Imagine a full length human being as promoted in all sensible depictions of proportion, anatomy and perspective. Four limbs - a head, a trunk - that'll do nicely. In this section you'll find the different ways in which one of our most basic understanding is undermined, teased with and otherwise messed about with. The game is fundamental and part of most people's doodliing repertoire.

01. from ALBUCASIS' three volume work on surgery Strasburg 1532

02. Giovanni Battista Bracelli, engraving from Variae Caprici , a set of compositions with human beings constructed from inanimate objects.

03. hand coloured lithograph c 1820 Grimaldi as Clown battling with a vegetable man.

04. hand coloured lithograph c 1830 17 x 21 cms

05. from JUDY c1870 English humour magazine

06. The Tin Man illustrated by W.Denslow from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 1900

07.satire on Mrs.Robinson and the Prince of Wales, 1782, see GRAPHIS 16, 1946.

08. E.-A.Petitot, Mascarade de la Grecque, Parma 1771. Petitot worked in Parma as an architect, and this engraving is one of an entertaining set of caprices based on the theme of the human body embedded in classical detail.

09. A Tax Inspector attends a Fancy Dress Ball in the costume that suggests his trade c1922

10. from Gerard de Leiresse, The Art of Painting 1778 - 18 x 24cms, oppos.p.13

11. A Triumph of Taxidermy - Jeremy Betham's Body stuffed and mounted in a case at the Guildhall in London.

12. The Stick Figure Informs from de Beaumont's Fencing Techniques in Pictures
Hulton Press/ The Amateur Fencing Association London 1955

13. Nicholas de L'Armessin, The Shoe Man , print, Paris , about 1720.

14. Zanti and the Elephant - a multifigural ambiguity -Indian print handcoloured c 1820

15. from Harlequin's ABC , W.Johnson London c1845, the alphabet on the traditional clown.

 

other sections

THE FIGURE SEEN FROM BEHIND
FIGURES IN THE JAPANESE PRINT
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MANKIND, HAMMERTON C1935
A GENERAL GALLERY
THE ARCHIMBALDO EFFECT, exhib catalogue, Hulten
GIOVANNI BRACELLI, Bizarre Figures 1624, etchings
THE CONTORTIONIST

 

SINGLES

one

Oral Nora and Miss Wonderful, Inflatable Women from LYDCARE'S catalogue c1976
DADDY IN A LIFESAVING SUIT FROM GOODALL RUBBER
Josephine and Jo from Henry Dreyfuss ergonomic charts Designing for People 1955
deportment and etiquette from TOILETTEN-GESCHENK 1807
DANCERS OF THE BALLETS RUSSES
THE TIN MAN (and the Cheltenham Sweep)
Andry's ORTHOPAEDIA 1743, selected plates
ACUPUNTURE MERIDIANS, CHINA
KUNISADA'S PRINT OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
FLAYED ANATOMICAL FIGURE FRANKFURT 1632
KIRCHER'S ZODIACAL MAN
WILLIAM COWPER'S DIAGRAMS OF THE MAIN ARTERIES
THE TAILOR, by George Bickham , made of the trade ,
FOUR FIGURES SHOWING THE ICONS OF THEIR TRADE
PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH I , by William Rogers in huge overdress, jewels, and extensions
THE LOVERS, MANY GOOD POINTS 1894
Petitot, Masquerade a la Grecque, Parma, 1771
A FAKE GUEST, avoiding 13 at a table
Men Stilts (knitting) Sart Entertainment (Stilts)
Figures made from implements 1896
Bunbury's Whims (Square, Round, Triangle)
The Minuet, a Midnight Revel (dancing objects 1828)
Comic Composites for the scrap book 1829
A Chinese Lady from a climbing Plant (1896)
Three Jesuit Martyrs 1675 Matthias Tanner
The Burry Man c1935
Man with Huge Religious Hat (Customs of the World)
Man hit by Lightning - what's left
Animals as Furniture
John Leech's cricketing figures
Robots
AN ELEPHANT TRUNCATED, the Duke of Edinburgh
A MONUMENT TO FIFTEEN MINUTES 1950
Metal Idol found at Prillwitz 1771

 

SINGLES

two

TATTOOED WARRIOR IN THE SOUTH SEAS, from Crusenstern
Samuel Wood and his severed arm 1727
Giovanni Braccelli, Bizarre Figures, engraving 1624
Florence Upton, The Vege-Men's revenge 1897
Bird Cage Man, London Cries c 1860
A Man dressed in Matchboxes, Bryant and May c1900
Man with Muff (William of Orange) 1690
English Sampson in roundels, 1699
Curious Old Travellers' tales, reported monsters
Fred Sweetchild's geometric figures
The Performing Monopeds, the Brothers Donato
Town stands on Head, 1940
Figures in Gas Masks, Work or Play, Dextrose 1944
Encased in Glass (Duplate Safety, Blockheads) 1934
George Cruikshank, Sugar and Spice, a Food Figure c1810
Health and Electricity Le Petit Journal 1983 (Sanden's Belt)
Wiley Post's Rubber Suit 1935
A Housewife in a Jar, Michigan Alkali 1942
A Family in a Water Jug, Mathiesen 1949
The Miracle of the Glass Boot c1940
Body Working Model c1960
Figure in a Draughting Pose seen through Graphing Surface FORTUNE c1943
Figure WITH FACIAL PATCH, FORTUNE C 1936

 

SINGLES

three

 

Her Better Half isn't Working Today 1942
The Painter in Halves, product and date unknown
seen through a display screen c1948
Boy at the Dentist, 1945
The Transparent Woman from the German Museum of Hygiene
H.G.WELLS, The Science of Life, The Body Machine at Work 1931
La Milo, the Human Statue (Pansy Montague) c1895
Lilliput 1950, Your Candidate Inside Out
Ezechielem Explanationes, Vitruvian Man , body of man and cathedral
ARCHITECTURA CIVIL, Paranymphic Columns
ANTONIO GORI, Museum Florentium vol 3 Antiqua numismata aurea et argentea , 1740, sculptural figure from the antique
E.A.Petitot , Satire on the Greek Taste 1771
ROBERT DIGHTON , Life and Death Contrasted, Men 1784
ROBERT DIGHTON , Life and Death Contrasted, Women 1784

Peter Newell THE TOPSYS AND THE TURVEYS, the page read 2 ways Tramps and Girls,
Personalised Swimming suit, with and without helmet c1895
The Hydraspis, A MACHINE TO WALK ON WATER
VINEYARD BIRD SCARER in the South Tyrol
THE DANCE OF THE DOW as recorded by Captain Binger
THE JINGLING FAKIR with 670 pounds of chain links
Altzenbach DEATH AS A WOMAN, a clothed skelton
PLASTER FIGURE FROM 12 Girls in Uniform c1844