THE ART OF DRAWING. 141 
and of the oval ( pl. 20, jig.7), the proportion of length and breadth remain- 
ing unaltered. In a similar manner the general outline of the human head 
in the front view is an oval, but in other views an oval-like general form 
(pl. 20, figs. 1, 2, 7, 8; pl. 21, figs. 6-11). The same proceeding holds 
good with regard to bodies. Thus, by producing the corners of the capital 
and of the pedestal of the corner pilaster of the edifice on the left (pl. 19, 
Jig. 45), we obtain pyramids, and by lines connecting the corners of the 
steps on the obelisk (ibidem, on the right), and producing them until they 
intersect each other, we complete the general form of a four-sided pyramid. 
It is also easily perceptible that the cube is the general form of the sphere ; 
the parallelopipedon, of the ellipsoid ; the egg, of the human head. 
By drawing through the middle of a figure a right line in the direction of 
its length, we obtain its longitudinal axis ; and by doing the same perpen- 
dicularly to that axis, through the greatest breadth of the figure, we find 
its lateral axis. If the figure be divided by either of its axes into two equal 
but opposite parts, the figure is said to possess symmetry, and those parts 
are called symmetrical opposite sides. All regular geometrical figures, 
including the rectangle, the isosceles triangle, and the isosceles parallel- 
trapezium, are symmetrical; and so also the ellipse, the oval, &c. (pil. 19, 
Jigs. 13, 14, 16). A figure with a centre, from which it can be divided into 
three or more equal opposite parts by as many lines, is said to possess a 
stellar or central symmetry. Such is the case with all regular geometrical 
figures, with all cross and star flowers (cruciferee, asters), &c. The symme- 
trical opposites in symmetrical bodies are similarly disposed round either a 
central awis, as in the prism, pyramid, cylinder, cone, and egg (pil. 19, 
jig. 45, obelisk), or round a centre (as in the sphere, the regular geometrical 
bodies, and crystal forms), or on both sides of an imaginary plane-azis, as 
in most animals, the human body, in regular edifices, &c. &c. The inquiry 
into the symmetry of a figure, and the finding of its axis of symmetry, or 
plane-axis, is one of the essential means towards the knowledge of its con- 
formation. We must observe that in most organic forms (plants, flowers, 
&c.), especially in animals, the equal position of the symmetrical opposites is 
abolished, and the axes of symmetry, which have originally been straight, 
have become curved lines, and that it is owing precisely to this deviation 
from exact symmetry that the organic bodies are endowed with the charm 
of life, and with movement. Constant symmetry as well as the degree of 
deviation from it, must be assiduously studied, in order that the designer 
may be able to conceive and to express movement. This is a point of the 
greatest importance for the artist. Scarcely less important is the fact, that 
axes or mid-lines may be found also in less strictly symmetrical organic 
forms and in their parts (thus in plants, animals, especially in the human 
body), about which axes the mass or matter of the form itself is located in a 
certain statical equipoise, and around which the most manifold forms are dis- 
posed in a harmonious arrangement. To observe all this, to feel it out as it 
were from the laws of nature, is the mission of the artist. 
If the natural body consist of several essential parts which issue from the 
principal form like branches (as the branches and boughs from the stem of a 
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