A Treatise on Painting/Chapter 14
Chap. XIV.—The Danger of forming an erroneous Judgment in regard to the Proportion and Beauty of the Parts.
If the painter has clumsy hands, he will be apt to introduce them into his works, and so of any other part of his person, which may not happen to be so beautiful as it ought to be. He must, therefore, guard particularly against that self-love, or too good opinion of his own person, and study by every means to acquire the knowledge of what is most beautiful, and of his own defects, that he may adopt the one and avoid the other.