The relationship of anatomy to the fine arts : a lecture, delivered in the Royal Institution Manchester / by S. Messenger Bradley.

  • Samuel Messenger Bradley
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relationship of anatomy to the fine arts : a lecture, delivered in the Royal Institution Manchester / by S. Messenger Bradley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    lecturer should contrast infancy with youth, and youth with age ; the male with the female ; the negro with the European ; health with disease, and so on. The pupil, meanwhile, should be drawing the skeleton, which is probably as good a study of the round as he could have, after which he should at once advance to the study of the muscles, the joints, and the mechanism of the various movements of man. I do not say he need dissect, but he should see dissections, and to the real artist no difficulty would be met with in this part of the programme. Then he should patiently study from the living model, with the light of his anatomical learning, making his model go through every gymnastic exercise, carefully noting the difference between the parts in action and the parts in repose. At first he will find it difficult to catch the exact muscular expression in quickly performed move- ments, but practice will give him facility, every failure will lead to future success ; and it is not too much to say that he who thus makes anatomy the basis of his art, with good gifts, will attain to the highest excellence in depicting, with simplicity and truth, the most involved and complex movements of the human form. Even if he should fail to attain such supreme excellence, he will assuredly not fail to acquire dexterity and facility of design and invention ; his powers of observation will be vastly quickened and improved, and, what is by no means a small pleasure, he will learn enough to criticize with intelligence the works of other artists. Now, it would be manifestly impossible to do anything more to-night than suggest the method of study, and point out by some illustrations the main characteristics which distinguish the human figure from other animals, and then allude to some of those features which characterize the individual. One great peculiarity of the human body, as contrasted with his nearest relations, the apes, is the great compara- tive length of the lower extremities, which artists are prone further to exaggerate, perchance to enhance the humanity of theu' figures. In the chimpanzee, the orang, and the gorilla, they are relatively much shorter. This causes
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