The prominence given to the ivy-crowned old soldier troubled by his hose confirms the accuracy of the Holkham picture and the Albertina drawing.

But none of these partial transcripts left to us convey that sense of multitude, space, and varied action which Vasari's words impress on the imagination.

The fullest, that at Holkham, contains nineteen figures, and these are schematically arranged in three planes, with outlying subjects in foreground and background.

Reduced in scale, and treated with the arid touch of a feeble craftsman, the linear composition suggests no large aesthetic charm.

It is simply a bas-relief of carefully selected attitudes and vigorously studied movements -- nineteen men, more or less unclothed, put together with the scientific view of illustrating possibilities and conquering difficulties in postures of the adult male body.