Postures of Women, Rising from the Floor, and the Jump
Decorum of a seated woman's legs, how a man rises from sitting, and the impetus that increases a leap.
This page of the Treatise on Painting collects several rules on the postures and movements of figures. Leonardo advises that women and girls not be shown with legs spread apart, which reads as boldness and immodesty, and describes the sequence by which a man rises from sitting on the floor. A brief note flags a missing chapter on the opposite action, a man falling into a seated position. The folio closes with an analysis of jumping, explaining how the impetus of the raised arms and shoulders and the sudden extension of the crouched body carry the jumper forward and upward.
On this page
Decorum in the postures of women and girls
In women and young girls the legs should not be spread apart or held too open, since this shows boldness and an utter lack of modesty. Legs held close together instead express a becoming fear of shame.
How a man rises from sitting on a level floor
Seated on the floor, a man first draws the foot toward himself and sets the hand on the ground on the side he means to rise from. He then throws the body over the resting arm and plants the knee on the ground on that same side to lever himself up.
The impetus that increases a jump
In jumping, the arms and shoulders are thrown up with impetus and, following that impetus, carry a great part of the body upward until the force is spent. The motion is joined to the sudden extension of the body previously curved at the back, thighs, knees, and feet, made obliquely forward and upward so as to drive the jumper both onward and aloft.