PROPORTIONS 263 



Our intention is not, in connection with the subject which 

 now occupies us, to enter into a deep discussion on the 

 various opinions which have been set forth. We desire, 

 above all, to give some indications which, from the practical 

 point of view, can be utilized in the representation of the 

 horse, and at the beginning to demonstrate the advantages 

 of these indications. Now, there is a fact which we have had 

 occasion to note ; it is the following : almost invariably, 

 when a person who is little accustomed to represent the 

 horse, or not previously informed of certain proportions of 

 lengths, begins to draw from nature, the error generally 

 committed is that of making the head too small and the 

 body too long. Is it a preconceived idea which is the cause 

 that one regards them in this manner ? Perhaps. At all 

 events, certain artists who have made the representation 

 of horses their special study have even had this habit. 

 It is therefore necessary to be informed of the propor- 

 tions ; this is the object of the study which we are now 

 undertaking. 



Bourgelat,* in the eighteenth century, fixed for the 

 first time and in complete fashion the proportions of the 

 horse ; it is he, consequently, who created the aesthetics 

 of the horse. It is but justice to recall the fact. His 

 system has a point of analogy with that which is employed to 

 determine the human proportions. Indeed, Bourgelat chose 

 the length of the head as a standard of measurement, and the 

 subdivisions of the head for measures of less extent. ' Since 

 beauty,' said he,t ' resides in the congruity and proportion 

 of the parts, it is absolutely necessary to observe the dimen- 

 sions, individual and relative, and in order to acquire a 

 knowledge of the proportions, to assume a kind of measure 

 which can be indiscriminately common for all horses. The 

 part which can serve as a standard of proportion for all the 

 others is the head. Take a measurement between two 

 parallel lines — one tangent to the nape of the neck or the 



* Claude Bourgelat, founder of the veterinary schools in France. He 

 was born at Lyons in 1712, and died at Paris in 1779. 



t Bourgelat, ' Elements de I'art veterinaire. Traite de la conforma- 

 tion exterieure du cheval,' Paris, edition of 1785, p. 133. 



