Proportion of the Limbs; Joints of the Hand and Foot
How the wrist and the ankle thicken and thin as they flex
The page opens by finishing the rule on the projecting elbow bone, then gives three short chapters on proportion and joints. 'On the proportionality of the limbs' teaches that every part of an animal—or of a plant—must match the character of the whole, thick with thick and slender with slender. Further chapters explain that the wrist thickens as the hand opens and thins as it closes, through the play of the inner and outer muscles, and that the ankle joint swells and shrinks with its angle. A small pen drawing of a foot, lettered along its outer edge, sits at the lower right.
On this page
Every part must match the character of the whole
All the parts of any animal should correspond to its whole: the short and thick body should have every limb short and thick, the long and slender body should have long slender limbs, and the moderate should have moderate limbs. The same holds for plants, unless crippled by man or the winds, which puts young growth on old and destroys their natural proportion.
The wrist thickens as the hand opens, thins as it closes
The joint of the arm with the hand diminishes when the hand is clenched and thickens when it opens, while the forearm does the contrary. Opening the hand extends the inner (domestic) muscles and thins the forearm; clenching draws the inner and outer (wild) muscles back and thickens them, but the outer ones alone move away from the bone, pulled by the bending of the hand.
The ankle joint grows and shrinks on its outer part d e f
Only the diminution and increase of the joint of the foot is made in the aspect of its outer (wild) part d e f, which grows when the angle of that joint changes. A small pen study of a foot lettered along its outer edge accompanies the note.