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Part Three: Movements and Proportions of the Human Figure
How a man's measurements change from infancy to full growth, when he stands ten faces tall
This page opens Part Three of the Treatise on Painting, on the various accidents and movements of man and the proportion of the limbs. Leonardo explains that measurements vary as limbs bend, then describes how the body changes from infancy to full growth: in infancy the shoulder-breadth equals the face and several bent-limb spans, but at full height every such span doubles while the head barely grows, so a well-proportioned man is ten faces tall with shoulders two faces wide. A closing chapter heading announces that children's joints are proportioned contrary to men's. The full page is continuous text with no drawing.
On this page
Measurements vary as the limbs bend
Chapter [263] states that the measurements of man vary in each limb as it is bent more or less and turned to different aspects, decreasing or increasing on one side just as much as it increases or diminishes on the opposite side.
Infant proportions: equal spans across the body
In early infancy the breadth of the shoulders equals the length of the face, the space from arm to bent elbow, the span from thumb to that elbow, and the spans from the groin to mid-knee and from knee-joint to foot-joint. All these lengths are equal in the child.
The grown man is ten faces tall
When a man reaches full height every one of those spans doubles, except the face, which with the whole head varies little. So a well-proportioned man is ten of his own faces tall, the shoulder-breadth is two faces, and the other named lengths are two faces each.