direct him, and be himself able to catch, as it were intuitively, what
is natural and reject what is constrained. Besides, those soldiers
and mechanics who are employed as academy figures are often stiff
and unwieldy; and hard labour has impaired in them the natural
and easy motion of the joints.
Until the artist has gained a perfect knowledge of the muscles,
and is able to represent them in action without losing the general
tone of the figure, he is apt to produce an appearance like spasm
or cramp in the limbs, from one part being in action, while the other
is loose or relaxed, 1< or it is always to be remembered, that
whether the body be alive or dead, whether the limbs be in action
or relaxed in sleep, a uniform character must pervade the composition.
Whether the gently undulating line of relaxed muscle
be the prevailing outline; or the parts be large and strong, and the
muscles prominent, bold, and angular; there must be perfect
accordance, otherwise there will be no truth of expression.
I think, that in the sketches, and even in the finished paintings
of some artists, I have observed the effect of continuing to draw
from the model, or from thé naked figure, without due attention to
the action of the muscles. I have seen paintings, where the
grouping was excellent, and the proportions exact, yet the figures
stood in attitudes, when they were meant to be in action; they
were fixed as statues, and communicated to the spectator no idea
of exertion or of motion. This sometimes proceeds, I have no
doubt, from a long continued contemplation of the antique, but
more frequently from drawing after the still and spiritless academy
figure. The knowledge of anatomy is necessary to correct this;
but chiefly, a familiar acquaintance with the classification of the
muscles, and the peculiarities and effect of their action.
The true use of the living figure is this;—after the artist has
learnt the structure of the bones and the classification of the
muscles, he should attentively observe the play of the muscles when
thrown into action and attitudes of violent exertion; but he should
particularly mark the action of the muscles during the striking out
of the limbs. He will soon, in such a course of observation, learn
to distinguish between posture and action, and to avoid that tameness
which results from neglecting the play of the muscles. And
in this view the painter, after having learnt to draw the figure, as
it is usually termed, would do well to make the academy figure go
through the exercise of pitching the bar, or throwing or striking.
He will then find that it is chiefly when straining in a fixed posture
that there is an universal tension and equal prominence of the
muscles; and that in unrestrained actions, only a few muscles rise
strongly prominent and are distinctly characteristic of that action.
He will not, perhaps, be able to catch the character of muscular
expression, and commit it to paper at once; but with accurate
notions of the classification of the muscles, and of the effect of each
action in calling into exertion particular sets of them, knowing to
what point his observation should be applied, and correcting his
d d 2