Aestheticism in Art by Hogarth William

Author:Hogarth, William. [Hogarth, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783107926
Publisher: Parkstone International

Eugène Delacroix, Moroccan Saddling His Horse, 1855.

Oil on canvas, 56 x 47 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Ely Cathedral, ‘Octagon’ or ‘Lantern’ tower, built between 1322 and 1347.

Cathedral begun in 1081. Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.

Filippo di ser Brunellesco, known as Brunelleschi, and Antonio Manetti, Basilica Santo Spirito, begun in 1444. Florence.

Andrea Mantegna, The Oculus, 1474. Ceiling fresco. Camera Picta, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua.

The few measures I shall speak of, for setting out the general dimensions of a figure, will be taken by straight lines only for an easier conception of what may actually be properly called, gauging the contents of the body, supposing it solid like a marble statue, as the previously described wires by which plain method clear ideas may be acquired of what singularly seem to require measuring, of what certain lengths to what breadths make the most eligible proportions in general.

The most general dimensions of a body or limbs are lengths, breadths, or thicknesses. The whole gentility of a figure, according to its character, depends upon the first proportioning of these lines or wires – which are its measures – properly one to another; and the more varied these lines are with respect to each other, the higher the chances of the future divisions to be made on them will be varied as well. Of course the less varied these lines are, the parts influenced by them, as they must conform themselves to them, must have less variety, too. For example, the exact cross of two equal lines cutting each other in the middle would confine the figure of a man, drawn conformable to them, to the disagreeable character of his being as broad as he is long. And the two lines crossing each other, to make the height and breadth of a figure, will want variety a contrary way, by one line being very short in proportion to the other, and therefore, also incapable of producing a figure of tolerable variety. To prove this, it will be very easy for the reader to do the experiment, by drawing a figure or two – though ever so imperfectly – confined within such limits.

There is a medium between these, proper for every character, which the eye will easily and accurately determine.

No ruler or compass would decide this matter either so quickly or so precisely as a good eye. It may be observed, that minute differences in great lengths are of little or no consequence as to proportion because they are not to be discerned. An example of this is the idea that a man is half an inch shorter when he goes to bed at night, than when he rises in the morning, without the possibility of its being perceived. Thus much, I apprehend, is sufficient for the consideration of general lengths to breadths. Where, by the way, I apprehend I have plainly shown that there is no practicable rule, by lines, for minutely setting out proportions of the human body, and if there were, the eye alone must determine us in our choice of what is most pleasing to itself.

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