The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

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Another mention of the book is on a page of the study of Human Proportions through the ages: Proportionslehre from the Luitpold-Gymnasium Munchen:

"Leonardo illustrierte eine der bedeutendsten Proportionslehren der Renaissance,"De Divina Proportione", des Mathematikers Luca Pacioli. Auch Durer stutzt sich in seinen "Vier Bucher von menschlicher Proportion" auf Vitruv, dessen Schema er weitgehend ubernimmt und verfeinert. Alle diese Proportionssysteme gehen aus vom Korper des Menschen als Masseinheit und drucken seine Teile aus als Quotienten dieses Ganzen. Wohl einer der ersten, die von diesem Denken abweichen, ist der Hofbildhauer unter Friedrich Wilhelm IV., J.G. Schadow. In "Polyklet oder von den Massen des Menschen" verwendet er das Zollmass, also ein absolutes Mass, das von aussen an den Korper herangetragen wird. Daruber hinaus ist er einer der ersten, der Interesse dokumentiert am Wachstum des Korpers. Damit verlasst die Proportionslehre den Bereich des kunstlerischen Interesses und schafft theoretische Grundlagen wie sie fur die Normierung von Konfektionsgrossen in der industriellen Produktion von Kleidung notwendig sind."

"Leonardo illustrated one of the most significant proportion lessons of the Renaissance, "De Divina Proportione", by the mathematician Luca Pacioli. Also Durer based his "Four Books of Human Proportions" on Vitruvius, whose scheme he refined. All these proportions systems go from the human body as unit and define its parts as a ratio of the whole. Undoubtedly one of the first to deviate from this thinking was the Court Sculptor to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, J.G. Schadow. In "Polykleitos or Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form ," he uses the Inch, an absolute measure which is outside the body to divise a system of measurement that doesn't rely on ratios. In addition, he is one of the first to publish an interest in the growth of the body. This leaves the teaching of proportion to the area of artistic interest and creates theoretical basis as for the normalization of clothing sizes which are necessary in the industrial production of clothing."

Polycletus was a Greek Sculptor active in the late 300s and early 200s B.C., along with Phidias, he created the classic Greek style. None of his works survive but Roman copies do. He was and is most appreciated for the naturalness of his sculptures and his admiration for the beauty of the natural figure as opposed to rigorous ideals of proportion. He also used a natural shift of weight to one leg known as contrapposto which gave his works a feeling of movement.

From History of Sculpture: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Dr.Wilhelm Lubke - 1872:

"Next to Athens, at this period, Argos appears as the central point of a second important school. At the head of it stands Polycletus of Sicyon, a younger contemporary of Phidias and his fellow pupil with Ageladas. In him the art of the Peloponnesus culminated and reached a height of perfect freedom. In contrast to the idealism of the Attic school, the sculptors of the Peloponnesus aimed rather at Attic school, the sculptors of the Peloponnesus aimed rather at an artistic adherence to nature. Polycletus, with his lofty genius, adopted this style, and imparted to it all the perfection of which it was capable. The tendency of his works does not so much lie in ideal creations as in the unsurpassable perfection of human physical beauty..."

"...So much importance, however, did he attach to truth of form and correctness and harmony of proportion, that he wrote a book on the structure of the human figure, and executed a statue, which was called the Canon, because he depicted in it the normal beauty of a thoroughly perfect youthful form. It was of consequence for the able, careful, and finished execution at which he aimed, that he almost exclusively fashioned his works in bronze. When, however, he desired to express with speaking truth the elastic agility of youth, it is a no less essential fact that he, as we are told, was the first who represented the figure as resting on one leg, leaving th,e other, which was slightly raised, in a free and playful position. Although Attic art exhibits figures in a similar attitude, the advance made by Polycletus consists in the fact that he made this kind of graceful position a principle in his representations, and thus gave his figures the appearance of extreme lightness and elasticity."

It was Polycletus' Canon that formed the basis for The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.

Links:
Wikipedia Deutschland
Bild Index Gottfried Schadow
Monuments in Berlin - Brandenburger Gate
Johann Gottfried Schadow (Klassiker der Karikatur)
Anmut und Schonheit: Schadows Prinzessinnengruppe und ihre Stellung in der Skulptur des Klassizismus
Johann Gottfried Schadow, 1764-1850, der Bildhauer
Johann Gottfried Schadow
The Qadriga Brandenburg Tor(gate) Berlin
http://www.art-perfect.de/johann-gottfried-schadow.htm

Kunstschatze aus Gips More than 6000 reliefs and scultures including the princess-group of Johann Gottfried Schadow.

This new edition is copyright 2008, the original images in it are believed to be in the public domain based on their age and publishing date. If you have information to the contrary please email me: lifedraw2005@yahoo.com

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