Violin treatises through the years have consistently emphasised the importance of a comfortable and natural bearing when holding the instrument, but it was not until the early nineteenth century that there was any general agreement on the precise position to be adopted. The nineteenth-century violinist's goal was a noble and relaxed posture, with head upright, feet normally in line but slightly apart, and body-weight distributed with a slight bias towards the left side. The seated position involved bending the right wrist and elbow rather more, turning the right leg slightly inwards (to avoid contact between knee and bow when bowing at the point on the upper strings) and supporting the left leg (and hence the body-weight) on a footstool, thereby enabling the trunk to remain erect. Flesch (1923) considers the position of the feet extremely important, discussing three possible positions: the joined-together, rectangular leg position in which the feet are close together; the acutangular leg position, in which the feet are separated, with either right or left foot advanced and the body-weight on the rear foot (this resembles the recommendations of Suzuki, but the advanced left foot takes the bodyweight); and his preferred ‘spread leg’ position, which offers the greatest stability and freedom. Galamian is more flexible of attitude, claiming that ‘How to stand or to sit should not be the object of exact prescriptions other than that the player should feel at ease.’ However, he does insist that exaggerated body movement should be avoided when playing.