The Grace and Ease of the Limbs
Arranging graceful, loose-jointed limbs and setting the shoulder over the weight-bearing hip in contrapposto
A text page from the Trattato della pittura, Book Three, on how a painter should dispose the limbs of a figure with grace. Leonardo advises gentle, extended limbs with few and softly modelled muscles, and loose joints so that no limb lies in a straight line with the next. He gives a precise rule of poise: when the standing hip rides higher on one side, the shoulder above it drops and the pit of the throat falls over the weight-bearing foot, while the free leg's knee sits lower. The page ends by opening a further chapter, on the ease or comfort of the limbs.
On this page
On the grace of the limbs (della grazia delle membra)
To make a figure that displays gracefulness, give it gentle, extended limbs without a show of too many muscles, and render the few you do show softly, with shadows that are not harsh. The limbs, above all the arms, should be loose-jointed, so that no limb lies in a straight line with the one that joins it.
Contrapposto: shoulder over the raised hip
When the pose makes the right hip higher than the left, the joint of the upper shoulder should fall by a perpendicular line over the most prominent point of that hip, and the right shoulder be set lower than the left. The pit of the throat always stands above the middle of the weight-bearing foot, while the free leg keeps its knee lower than the other and close beside it.
Figures must not look like pieces of wood
The attitudes of the head and arms are infinite, so no fixed rule is given for them. They should only be easy and pleasing, with various twistings and writhings and loosened joints, so that the figure does not look like assembled pieces of wood.