Page:Thoughts on art and life.djvu/153

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72.

No figure will be admirable if the gesture which expresses the passion of the soul is not visible in it. The most admirable figure is that which best I expresses the passion of its mind.

73.

The good painter has two principal things to depict: man and the purpose of his mind. The first is easy, the second is difficult, since he must do it by the gestures and movements of the limbs, and this is to be learnt from the dumb, who more than all other men excel in it.

74.

The figures of men have gestures which correspond to what they are doing, so that in seeing them you understand what they are thinking of and saying; and these will be learned well by j him who will copy the gestures of the dumb, for pajnterthey speak by the gestures of their hands, their eyes, their brows and their whole person, when they wish to express the purpose of their mind. And do not mock me because I suggest a dumb teacher for the teaching of an art of which he is himself ignorant, because he will teach you better by his gestures than all the others with their words. And despise not such advice because they are the masters of gesture, and understand at a

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