The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

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Page 595 of 1565.
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OF THE DISPOSITION OF LIMBS.

As regards the disposition of limbs in movement you will have to
consider that when you wish to represent a man who, by some chance,
has to turn backwards or to one side, you must not make him move his
feet and all his limbs towards the side to which he turns his head.
Rather must you make the action proceed by degrees and through the
different joints; that is, those of the foot, the knee and the hip
and the neck. And if you set him on the right leg, you must make the
left knee bend inwards, and let his foot be slightly raised on the
outside, and the left shoulder be somewhat lower than the right,
while the nape of the neck is in a line directly over the outer
ancle of the left foot. And the left shoulder will be in a
perpendicular line above the toes of the right foot. And always set
your figures so that the side to which the head turns is not the
side to which the breast faces, since nature for our convenience has
made us with a neck which bends with ease in many directions, the
eye wishing to turn to various points, the different joints. And if
at any time you make a man sitting with his arms at work on
something which is sideways to him, make the upper part of his body
turn upon the hips.

[Footnote: Compare Pl. VII, No. 5. The original drawing at Windsor
Castle is numbered 104.]

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