nized hands of Grunewald's Crucifixion; earliest hands of the Aurignacian hunter to the graciousness of Botticelli's Adoration; the majestic God-king of Egypt,the hand or the infallible simplicity of Durer's speaks to us.The hand spells resistance to Praying Hands. tyranny and proclaims victory in the statue Can anyone doubt the harmony,the per of Harmodius and Aristogeiton,the heroes fection of forms in the figures and hands of the world's first democracy.The hand in the works of Leonardo,Michelangelo, of Adam receives the spark of life in El Greco,Rubens,Velasquez,Caravag- Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling.The hand gio,Rembrandt. holds aloft the chilling form of Medusa's Do we in our time support the canon of head in Cellini's Perseus.The hand of the figure and the criterion of the human Bologna's Mercury leads our thoughts hand?Does anyone doubt the competence skyward. of Matisse,Rouault,Braque,or Picasso to The hand,as Rodin showed us,is the create art from the springboard of the fig- alter ego of mankind,The Hand of God. ure?And how shall we understand Rodin But it is also the hand of that other in the tortured Burghers of Calais or the creator,the artist,who,shaping the hand brooding Thinker if not by their hands? creates himself. Let us venture,speculatively,one last proposal.In all the world's art,the highest BURNE HOGARTH inspirations.the most lofty visual expres- Pleasantville,New York sions center around the hand.From the December 1976 9
1. FORMS AND STRUCTURES The hand is not a flat,two- dimensional shape without vol ume.It is a dynamic,three- dimensional body form,energetic and complex,each of its forms and structures interrelated.In this chapter we will look at it from various angles in space and depth, noting its curves and rhythms and examining the bulk,sizes,shapes and masses of its individual parts and their relation to the whole 10
UPPER AND LOWER ARM The main masses of the upper and lower arm are good from inntoormoving indifferedre an For example,the down directio sketch mphasizes form planes.how the con. the entire length of the extended arm
CONTRAPOSED MASSES ling on the nat
UNDERARM CURVES 13