LESSONS IN' MIAWINU. 



was twceuary to employ thete features to represent the man, for, 

 however revolting they may be, the painter in justified in the 

 f the means by the intensity of the character to 

 1. Lavatcr saya of 

 it : Who can persuade himself 

 that an apostle of Jesus Christ 

 ever had an aspect like thia, o> 

 that the Saviour could have callow 

 such a countenance to tho apostle- 

 ship ? And whose feelings will 

 be offended when we pronounce a 

 visage like this base and wicked? 

 "Who could place confidence in 

 such a man r " Mr. Charles Bell, 

 in his "Essays on the Anatomy of 

 ssiou in Painting," says: 

 " To brutif y a human countenance, 

 wo have only to diminish the 

 forehead, bring tho eyes nearer, 

 lengthen the jaws, shorten tho 

 nose, and depress the mouth. If 

 this be done, no expression of in- 

 dividual features will give eleva- 

 tion to the character. A breadth 

 and squareness in tho lower part 

 of tho face is quite consistent in a 

 vulgar head with a certain repre- 

 sentation of strength and manli- 

 ness ; but if the eyes be diminished 

 and tho space between them con- 

 tracted, the expanse of the human 

 countenance is lost, and there can 

 remain no dignity of expression." 

 We have gone thus far into our 

 subject to show that when tho 

 proportions of the figure and face 

 are properly understood and prac- 

 tised, the draughtsman must not 

 rest there ; he has only acquired 

 the means of proceeding; after- 

 wards, we repeat, he has to 

 employ them for purposes of a 

 higher kind than those which 

 belong to mere imitation: these refer to the mind, and how 

 he can best express its intentions, knowing the influence it has in 

 controlling the actions of the body. If we examine the practice of 

 the ancient Greeks, wo shall find that their proportions were ge- 

 nerally arbitrary. 

 They considered 

 tho oval to be the 

 most perfect form 

 of the human head; 

 this proportion 

 may be adopted in 

 some cases where 

 the ideal is in- 

 tended, but it is 

 not tho rule in 

 nature ; such a 

 standard would 

 make tho crown of 

 tho head too high, 

 and they, in order 

 to relieve this, re- 

 duced the length 

 from the front to 

 the back. We 

 will give these 

 proportions, al- 

 though to employ 

 them invariably 

 would produce a 

 mannerism that 

 would bo extremely objectionable, and in portrait painting they 

 would be altogether useless. (See Fig. 129.) Draw a perpen- 

 dicular line, A B, of tho required length of the whole head, and 

 divide it into four equal parts. Tho first of the several d 

 will be seen at the root of the hair ; the second at the bridge 



of the none ; tho third at the base of the DOM ; and tho last 

 ending with tho chin : thu* making the whole head four no*M 

 in length. The width of the head is equal to three-foariitt 

 of the length, Bisect the second 

 division in E,and with th* distance 

 B A describe the circle A D r c, and 

 draw CD through i at right angles 

 toAB. On the third division, with 

 w as centre and r B as radios, de- 

 scribe another circle; then, by 

 drawing the curve upon which the 

 ears are placed between 2 and 3, 

 the oval will be made. Divide the 

 line c D into fire equal part*; the 

 eyes will be placed under the 

 second and the fourth divisions. 

 Divide the lowest division from 3 

 to 4 into two equal part*; the 

 line a will mark the position of 

 the under lip. The distance from 

 line o to the division of the mouth 

 is one-third of the line from 3 to 

 o ; the width of the upper Up some- 

 what smaller; tho ears equal to the 

 length of the now (between the 

 divisions 2 and 3). These propor- 

 tions may, no doubt, assist us in 

 drawing the head ; where nature 

 deviates, we must make the ne- 

 cessary alteration, otherwise we 

 shall fail in representing indivi- 

 dual character. The most remark- 

 able point of difference in the 

 shape of the head amongst nations 

 especially, and frequently between 

 individuals of the same nation, is 

 in the faded angle (the inclination 

 of the face from the base-line 

 of the skull, rejecting the lower 

 jaw). In the profile of the negro 

 (Fig. 130) we find this angle, 

 ABC, much more acute than that 

 of the European (Fig. 131). In 



Fig. 129. 



the former it is about 50, and in the Utter about 70. We give 

 but theso two examples as representing the extremes of the 

 human family, between which the various degrees of intellectual 

 capacity exist. We have already remarked that where this 



angle becomes 

 still more acute, 

 we leave the hu- 

 man and take up 

 the brute creation; 

 Fig. 131. \ | Fig. 132. on the other hand, 



lacrosses, then we 

 approach the ideal 

 conceived and 

 practised by the 

 ancients (Fig. 

 132). It is very 

 evident that they 

 avoided every. 

 thing that wat 

 deemed character 

 iatio of the brute 

 when they repre- 

 sented their gods 

 or heroes; thus, 

 by enlarging the 

 mean angle com. 



IIJ' 'II ;l':. i'::_'-t ''< '. 



they felt that they 

 had increased 

 those distinguishing attributes which marked the difference be- 

 tween the intellectual and the brutal; and then again, when the 

 subject was a satyr or a faun, the sensual was indicated by a 

 decreased angle. No one will question the truth of these prin- 

 ciples, since they are founded upon nature. 



