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The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

By Dr. Johann Gottfried Schadow


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The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form
With Measurements in Feet and Inches
of Full Grown Figures of Both Sexes and Various Ages
The Plates Reproduced by John Sutcliffe
From the Original Treatise entitled Polycletus
by Dr. Gottfried Schadow
The Text Translated from the German by James J. Wright

Published in 1883.

30 plates plus a 25 page introduction and treatise.

Art Students Guide to Proportion

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Art Students Guide to Proportion The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

This famous book by a classical German sculptor (the figures on the Brandenburg Gate - among many other works) is next to impossible to find. It is based on the pioneering work by Greek Sculptor Polycletus. This is an 1883 translation of the German Atlas Zu Polyclet Oder Von Den Maassen Des Menschen Nach Dem Geschlechte Und Alter

Johann Gottfried Schadow provided the art world with the first guide to the proportional measurements of human figures which incorporated the measurements of the human body both from the work of classical master artists, but more importantly from the measurements of actual humans, and compared men and women, children and adults youth and age in one work which became the world standard for human proportions.

The book is 12 1/2 by 19 3/4 inches and each plate is a seamless double page tipped in. The only way to turn it into an e-book was to photograph the double wide pages to show them fully, then to scan details.

Art Students Guide to Proportion

Art Students Guide to Proportion

Art Students Guide to Proportion

Teeth by David Beneke "...I am recommending your site to all of my colleagues. We do special effects for motion pictures and t.v. and extensively use anatomical reference for our work. The newer anatomy books just don't have the same qualities..."
-David Beneke


Here is another review from iSculpt.org.

"As you probably know from some of my previous postings, I'm fascinated with human proportions. There's a really, really good book on human proportions for sculptors called the "Art-Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form". Unfortunately, it was published in 1883, and it's very hard to come by. When copies do show up at ABE books or on eBay, they go for hundreds of dollars, sometimes even more....

...In this case I just happen to think this is a great resource that more people should know about."

From SHIFLETTBROTHERS.com - Sculpting Forum

Casey Riley One more book that ya'll might want to check out is "The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form". Unfortunately, it is very hard to find in print (it was published in 1883) however, I was able to download a pdf version from http://figure-drawings.com/artstudentsguide.html. It cost $14.95 but it is well worth the price for the variety of information on proportions. Another anatomy book to check out is the "Strength Training Anatomy", and the "Anatomy Coloring Book"


From a well known illustrator:

Illustration by Ken Nutt"I am currently writing and illustrating a fantasy trilogy that involves characters of all ages as well as horses and a number of other animals. I needed some absolute measurements for the children, adults and animals in my story so that I could coordinate the figures in the illustrations. Although I have a lot of standard anatomy texts, I wasn't having much luck with measurements until I discovered your wonderful site."

Reference for the proportions of human form: Here is a great source than can be used as an anatomical reference for artists: http://figure-drawings.com/artstudentsguide.html

Il y a plein de photos des pages des livres! Quelques uns pratiques! Comme les dimensions du corps!

Proportions books. Looks amazing! They don't do proportions the way they used to.

...your website is a great resource. It is rare to find this long lost information in any contemporary art instruction books.

...When I first sat down to this project, I realized that I had no idea of comparative proportion, so I went out and found a great book on the subject, The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form by Dr. Johann Gottfried Schadow...


Proportions of the Human Form Proportions of the Human Form Proportions of the Human Form Proportions of the Human Form Proportions of the Human Form Proportions of the Human Form

Bonus - An appendix of new full page scans from a 9" by 12" original 1886 German Edition of Atlas zu Polyclet oder von den Maassen Des Menschen nach dem Geschlecte und Alter von Dr. Gottfried Schadow. See the blog for additional notes on this new discovery. Or search the blog for other posts mentioning Johann Gottfried Schadow.


List of Plates

  • Plate I. First Sheet of Heads
  • Plate II. Second Sheet of Heads
  • Plate III. Birth and Four Months
  • Plate IV. Eight Months and One Year
  • Plate V. Eighteen Months Two Years and Thirty Months
  • Plate VI. Three Years and Four Years
  • Plate VII.Five Years and Six Years
  • Plate VIII. Seven Years and Eight Years
  • Plate IX. Nine Years and Ten Years
  • Plate X. Eleven Years and Twelve Years
  • Plate XI. Thirteen Years and Fourteen Years
  • Plate XII. Fifteen Years
  • Plate XIII. Seventeen Years
  • Plate XIV. Medium Height Male
  • Plate XV. Male
  • Plate XVI. Heros
  • Plate XVII. Female
  • Plate XVIII. Female Average Proportion
  • Plate XIX. Venus Medicis
  • Plate XX. Woman of Maximum Height
  • Plate XXI. Comparison of Females
  • Plate XXII. Third Sheet of Heads
  • Plate XXIII. Fourth Sheet of Heads
  • Plate XXIV. Fifth Sheet of Heads
  • Plate XXV. Proportion Drawing After Nature
  • Plate XXVI. Proportions of the Borghese Gladiator
  • Plate XXVII. Comparisons of Male Proportions
  • Plate XXVIII. First Table - Figure of Christ, Elgin Marbles Theseus, Pugilist by Canova
  • Plate XXIX. Second Table - Comparisons of Male Proportions
  • Plate XXX. Third Table - Comparisons Male and Female

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    Another mention of the book is on a page of the study of Human Proportions through the ages: Proportionslehre from the Luitpold-Gymnasium Munchen:
    "Leonardo illustrierte eine der bedeutendsten Proportionslehren der Renaissance,"De Divina Proportione", des Mathematikers Luca Pacioli. Auch Durer stutzt sich in seinen "Vier Bucher von menschlicher Proportion" auf Vitruv, dessen Schema er weitgehend ubernimmt und verfeinert. Alle diese Proportionssysteme gehen aus vom Korper des Menschen als Masseinheit und drucken seine Teile aus als Quotienten dieses Ganzen.
    Wohl einer der ersten, die von diesem Denken abweichen, ist der Hofbildhauer unter Friedrich Wilhelm IV., J.G. Schadow. In "Polyklet oder von den Massen des Menschen" verwendet er das Zollmass, also ein absolutes Mass, das von aussen an den Korper herangetragen wird. Daruber hinaus ist er einer der ersten, der Interesse dokumentiert am Wachstum des Korpers. Damit verlasst die Proportionslehre den Bereich des kunstlerischen Interesses und schafft theoretische Grundlagen wie sie fur die Normierung von Konfektionsgrossen in der industriellen Produktion von Kleidung notwendig sind."
    "Leonardo illustrated one of the most significant proportion lessons of the Renaissance, "De Divina Proportione", by the mathematician Luca Pacioli. Also Durer based his "Four Books of Human Proportions" on Vitruvius, whose scheme he refined. All these proportions systems go from the human body as unit and define its parts as a ratio of the whole.
    Undoubtedly one of the first to deviate from this thinking was the Court Sculptor to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, J.G. Schadow. In "Polykleitos or Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form ," he uses the Inch, an absolute measure which is outside the body to divise a system of measurement that doesn't rely on ratios. In addition, he is one of the first to publish an interest in the growth of the body. This leaves the teaching of proportion to the area of artistic interest and creates theoretical basis as for the normalization of clothing sizes which are necessary in the industrial production of clothing."

    Polycletus was a Greek Sculptor active in the late 300s and early 200s B.C., along with Phidias, he created the classic Greek style. None of his works survive but Roman copies do. He was and is most appreciated for the naturalness of his sculptures and his admiration for the beauty of the natural figure as opposed to rigorous ideals of proportion. He also used a natural shift of weight to one leg known as contrapposto which gave his works a feeling of movement.

    From History of Sculpture: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Dr.Wilhelm Lubke - 1872:

    "Next to Athens, at this period, Argos appears as the central point of a second important school. At the head of it stands Polycletus of Sicyon, a younger contemporary of Phidias and his fellow pupil with Ageladas. In him the art of the Peloponnesus culminated and reached a height of perfect freedom. In contrast to the idealism of the Attic school, the sculptors of the Peloponnesus aimed rather at Attic school, the sculptors of the Peloponnesus aimed rather at an artistic adherence to nature. Polycletus, with his lofty genius, adopted this style, and imparted to it all the perfection of which it was capable. The tendency of his works does not so much lie in ideal creations as in the unsurpassable perfection of human physical beauty..."

    "...So much importance, however, did he attach to truth of form and correctness and harmony of proportion, that he wrote a book on the structure of the human figure, and executed a statue, which was called the Canon, because he depicted in it the normal beauty of a thoroughly perfect youthful form. It was of consequence for the able, careful, and finished execution at which he aimed, that he almost exclusively fashioned his works in bronze. When, however, he desired to express with speaking truth the elastic agility of youth, it is a no less essential fact that he, as we are told, was the first who represented the figure as resting on one leg, leaving th,e other, which was slightly raised, in a free and playful position. Although Attic art exhibits figures in a similar attitude, the advance made by Polycletus consists in the fact that he made this kind of graceful position a principle in his representations, and thus gave his figures the appearance of extreme lightness and elasticity."


    It was Polycletus' Canon that formed the basis for The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.


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    Links:
    Wikipedia Deutschland
    Bild Index Gottfried Schadow
    Monuments in Berlin - Brandenburger Gate
    Johann Gottfried Schadow (Klassiker der Karikatur)
    Anmut und Schonheit: Schadows Prinzessinnengruppe und ihre Stellung in der Skulptur des Klassizismus
    Johann Gottfried Schadow, 1764-1850, der Bildhauer
    Johann Gottfried Schadow
    The Qadriga Brandenburg Tor(gate) Berlin
    http://www.art-perfect.de/johann-gottfried-schadow.htm

    Kunstschatze aus Gips More than 6000 reliefs and scultures including the princess-group of Johann Gottfried Schadow.

    This new edition is copyright 2008, the original images in it are believed to be in the public domain based on their age and publishing date. If you have information to the contrary please email me: lifedraw2005@yahoo.com

    Search for an original German Edition at Abebooks.com
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