"Eight heads doesn't make me heroic... It makes me tall."

"Since proportion is concerned with relativity, there must be a unit of comparison. Most widely employed is the head-length, from crown to tip of chin. Vasaari writes of Michelangelo: 'He used to make his figures of nine, ten, or twelve heads (what happened to eleven?), endeavoring to realise a harmony and grace not found in Nature, saying that it was necessary to have the compasses in the eye not in the hand...'1 Certain of Raphael's figures (the painter, not the turtle) are reported to measure only six heads. Cousin prescribed a figure of eight head-lengths, halved at the genitals and quartered at nipples and knees.2 Division is easily commited to memory, but we should be more specific: midpoint at the root of the genitals, quarter points above nipples and below kneecaps. Richer gives seven and one-half head-lengths to the figure, with divisions that have been rather generally adopted by figure artists.3 Yet it is said that tall people frequently measure eight head-lengths.4 The precise number of these units is obviously variable." Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist Stephen Rogers Peck 1 Translation by A. B. Hinds from Georgio Vasari's Lives, vol. IV, E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., N.Y. 2 The system of Jean Cousin (French, XVI century) is presented by Dr. J. Fau in Anatomy of the Human Body, Bailliere, Tindall, and Cox, London. 3 Anaatomie Artistique, E. Plon, Nourrit, et Cie., Paris, 1890. 4 Both dwarfism and giantism may manifest normal proportion, but in the latter there is a tendency to acromegalic features - i.e. prognathous jaw, oversized hands and feet.

Babbet? Crap...

Just when things were looking up...