142 THE FINE ARTS. 
tree, or the limbs from the trunk of an animal), then the axis of the prin- 
cipal form constitutes, in connexion with the axes of the branches or limbs, 
a system or skeleton of axes. To discover the position and the proportion 
of this system, to define and to employ them as the foundation of a design, 
is the first, must be the chief problem of the artist, in order that he may 
recognise, comprehend, and vividly represent the general as well as the 
individual form of a natural body. 
2. Spectan Morpyotoey. Anatomy. Since our limits do not permit us to 
enter upon a detailed elucidation of all the various modes by which the 
tenets of universal morphology are applied to the representation of different 
objects, as, for instance, by the painter of buildings to the various styles of 
architecture, by the painter of landscapes to the manifold diversity of plants 
and of terrestrial scenery, we shall restrict our considerations to a single 
but most interesting department of morphology, 7. ¢. to anatomy, which is 
‘ndispensable to the designer of the human figure. 
As the trunk of a tree, with its ramifications, forms the plastic frame- 
work for the masses of foliage, blossoms, and fruit, so is the skeleton or the 
somplex of the bones, the frame of the whole human body, the supporter 
of the mass of flesh that surrounds it. The study of the osseous system, 
of the proportions of its system of axes, as well as of the form of the several 
bones, of their symmetrical and statical arrangement into a wonderful 
machinery of articulated or organic mechanism, constitutes the first part 
of the anatomical studies of the artist. What has been said on this subject 
in the division of this work devoted to Anthropology will suffice as a guide 
for the artist. We will in this place consider the muscular system with a 
special view to artistical representation. 
The thorough understanding of the muscular structure is indispensably 
necessary to the designer of the human figure, especially of the nude form, 
which is the complete mirror of spiritual man. Without this knowledge it is 
impossible to represent in drawing, even from a living model, the play of 
the muscles that would manifest itself in the peculiar movement and in the 
individual expression of the figure, as conceived in the idea of the artist. 
Even a mere copyist of an already drawn or painted human figure, if defi- 
cient in such knowledge, would be at a loss to know all that the designer or 
painter of his original intended to express by his particular clearer or 
darker touches, by his emerging and again vanishing lines (compare pi. 21, 
Jigs. 12-15, 18-21); he would not be able to distinguish the essential single 
traits from such as might be unessential, or even merely accidental or owing 
to a faulty impression. 
In naming, locating, and explaining those muscles which are situated on 
the surface of the body under the skin, and which are therefore conspicuous 
by their play, by their rising or subsiding, in consequence of the various 
movements of man, and consequently of importance for the artist, we shall 
refer to pl. 20, jigs. 15, 16, representing the anterior and posterior views of 
man’s body divested of its cutaneous integuments and blood-vessels. 
In the front view of the figure (jig. 15) we have presented to us the fol- 
lowing muscles: 1. Musculus frontalis. It elevates the eyebrows, the 
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