Ideal Physical Proportions
The Perfect Woman, Nobly Planned
Using the head-length as a unit of measurement, a prominent portrait painter tabulates as follows the proportions of a perfectly formed woman:
A woman should measure in height 5 feet 5 inches.
Eight heads is the proper height,—that is, the head measured from the top of the forehead to the tip of the chin.
From shoulder to shoulder she should measure 2 of her heads.
Her waist should measure 1½ heads.
Her hips should be twice as broad as the length of her head.
Under the arms the bust measurement should be 34 inches; outside the arms, 42 inches.
Upper arm should be 12 inches long; the forearm, 9 inches long.
A more reliable authority, Dr. George McClellan, in his splendid quarto, “Anatomy in its Relation to Art,” with due regard to the mean or average of the anthropometric scale, makes the height 7½ heads; the width between the shoulders equal to the width between the hips, and each equal to the length of 1¾ heads.
The measurements of “the statue that enchants the world,” the Venus de Medici, are: Height, 63 inches; breadth of neck, 4 inches; breadth of shoulders, 16 inches; waist, 9½ inches; hips, 13 inches.
Professor Gottfried Schadow of the Royal Academy of Arts, in Berlin, gives in his figure of an artistically formed woman, the following measurements: Height, 63½ inches; breadth of neck, 3¾ inches; shoulders, 15 inches; waist 9 inches; hips, 13½ inches.
Professor Sargeant, with several thousand tabulated life measurements in hand, produced a composite figure of the young American girl with these measurements: Height, 63½ inches; breadth of neck, 3.8 inches; girth of neck, 12.1 inches; breadth of shoulders, 14.7 inches; breadth of waist, 8.6 inches; girth of waist, 24.6 inches; breadth of hips, 13.1 inches; girth of hips, 35.4 inches; girth of calf, 13.3 inches; girth of upper arm, 10.1 inches; girth of thigh, 21.4 inches, and forearm, 9.2 inches.
Miss Anna Wood has given measurements closely similar to those of Professor Sargeant, in her composite figure of the Wellesley College girl, being averaged from the measurements of over 2,000 young women.
Given the height, proportion, and weight of an average physique for the man and woman, what should be the attitude or posture of such an individual, especially when standing? By posture is meant a position of equilibrium of the body which can be maintained for some time, such as standing, sitting, or lying.
For the maintenance of the erect posture the following conditions must be realized: (1) The corresponding halves of the body must be in the same anatomical relation; (2) the centre of gravity of the whole body must fall just in front of the last lumbar vertebra. That the first of these two conditions may be realized there must be a well-developed and symmetrical skeleton and a corresponding symmetrical development of the muscles on the two sides of the body. That the second condition may be realized, there must be such a development of the extensor muscles on the back of the body as will be sufficient to antagonize the flexor muscles on the front of the body.
These conditions are not always realized, and hence certain physical defects are observable, such as obliquity of the head, elevation or depression of the shoulder, curvature of the spine, and so forth.
An old Spanish writer said that “a woman is quite perfect and absolute in beauty if she has thirty good points.” Here they are:
Three things white—the skin, the teeth, the hands.
Three black—the eyes, the eyebrows, the eyelashes.
Three red—the lips, the cheeks, the nails.
Three long—the body, the hair, the hands.
Three short—the teeth, the ears, the feet.
Three broad—the chest, the brow, the space between the eyebrows.
Three narrow—the mouth, the waist, the instep.
Three large—the arm, the loin, the limb.
Three fine—the fingers, the hair, the lips.
Three small—the bust, the nose, the head.