It represents the trunk of a figure cast in soft
wax, with one wire passed perpendicularly
through its center, another perpendicularly to
the first, going in before and coming out in the
middle of the back, and as many more as may
be thought necessary, parallel to and at equal
distances from these, and each other; as is
marked by the several dots in the figure.—Let
these wires be so loose as to be taken out at
pleasure, but not before all the parts of them,
which appear out of the wax, are carefully
painted close up to the wax, of a different co-
lour from those that lie within it. By these P. 11 means the horizontal and perpendicular contents
of these parts of the body (by which I mean the distances of opposite points in the surface of these parts) through which the wires have passed, may be exactly known and compared with each other; and the little holes, where the wires have pierced the wax, remaining on its surface, will mark out the corresponding opposite points on the external muscles of the body; as well as assist and guide us to a readier conception of all the intervening parts. These points may be marked upon a marble figure with calibers properly used.
The known method, many years made use of, for the more exactly and expeditiously reducing drawings from large pictures, for engravings; or for enlarging designs for painting ceilings and cupolas, (by striking lines perpendicular to each other, so as to make an equal number of squares on the paper designed for the copy, that hath been first made on the original ; by which means the situation of every part of the picture is mechanically seen, and easily transferred) may truly be said to be somewhat of the same kind with what has been here proposed, but that one is done upon a flat surface, the other upon a solid; and that the new scheme differs in its application, and may be of a much more useful and extensive nature than the old one.
But it is time now to have done with the introduction: and I shall proceed to consider the fundamental principles, which are generally al- P. 12 lowed to give elegance and beauty, when duly blended together, to compositions of all kinds whatever; and point out to my readers the particular force of each, in those compositions in nature and art, which seem most to please and entertain the eye, and give that grace and beauty, which is the subject of this enquiry. The principles I mean, are FITNESS, VARIETY,
UNIFORMITY, SIMPLICITY, INTRICACY, and QUANTITY;-all which co-operate in the producă tion of beauty, mutually correcting and restrain'ng each other occasionally.
FITNESS of the parts to the design for which every
individual thing is formed, either by art or nature, is
first to be considered, as it is of the greatest conse-
quence to the beauty of the whole. This is so evident,
that even the sense of seeing, the great inlet of beauty,
is itself so strongly biassed by it, that if the mind, on
account of this kind of value in a form, esteem it
beautiful, though on all other considerations it be not
so; the eye grows insensible of its want of beauty,
and even begins to be pleased, especially after it has
been a considerable time acquainted with it.
It is well known on the other hand, that forms of P. 14
great elegance often disgust the eye by being impro-
perly applied. Thus twisted columns are undoubtedly
ornamental; but as they convey an idea of weakness,
they always displease, when they are improperly made