1-20 



THL MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



ture, the inecliaiiical functions are eflected by the 

 simpler properties of matter, and allow us a clearer 

 insight into the wonderful art which has been 

 exerted in their accomplishment. 



Muscles, during their contraction, increase in 

 thickness in the same proportion as they diminish 

 in length.* It is on this account, more especially, 



'i7 



38 



43 



that a knowledge of anatomy is so necessary to the 

 painter and the scul^^tor. In every movement and 

 attitude of the body, some particular sets of muscles 

 are in action, and consequently tense and pro- 

 minent, while others are relaxed and flattened ; 

 differences which it is requisite that the artist 

 should faithfully express, in order to give a correct 

 representation of the living figure. 



The dilatation of the muscular fibres in thick- 

 ness, which accompanies their contraction in length, 

 would, if these fibres had been loose and uncon- 

 nected, have occasioned too great a separation and 



* This is illustrated by the annexed figures, 37 and 38, the former 

 showing the relaxed and elongated, and the latter the contracted and 

 swollen state of the same muscle. 



