Do Not Search Out Every Muscle in a Nude
Opposing muscles pull and slacken; over-defined nudes look harsh, and fat lends strength after youth.
Continuing the Treatise on Painting, this page explains that when opposing muscles pull, the working set is strongly revealed while the slackened set loses its definition. A chapter warns that nudes worked out with all their muscles turn harsh and graceless: the painter must know every muscle yet pronounce them faintly except in the limb most at work. A further chapter observes that people who put on fat gain much strength after their first youth because the tight skin braces the muscles, though such men move less nimbly.
On this page
One set of muscles pulls while its opposite slackens
When opposing muscles pull, those that slacken lose their display, while those that pull are strongly revealed and become evident.
Do not work out every muscle in a nude
Chapter [337] warns that nudes rendered with all their muscles fully searched out turn harsh and graceless. The painter must understand every muscle yet render them with little prominence where the body is not exerted, giving fullest definition only to the limb most at work.
Fat builds strength after the first youth
Chapter [338] observes that those who put on fat gain much strength after their first youth, because the skin stays drawn tight over the muscles; but such men are not very deft or agile in their movements.
