SYMMETRY (n.)

SYMÉTRIE (fra.) · SYMMETRIE (deu.) · SYMMETRIE (nld.)
TERM USED AS TRANSLATIONS IN QUOTATION
PROPORTIE (nld.) · SYMÉTRIE (fra.) · SYMMETRIE (nld.)

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5 quotations

Quotation

{2. Proportion.} Of Proportion.
It’s called
Symmetry, Analogie, Harmony.
Proportion is of any part ; a Hand fitted to the bigness of a body.
Symmetry is the proportion of each finger to that bigness ; Analogie or Harmonie. All together in one ; a Concinnity of Harmony ; A congruence, or equality of parts and members ; or due connexion, in reference of all parts, one to the other, and all to the whole, which produceth a perfect Nature, or beauty.
{Of true beauty.} Whatsoever is made, after a conceived or Intelligible thing is Fair.
Whatsoever is made, after a thing generated, is not faire.
Beauty, may be perfectly conceived.
{Naturall and conceived.} True
beauty in any Creature, is not to be found ; being full of deformed disproportions, far remote from truth ; for sinne is the cause of deformity.
Beauty in truth, is, where Joynts and severally every part with the whole, hath its due proportion and measure ; and therefore hard to describe.
Beauty should consist but of One at the most ; and deformity contrariwise, measured by many : for the eeven Lineaments and due proportion of fair and goodly Persons, seem to be created and framed, by the judgement and sight of one form alone, which cannot be in deformed persons ; as with blub cheeks, bigg eyes, little nose, flat mouth, out chin, and brown skin, as it were moulded from many ill faces ; and yet some one part considered about, to be handsome, but altogether become ugly ; not for any other cause, but that they may be Lineaments of many fair women, and not of One. The Painter, did well, to procure all the fair maides naked, to judge of each severall and single perfection ; and so from the Idea of fancie, to shape a Venus. {By the Idea.}
{His brave and unpattern’d and unparallel’d Piece of
Artimesia.} And thus, by often exercise from severall beauties, you shall fixe a conceived Idea is your mind of accomplished Pulchritude grace or comlinesse, according to the true rule of Symmetry. […].
A
Beauty may be expressed by a comely body, though not of delicate features ; rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. It is seen at the first sight. Favour more than Colour ; and yet that of decent and gratious motion, more than that of favour.
There is no excellent
beauty without some strangeness in the proportion, and both Apelles and Albert Durer, doe but trifles out the time and trouble us ; The One to compose a Personage by Geometricall proportion ; and Apelles by collecting the best parts from severall faces, to make one excellent. Indeed a Painter may make a better personage than ever was seen since the first Creation ; which he does by a kind of felicity, not by Rule, as a Musician doth his French Aires, not by true Method of setting.
[…].

Conceptual field(s)

L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → figure et corps
CONCEPTS ESTHETIQUES → beauté, grâce et perfection

Quotation

{Likenesse, not to be compared} But the worke of Art, is not singly in the Similitude or likenesse to the Life, (as common judgement will have it) but in the Symmetry  ; which in truth, proceeds from someskill in the Artizan’s surpassing Art.
{To Symmetry} It was distinguished by that excellent
Painter. A Boy holding a cluster of Grapes so like, that deceived the Birds, and yet not deterred by the shape of the Lad ; which therefore being an exception to the excellencie of the Piece, the Painter put out the Grapes, (though most like,) but reserved the Boy (for his Symmetry,) as the better esteem of the Art ; not understood by ordinary capacities.
{And therefore Naked Bodies hard to Paint.} You shall hardly find an
Artist, very excellent in a naked body, where true Symmetry is expected ; and therefore the ancient skill of the Græcians, sildome apparelled any. A timorous Painter, excuses his weaknesse, by covering the body, with a muffled Mantle.
{Defining Lines, what ?} The
Artizans call this proportion, the designing lines, Scatches, the first draught, and so a second and third, before you Paint them ; {A Cut.} which stroaks, by those that have insight in Art, are esteemed of high value ; for by these first draughts, the true force and undisguised Lineaments of Nature, do ravish the contemplation ; wherein the thought of a studious Artificer is perfectly evidenced.
[…].

Conceptual field(s)

L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → figure et corps
CONCEPTS ESTHETIQUES → nature, imitation et vrai

Quotation

{Albert. Durer.} Since, as I said, proportion is the principall and chief thing you are first to learn, I commend unto you that Prince of Painters and Grand-master Albert Durer, who beside that his pieces for proportion and drapery are the best that are, he hath written a very learned book of Symmetry and proportions, which hath been since translated out of high Dutch into Latine.

Conceptual field(s)

L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → proportion
L’ARTISTE → apprentissage

Quotation

Traveller,
            The Art of
Painting, is the Art of Representing any Object by Lines drawn upon a flat Superficies, which Lines are afterwards covered with Colours, and those Colours applied with a certain just distribution of Lights and Shades, with a regard to the Rules of Symetry and Perspective ; the whole producing a Likeness, or true Idæa of the Subject intended.
                        Friend,
            This seems to embrace a great deal ; for the words Symetry and Perspective, imply a knowledg in Proportions and Distances, and that supposes Geometry, in some measure, and Opticks, all which require much Time to Study them, and so I am still involved in perplexities of Art.
                        Traveller,
           
It is true, that those Words seem to require some Knowledg of those Arts in the Painter, but much less in the Spectator ; for we may easily guess, whether Symetry be observed, if, for Example, in a Humane Body, we see nothing out of Proportion ; as if an Arm or a Leg be not too long or short for its Posture, or if the Posture its self be such as Nature allows of :

Conceptual field(s)

L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → figure et corps
L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → action et attitude
SPECTATEUR → perception et regard

Quotation

SECT. IX. Rules of Symmetry or Proportion to be observed in Drawing the whole Body of Man or Woman.
For your further help in Drawing the following Figures, take notice of these necessary Rules : Begin at the
Head, and so proceed by degrees, as your pattern directs ; and be careful that your parallel Joynts, Sinews, or Muscles, be directly opposite ; also that the Motion of the Body be answerable one part to another, and that the parts and limbs of the body have a due symmetry ; not a great Arm, and a small Leg ; or a small Hand, and a great Finger, &c. Let not one part be too long for another. Of all which, you must know, that at first you will be apt to commit many errours, but be not disheartned ;

Conceptual field(s)

L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → proportion
L’HISTOIRE ET LA FIGURE → figure et corps