Body Proportions, the Force of Muscles, and Notes on Fame
Proportions of foot, leg, hand and arm beside aphorisms, a colour recipe and a definition of animal force
A small drawing at the top shows a bent leg and an extended arm, and the note beneath sets out their proportions. The page then gathers miscellaneous jottings in mirror-script, faded and crossed by a large stain: a colour recipe using distilled spirit, an allegorical figure of Fame, two moral aphorisms, and a definition of force and movement in animals grounded in the action of muscles and sinews. Further untranscribed matter may be present in the faint upper lines.
On this page
Proportions of the foot, leg, hand and arm
A small drawing at the top shows a bent leg and an extended arm. The foot, from toe to heel, goes twice into the length from the heel to the knee (where the leg-bone joins the thigh). The hand goes four times into the length from the tip of the longest finger to the shoulder joint.
Definition of force and movement in animals
Movement in animals is said to be caused about different pivots. Force is produced by the swelling and shortening of muscles, which draw back the sinews and hold them until the sensation passing through the hollow cords requires. A fragmentary line notes water falling one ounce per mile.
The allegory of Fame and two aphorisms
Fame should be painted as a whole figure covered in tongues in place of feathers and in the form of a bird. Two sayings follow: 'If you had a body to match your virtue, you would not fit in this world,' and 'You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of children.'
Distilling flower colours for painting
A reminder that aqua vitae (distilled spirit) gathers into itself all the colours and scents of flowers. To make blue, steep irises in it; for red, corn-poppies.