The Quality of Nudes: Slender, Muscular and Fat Bodies
Why slender men lack relief of muscle, the muscular are short and thick, and the fat float on water
A text page from the Trattato della pittura, Book Three, on rendering the nude according to body type. Closing an earlier passage, Leonardo notes that in fearful scenes the faces of those who flee should show great terror. He then warns that a slender figure must not be given muscles in high relief, since thin men lack the flesh for it, and explains that muscular men are short and thick because their crowded muscles, denied room for fat, swell most toward their middle. Fat men, by contrast, have thin muscles beneath a skin clothed in spongy, air-filled fat, which is why they float higher on water than the muscular do.
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Do not give slender figures high-relief muscles
Never make a slender figure with muscles in too high relief, for slender men never carry much flesh on their bones and are thin through scarcity of flesh. Where there is little flesh there cannot be thickness of muscle.
Why the muscular are short and thick
The muscular have thick bones and are short, thick men lacking fat, because the fleshiness of the muscles draws together as they grow and leaves no room for the fat that usually lies between them. In such lean bodies the muscles, in close contact and unable to expand, grow in thickness, swelling most in the part farthest from their ends, toward the middle of their breadth and length.
Fat men float higher than the muscular
Though the fat are also short and thick, they have thin muscles, but their skin clothes much spongy, empty fat that is full of air. For this reason the fat support themselves higher upon the water than the muscular do.