56 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



replace the immediate perception of the forms themselves, nor 

 the artistic sense of beauty. To the artist it is a means of 

 lightening the mental conquest of the ever-changing com- 

 plexities of his material object, the human form, sharpening his 

 perception of what is essential, making the whole form trans- 

 parent to him, and arming him with the instruments of a 

 searching criticism of the work he has accomplished. Art, 

 however, begins where anatomy ends ; the spirit of the artist 

 is shown in the wise application of the forms whose con- 

 nexions and simple outlines have been taught by anatomy, and 

 in the distinguishing characteristics of his figures. Here the 

 artist, as in a Hercules, suggests the muscles lying in hard 

 lumps beneath the skin; there in the female figure they are 

 merely indicated by slight changes in the curvature of the 

 limb; in children again they are entirely concealed by the 

 plump rolls of fat; he alters the normal magnitudes of 

 the parts according to his subject, and determines their 

 position and motion. The display made by the artist who puts 

 too much anatomical science into his figures, as has so often 

 been alleged of Michael Angelo, and with more justice of his 

 less inspired followers, is as unpleasant and false as the neglect 

 of anatomical accuracy which produces lifeless or distorted 

 figures. 



' It is important for the student to study forms with very 

 decided development of muscle, but he must not subsequently 

 reproduce them with absolute fidelity on all occasions. It is 

 interesting in this connexion to compare the frequent blunders 

 of modern art with the work of the old masters : e. g. the 

 Discobolos of Myron, from the zenith of Greek Art, who is in 

 an attitude of the most violent exertion. He has checked his 

 run to fling the discus, while, with the finest observation of 

 actual movement, the spectator is only shown the great and 

 almost continuous bulging of the limbs, although an impression 

 of great vitality is imparted. Many another would have over- 

 laden such a figure, since even in a simple resting form it 

 appears impossible to some to show enough muscles. 



4 It is essential for the artist, and therefore a principal aim 

 in instruction, that anatomy shall give him as clear and com- 

 plete a picture as possible. He must not only bear the 

 position, attachment, and function of the different muscles 

 in mind, so that when he thinks of them he can form a correct 

 notion, as is perhaps sufficient for medical studies, but he must 

 be accustomed to see the underlying parts clearly through 

 the intervening veil of skin, and never to picture the arm 

 without realizing the bundles of muscles that lie within it. 

 Nor must he fail in knowledge of the positive anatomical 

 details, since they will serve as a criterion in the searching 



