The object of this book is to give the shortest description of human anatomy compatible with the interests of the artist and essential for his work, and to burden his mind as little as possible with names, with technicalities, and with those details which do not bear directly upon the surface forms.It is, unfortunately, impossible to save the art student from the difficulties of the nomenclature employed in anatomy. Attempts made from time to time to simplify it have been found to impair the accuracy and clearness of the necessary descriptions, and have by common consent of teachers been abandoned.Further, inasmuch as the subject-matter is to a large extent made up of hard facts, the task of remembering a string of these confronts the student as soon as he has mastered the nomenclature, with the result that the beginner usually finds the study of anatomy dull and prosaic as well as difficult. The superficial knowledge required for use in the studio seldom leads the student into those higher realms where the study of anatomy becomes fascinating and suggestive, as indicated in some of the later chapters and in the Appendix upon Comparative Anatomy.
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