Leonardo Da Vinci
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
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Table of contents
PREFACE.
INTRODUCTION.
II.
PERSPECTIVE.
III.
FIRST BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
SECOND BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
THIRD BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
FOURTH BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
FIFTH BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
SIXTH BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
IV.
V.
WHAT PORTION OF A COLOURED SURFACE OUGHT IN REASON TO BE THE MOST INTENSE.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE ELM.
IX.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
_X.
XI.
XII.
_XIII.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
XIV.
I.
II.
III.
XV
I.
II.
III.
_XVI.
I.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
XVII.
I.
CANAL.
II.
III.
IV.
XVIII.
XIX.
I.
II.
III.
XX.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
XXI.
XXII.
PREFACE.
A
singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous
of Leonardo da Vinci's works. Two of the three most important were
never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which
obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and
the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the third—the
picture of the Last Supper at Milan—has suffered irremediable
injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was
recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries.
Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so
wellknown and popular through copies of every description.Vasari
says, and rightly, in his Life of Leonardo, "that he laboured
much more by his word than in fact or by deed", and the
biographer evidently had in his mind the numerous works in Manuscript
which have been preserved to this day. To us, now, it seems almost
inexplicable that these valuable and interesting original texts
should have remained so long unpublished, and indeed forgotten. It is
certain that during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries their exceptional
value was highly appreciated. This is proved not merely by the prices
which they commanded, but also by the exceptional interest which has
been attached to the change of ownership of merely a few pages of
Manuscript.That,
notwithstanding this eagerness to possess the Manuscripts, their
contents remained a mystery, can only be accounted for by the many
and great difficulties attending the task of deciphering them. The
handwriting is so peculiar that it requires considerable practice to
read even a few detached phrases, much more to solve with any
certainty the numerous difficulties of alternative readings, and to
master the sense as a connected whole. Vasari observes with reference
to Leonardos writing: "he wrote backwards, in rude characters,
and with the left hand, so that any one who is not practised in
reading them, cannot understand them". The aid of a mirror in
reading reversed handwriting appears to me available only for a first
experimental reading. Speaking from my own experience, the persistent
use of it is too fatiguing and inconvenient to be practically
advisable, considering the enormous mass of Manuscripts to be
deciphered. And as, after all, Leonardo's handwriting runs backwards
just as all Oriental character runs backwards—that is to say from
right to left—the difficulty of reading direct from the writing is
not insuperable. This obvious peculiarity in the writing is not,
however, by any means the only obstacle in the way of mastering the
text. Leonardo made use of an orthography peculiar to himself; he had
a fashion of amalgamating several short words into one long one, or,
again, he would quite arbitrarily divide a long word into two
separate halves; added to this there is no punctuation whatever to
regulate the division and construction of the sentences, nor are
there any accents—and the reader may imagine that such difficulties
were almost sufficient to make the task seem a desperate one to a
beginner. It is therefore not surprising that the good intentions of
some of Leonardo s most reverent admirers should have failed.Leonardos
literary labours in various departments both of Art and of Science
were those essentially of an enquirer, hence the analytical method is
that which he employs in arguing out his investigations and
dissertations. The vast structure of his scientific theories is
consequently built up of numerous separate researches, and it is much
to be lamented that he should never have collated and arranged them.
His love for detailed research—as it seems to me—was the reason
that in almost all the Manuscripts, the different paragraphs appear
to us to be in utter confusion; on one and the same page,
observations on the most dissimilar subjects follow each other
without any connection. A page, for instance, will begin with some
principles of astronomy, or the motion of the earth; then come the
laws of sound, and finally some precepts as to colour. Another page
will begin with his investigations on the structure of the
intestines, and end with philosophical remarks as to the relations of
poetry to painting; and so forth.Leonardo
himself lamented this confusion, and for that reason I do not think
that the publication of the texts in the order in which they occur in
the originals would at all fulfil his intentions. No reader could
find his way through such a labyrinth; Leonardo himself could not
have done it.Added
to this, more than half of the five thousand manuscript pages which
now remain to us, are written on loose leaves, and at present
arranged in a manner which has no justification beyond the fancy of
the collector who first brought them together to make volumes of more
or less extent. Nay, even in the volumes, the pages of which were
numbered by Leonardo himself, their order, so far as the connection
of the texts was concerned, was obviously a matter of indifference to
him. The only point he seems to have kept in view, when first writing
down his notes, was that each observation should be complete to the
end on the page on which it was begun. The exceptions to this rule
are extremely few, and it is certainly noteworthy that we find in
such cases, in bound volumes with his numbered pages, the written
observations: "turn over", "This is the continuation
of the previous page", and the like. Is not this sufficient to
prove that it was only in quite exceptional cases that the writer
intended the consecutive pages to remain connected, when he should,
at last, carry out the often planned arrangement of his writings?What
this final arrangement was to be, Leonardo has in most cases
indicated with considerable completeness. In other cases this
authoritative clue is wanting, but the difficulties arising from this
are not insuperable; for, as the subject of the separate paragraphs
is always distinct and well defined in itself, it is quite possible
to construct a well-planned whole, out of the scattered materials of
his scientific system, and I may venture to state that I have devoted
especial care and thought to the due execution of this responsible
task.The
beginning of Leonardo's literary labours dates from about his
thirty-seventh year, and he seems to have carried them on without any
serious interruption till his death. Thus the Manuscripts that remain
represent a period of about thirty years. Within this space of time
his handwriting altered so little that it is impossible to judge from
it of the date of any particular text. The exact dates, indeed, can
only be assigned to certain note-books in which the year is
incidentally indicated, and in which the order of the leaves has not
been altered since Leonardo used them. The assistance these afford
for a chronological arrangement of the Manuscripts is generally self
evident. By this clue I have assigned to the original Manuscripts now
scattered through England, Italy and France, the order of their
production, as in many matters of detail it is highly important to be
able to verify the time and place at which certain observations were
made and registered. For this purpose the Bibliography of the
Manuscripts given at the end of Vol. II, may be regarded as an Index,
not far short of complete, of all Leonardo s literary works now
extant. The consecutive numbers (from 1 to 1566) at the head of each
passage in this work, indicate their logical sequence with reference
to the subjects; while the letters and figures to the left of each
paragraph refer to the original Manuscript and number of the page, on
which that particular passage is to be found. Thus the reader, by
referring to the List of Manuscripts at the beginning of Volume I,
and to the Bibliography at the end of Volume II, can, in every
instance, easily ascertain, not merely the period to which the
passage belongs, but also exactly where it stood in the original
document. Thus, too, by following the sequence of the numbers in the
Bibliographical index, the reader may reconstruct the original order
of the Manuscripts and recompose the various texts to be found on the
original sheets—so much of it, that is to say, as by its
subject-matter came within the scope of this work. It may, however,
be here observed that Leonardo s Manuscripts contain, besides the
passages here printed, a great number of notes and dissertations on
Mechanics, Physics, and some other subjects, many of which could only
be satisfactorily dealt with by specialists. I have given as complete
a review of these writings as seemed necessary in the Bibliographical
notes.In
1651, Raphael Trichet Dufresne, of Paris, published a selection from
Leonardo's writings on painting, and this treatise became so popular
that it has since been reprinted about two-and-twenty times, and in
six different languages. But none of these editions were derived from
the original texts, which were supposed to have been lost, but from
early copies, in which Leonardo's text had been more or less
mutilated, and which were all fragmentary. The oldest and on the
whole the best copy of Leonardo's essays and precepts on Painting is
in the Vatican Library; this has been twice printed, first by Manzi,
in 1817, and secondly by Ludwig, in 1882. Still, this ancient copy,
and the published editions of it, contain much for which it would be
rash to hold Leonardo responsible, and some portions—such as the
very important rules for the proportions of the human figure—are
wholly wanting; on the other hand they contain passages which, if
they are genuine, cannot now be verified from any original Manuscript
extant. These copies, at any rate neither give us the original order
of the texts, as written by Leonardo, nor do they afford any
substitute, by connecting them on a rational scheme; indeed, in their
chaotic confusion they are anything rather than satisfactory reading.
The fault, no doubt, rests with the compiler of the Vatican copy,
which would seem to be the source whence all the published and
extensively known texts were derived; for, instead of arranging the
passages himself, he was satisfied with recording a suggestion for a
final arrangement of them into eight distinct parts, without
attempting to carry out his scheme. Under the mistaken idea that this
plan of distribution might be that, not of the compiler, but of
Leonardo himself, the various editors, down to the present day, have
very injudiciously continued to adopt this order—or rather
disorder.I,
like other enquirers, had given up the original Manuscript of the
Trattato della Pittura for lost, till, in the beginning of 1880, I
was enabled, by the liberality of Lord Ashburnham, to inspect his
Manuscripts, and was so happy as to discover among them the original
text of the best-known portion of the Trattato in his magnificent
library at Ashburnham Place. Though this discovery was of a fragment
only—but a considerable fragment—inciting me to further search,
it gave the key to the mystery which had so long enveloped the first
origin of all the known copies of the Trattato. The extensive
researches I was subsequently enabled to prosecute, and the results
of which are combined in this work, were only rendered possible by
the unrestricted permission granted me to investigate all the
Manuscripts by Leonardo dispersed throughout Europe, and to reproduce
the highly important original sketches they contain, by the process
of "photogravure". Her Majesty the Queen graciously
accorded me special permission to copy for publication the
Manuscripts at the Royal Library at Windsor. The Commission Centrale
Administrative de l'Institut de France, Paris, gave me, in the most
liberal manner, in answer to an application from Sir Frederic
Leighton, P. R. A., Corresponding member of the Institut, free
permission to work for several months in their private collection at
deciphering the Manuscripts preserved there. The same favour which
Lord Ashburnham had already granted me was extended to me by the Earl
of Leicester, the Marchese Trivulsi, and the Curators of the
Ambrosian Library at Milan, by the Conte Manzoni at Rome and by other
private owners of Manuscripts of Leonardo's; as also by the Directors
of the Louvre at Paris; the Accademia at Venice; the Uffizi at
Florence; the Royal Library at Turin; and the British Museum, and the
South Kensington Museum. I am also greatly indebted to the Librarians
of these various collections for much assistance in my labours; and
more particularly to Monsieur Louis Lalanne, of the Institut de
France, the Abbate Ceriani, of the Ambrosian Library, Mr. Maude
Thompson, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, Mr. Holmes,
the Queens Librarian at Windsor, the Revd Vere Bayne, Librarian of
Christ Church College at Oxford, and the Revd A. Napier, Librarian to
the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall.In
correcting the Italian text for the press, I have had the advantage
of valuable advice from the Commendatore Giov. Morelli, Senatore del
Regno, and from Signor Gustavo Frizzoni, of Milan. The translation,
under many difficulties, of the Italian text into English, is mainly
due to Mrs. R. C. Bell; while the rendering of several of the most
puzzling and important passages, particularly in the second half of
Vol. I, I owe to the indefatigable interest taken in this work by Mr.
E. J. Poynter R. A. Finally I must express my thanks to Mr. Alfred
Marks, of Long Ditton, who has most kindly assisted me throughout in
the revision of the proof sheets.The
notes and dissertations on the texts on Architecture in Vol. III
owe to my friend Baron Henri de Geymuller, of Paris.I
may further mention with regard to the illustrations, that the
negatives for the production of the "photo-gravures" by
Monsieur Dujardin of Paris were all taken direct from the originals.It
is scarcely necessary to add that most of the drawings here
reproduced in facsimile have never been published before. As I am
now, on the termination of a work of several years' duration, in a
position to review the general tenour of Leonardos writings, I may
perhaps be permitted to add a word as to my own estimate of the value
of their contents. I have already shown that it is due to nothing but
a fortuitous succession of unfortunate circumstances, that we should
not, long since, have known Leonardo, not merely as a Painter, but as
an Author, a Philosopher, and a Naturalist. There can be no doubt
that in more than one department his principles and discoveries were
infinitely more in accord with the teachings of modern science, than
with the views of his contemporaries. For this reason his
extraordinary gifts and merits are far more likely to be appreciated
in our own time than they could have been during the preceding
centuries. He has been unjustly accused of having squandered his
powers, by beginning a variety of studies and then, having hardly
begun, throwing them aside. The truth is that the labours of three
centuries have hardly sufficed for the elucidation of some of the
problems which occupied his mighty mind.Alexander
von Humboldt has borne witness that "he was the first to start
on the road towards the point where all the impressions of our senses
converge in the idea of the Unity of Nature" Nay, yet more may
be said. The very words which are inscribed on the monument of
Alexander von Humboldt himself, at Berlin, are perhaps the most
appropriate in which we can sum up our estimate of Leonardo's genius:"Majestati
naturae par ingenium."1.How
by a certain machine many may stay some time under water. And how and
wherefore I do not describe my method of remaining under water and
how long I can remain without eating. And I do not publish nor
divulge these, by reason of the evil nature of men, who would use
them for assassinations at the bottom of the sea by destroying ships,
and sinking them, together with the men in them. Nevertheless I will
impart others, which are not dangerous because the mouth of the tube
through which you breathe is above the water, supported on air sacks
or cork.[Footnote:
The leaf on which this passage is written, is headed with the words
Casi 39, and most
of these cases begin with the word 'Come',
like the two here given, which are the 26th and 27th. 7.
Sughero. In the
Codex Antlanticus 377a; 1170a there is a sketch, drawn with the pen,
representing a man with a tube in his mouth, and at the farther end
of the tube a disk. By the tube the word 'Channa'
is written, and by the disk the word 'sughero'.]The
preparation of the MSS. for publication.2.When
you put together the science of the motions of water, remember to
include under each proposition its application and use, in order that
this science may not be useless.—[Footnote:
A comparatively small portion of Leonardo's notes on water-power was
published at Bologna in 1828, under the title: "Del
moto e misura dell'Acqua, di L. da Vinci".]Admonition
to readers.3.Let
no man who is not a Mathematician read the elements of my work.The
disorder in the MSS.4.Begun
at Florence, in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli, on the 22nd
day of March 1508. And this is to be a collection without order,
taken from many papers which I have copied here, hoping to arrange
them later each in its place, according to the subjects of which they
may treat. But I believe that before I am at the end of this [task] I
shall have to repeat the same things several times; for which, O
reader! do not blame me, for the subjects are many and memory cannot
retain them [all] and say: 'I will not write this because I wrote it
before.' And if I wished to avoid falling into this fault, it would
be necessary in every case when I wanted to copy [a passage] that,
not to repeat myself, I should read over all that had gone before;
and all the more since the intervals are long between one time of
writing and the next.[Footnote:
1. In the history of Florence in the early part of the XVIth century
Piero di Braccio Martelli
is frequently mentioned as
Commissario della Signoria.
He was famous for his learning and at his death left four books on
Mathematics ready for the press; comp. LITTA,
Famiglie celebri Italiane,
Famiglia Martelli di Firenze.—In
the Official Catalogue of MSS. in the Brit. Mus., New Series Vol. I.,
where this passage is printed,
Barto has been
wrongly given for Braccio.2.
addi 22 di marzo 1508.
The Christian era was computed in Florence at that time from the
Incarnation (Lady day, March 25th). Hence this should be 1509 by our
reckoning.3.
racolto tratto di molte carte le quali io ho qui copiate.
We must suppose that Leonardo means that he has copied out his own
MSS. and not those of others. The first thirteen leaves of the MS. in
the Brit. Mus. are a fair copy of some notes on physics.]Suggestions
for the arrangement of MSS treating of particular subjects.(5-8).5.Of
digging a canal. Put this in the Book of useful inventions and in
proving them bring forward the propositions already proved. And this
is the proper order; since if you wished to show the usefulness of
any plan you would be obliged again to devise new machines to prove
its utility and thus would confuse the order of the forty Books and
also the order of the diagrams; that is to say you would have to mix
up practice with theory, which would produce a confused and
incoherent work.6.I
am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on
science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion.7.The
Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful
inventions.—Have your books on anatomy bound! [Footnote: 4. The
numerous notes on anatomy written on loose leaves and now in the
Royal collection at Windsor can best be classified in four Books,
corresponding to the different character and size of the paper. When
Leonardo speaks of 'li
tua libri di notomia',
he probably means the MSS. which still exist; if this hypothesis is
correct the present condition of these leaves might seem to prove
that he only carried out his purpose with one of the Books on
anatomy. A borrowed book on Anatomy is mentioned in F.O.]8.The
order of your book must proceed on this plan: first simple beams,
then (those) supported from below, then suspended in part, then
wholly [suspended]. Then beams as supporting other weights [Footnote:
4. Leonardo's notes on Mechanics are extraordinarily numerous; but,
for the reasons assigned in my introduction, they have not been
included in the present work.].General
introductions to the book on Painting (9-13).
INTRODUCTION.
Seeing
that I can find no subject specially useful or pleasing—since the
men who have come before me have taken for their own every useful or
necessary theme—I must do like one who, being poor, comes last to
the fair, and can find no other way of providing himself than by
taking all the things already seen by other buyers, and not taken but
refused by reason of their lesser value. I, then, will load my humble
pack with this despised and rejected merchandise, the refuse of so
many buyers; and will go about to distribute it, not indeed in great
cities, but in the poorer towns, taking such a price as the wares I
offer may be worth. [Footnote: It need hardly be pointed out that
there is in this 'Proemio' a covert irony. In the second and third
prefaces, Leonardo characterises his rivals and opponents more
closely. His protest is directed against Neo-latinism as professed by
most of the humanists of his time; its futility is now no longer
questioned.]10.INTRODUCTION.I
know that many will call this useless work [Footnote: 3. questa
essere opera inutile. By opera we must here understand libro di
pittura and particularly the treatise on Perspective.]; and they will
be those of whom Demetrius [Footnote: 4. Demetrio. "With regard
to the passage attributed to Demetrius", Dr. H. MÜLLER STRÜBING
writes, "I know not what to make of it. It is certainly not
Demetrius Phalereus that is meant and it can hardly be Demetrius
Poliorcetes. Who then can it be—for the name is a very common one?
It may be a clerical error for Demades and the maxim is quite in the
spirit of his writings I have not however been able to find any
corresponding passage either in the 'Fragments' (C. MULLER,
Orat. Att., II.
441) nor in the Supplements collected by DIETZ (Rhein.
Mus., vol. 29, p.
108)."The
same passage occurs as a simple Memorandum in the MS. Tr. 57,
apparently as a note for this 'Proemio'
thus affording some data as to the time where these introductions
were written.] declared that he took no more account of the wind that
came out their mouth in words, than of that they expelled from their
lower parts: men who desire nothing but material riches and are
absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and the only
true riches of the mind. For so much more worthy as the soul is than
the body, so much more noble are the possessions of the soul than
those of the body. And often, when I see one of these men take this
work in his hand, I wonder that he does not put it to his nose, like
a monkey, or ask me if it is something good to eat.[Footnote:
In the original, the Proemio dě prospettiva cioč dell'uffitio
dell'occhio (see No. 21) stands between this and the preceding one,
No. 9.]INTRODUCTION.I
am fully concious that, not being a literary man, certain
presumptuous persons will think that they may reasonably blame me;
alleging that I am not a man of letters. Foolish folks! do they not
know that I might retort as Marius did to the Roman Patricians
[Footnote 21: Come
Mario disse ai patriti Romani.
"I am unable to find the words here attributed by Leonardo to
Marius, either in Plutarch's Life of Marius or in the Apophthegmata
(Moralia,
p.202). Nor do they occur in the writings of Valerius Maximus (who
frequently mentions Marius) nor in Velleius Paterculus (II, 11 to
43), Dio Cassius, Aulus Gellius, or Macrobius. Professor E. MENDELSON
of Dorpat, the editor of Herodian, assures me that no such passage is
the found in that author" (communication from Dr. MULLER
STRUBING). Leonardo evidently meant to allude to some well known
incident in Roman history and the mention of Marius is the result
probably of some confusion. We may perhaps read, for Marius, Menenius
Agrippa, though in that case it is true we must alter Patriti to
Plebei. The change is a serious one. but it would render the passage
perfectly clear.] by saying: That they, who deck themselves out in
the labours of others will not allow me my own. They will say that I,
having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire
to treat of [Footnote 26:
le mie cose …. che d'altra parola.
This can hardly be reconciled with Mons. RAVAISSON'S estimate of L.
da Vinci's learning. "Leonard
de Vinci etait un admirateur et un disciple des anciens, aussi bien
dans l'art que dans la science et il tenait a passer pour tel meme
aux yeux de la posterite."
_Gaz. des Beaux arts. Oct. 1877.]; but they do not know that my
subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words
[Footnote 28: See Footnote 26]; and [experience] has been the
mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite
her in all cases.11.Though
I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on
that which is much greater and more worthy:—on experience, the
mistress of their Masters. They go about puffed up and pompous,
dressed and decorated with [the fruits], not of their own labours,
but of those of others. And they will not allow me my own. They will
scorn me as an inventor; but how much more might they—who are not
inventors but vaunters and declaimers of the works of others—be
blamed.INTRODUCTION.And
those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man,
as compared with boasters and declaimers of the works of others, must
be regarded and not otherwise esteemed than as the object in front of
a mirror, when compared with its image seen in the mirror. For the
first is something in itself, and the other nothingness.—Folks
little indebted to Nature, since it is only by chance that they wear
the human form and without it I might class them with the herds of
beasts.12.Many
will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs
are opposed to the authority of certain men held in the highest
reverence by their inexperienced judgments; not considering that my
works are the issue of pure and simple experience, who is the one
true mistress. These rules are sufficient to enable you to know the
true from the false—and this aids men to look only for things that
are possible and with due moderation—and not to wrap yourself in
ignorance, a thing which can have no good result, so that in despair
you would give yourself up to melancholy.13.Among
all the studies of natural causes and reasons Light chiefly delights
the beholder; and among the great features of Mathematics the
certainty of its demonstrations is what preeminently (tends to)
elevate the mind of the investigator. Perspective, therefore, must be
preferred to all the discourses and systems of human learning. In
this branch [of science] the beam of light is explained on those
methods of demonstration which form the glory not so much of
Mathematics as of Physics and are graced with the flowers of both
[Footnote: 5. Such of Leonardo's notes on Optics or on Perspective as
bear exclusively on Mathematics or Physics could not be included in
the arrangement of the
libro di pittura
which is here presented to the reader. They are however but few.].
But its axioms being laid down at great length, I shall abridge them
to a conclusive brevity, arranging them on the method both of their
natural order and of mathematical demonstration; sometimes by
deduction of the effects from the causes, and sometimes arguing the
causes from the effects; adding also to my own conclusions some
which, though not included in them, may nevertheless be inferred from
them. Thus, if the Lord—who is the light of all things—vouchsafe
to enlighten me, I will treat of Light; wherefore I will divide the
present work into 3 Parts [Footnote: 10. In the middle ages—for
instance, by ROGER BACON, by VITELLONE, with whose works Leonardo was
certainly familiar, and by all the writers of the Renaissance
Perspective and Optics were not regarded as distinct sciences.
Perspective, indeed, is in its widest application the science of
seeing. Although to Leonardo the two sciences were clearly separate,
it is not so as to their names; thus we find axioms in Optics under
the heading Perspective. According to this arrangement of the
materials for the theoretical portion of the
libro di pittura
propositions in Perspective and in Optics stand side by side or occur
alternately. Although this particular chapter deals only with Optics,
it is not improbable that the words
partirň la presente opera in 3 parti
may refer to the same division into three sections which is spoken of
in chapters 14 to 17.].The
plan of the book on Painting (14—17).14.ON
THE THREE BRANCHES OF PERSPECTIVE.There
are three branches of perspective; the first deals with the reasons
of the (apparent) diminution of objects as they recede from the eye,
and is known as Diminishing Perspective.—The second contains the
way in which colours vary as they recede from the eye. The third and
last is concerned with the explanation of how the objects [in a
picture] ought to be less finished in proportion as they are remote
(and the names are as follows):Linear
Perspective. The Perspective of Colour. The Perspective
ofDisappearance.[Footnote:
13. From the character of the handwriting I infer that this passage
was written before the year 1490.].15.ON
PAINTING AND PERSPECTIVE.The
divisions of Perspective are 3, as used in drawing; of these, the
first includes the diminution in size of opaque objects; the second
treats of the diminution and loss of outline in such opaque objects;
the third, of the diminution and loss of colour at long distances.[Footnote:
The division is here the same as in the previous chapter No. 14, and
this is worthy of note when we connect it with the fact that a space
of about 20 years must have intervened between the writing of the two
passages.]16.THE
DISCOURSE ON PAINTING.Perspective,
as bearing on drawing, is divided into three principal sections; of
which the first treats of the diminution in the size of bodies at
different distances. The second part is that which treats of the
diminution in colour in these objects. The third [deals with] the
diminished distinctness of the forms and outlines displayed by the
objects at various distances.17.ON
THE SECTIONS OF [THE BOOK ON] PAINTING.The
first thing in painting is that the objects it represents should
appear in relief, and that the grounds surrounding them at different
distances shall appear within the vertical plane of the foreground of
the picture by means of the 3 branches of Perspective, which are: the
diminution in the distinctness of the forms of the objects, the
diminution in their magnitude; and the diminution in their colour.
And of these 3 classes of Perspective the first results from [the
structure of] the eye, while the other two are caused by the
atmosphere which intervenes between the eye and the objects seen by
it. The second essential in painting is appropriate action and a due
variety in the figures, so that the men may not all look like
brothers, &c.[Footnote:
This and the two foregoing chapters must have been written in 1513 to
1516. They undoubtedly indicate the scheme which Leonardo wished to
carry out in arranging his researches on Perspective as applied to
Painting. This is important because it is an evidence against the
supposition of H. LUDWIG and others, that Leonardo had collected his
principles of Perspective in one book so early as before 1500; a Book
which, according to the hypothesis, must have been lost at a very
early period, or destroyed possibly, by the French (!) in 1500 (see
H. LUDWIG. L. da Vinci:
Das Buch van der Malerei.
Vienna 1882 III, 7 and 8).]The
use of the book on Painting.18.These
rules are of use only in correcting the figures; since every man
makes some mistakes in his first compositions and he who knows them
not, cannot amend them. But you, knowing your errors, will correct
your works and where you find mistakes amend them, and remember never
to fall into them again. But if you try to apply these rules in
composition you will never make an end, and will produce confusion in
your works.These
rules will enable you to have a free and sound judgment; since good
judgment is born of clear understanding, and a clear understanding
comes of reasons derived from sound rules, and sound rules are the
issue of sound experience—the common mother of all the sciences and
arts. Hence, bearing in mind the precepts of my rules, you will be
able, merely by your amended judgment, to criticise and recognise
every thing that is out of proportion in a work, whether in the
perspective or in the figures or any thing else.Necessity
of theoretical knowledge (19. 20).19.OF
THE MISTAKES MADE BY THOSE WHO PRACTISE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE.Those
who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor
who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be
certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound
theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and
without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.20.The
painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason,
is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it
without being conscious of their existence.The
function of the eye (21-23).INTRODUCTION
TO PERSPECTIVE:—THAT IS OF THE FUNCTION OF THE EYE.Behold
here O reader! a thing concerning which we cannot trust our
forefathers, the ancients, who tried to define what the Soul and Life
are—which are beyond proof, whereas those things, which can at any
time be clearly known and proved by experience, remained for many
ages unknown or falsely understood. The eye, whose function we so
certainly know by experience, has, down to my own time, been defined
by an infinite number of authors as one thing; but I find, by
experience, that it is quite another. [Footnote 13: Compare the note
to No. 70.][Footnote:
In section 13 we already find it indicated that the study of
Perspective and of Optics is to be based on that of the functions of
the eye. Leonardo also refers to the science of the eye, in his
astronomical researches, for instance in MS. F 25b 'Ordine
del provare la terra essere una stella: Imprima difinisce l'occhio',
&c. Compare also MS. E 15b and F 60b. The principles of
astronomical perspective.]22.Here
[in the eye] forms, here colours, here the character of every part of
the universe are concentrated to a point; and that point is so
marvellous a thing … Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity—by
thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its
cause, by the shortest path. These [indeed] are miracles;…In
so small a space it can be reproduced and rearranged in its whole
expanse. Describe in your anatomy what proportion there is between
the diameters of all the images in the eye and the distance from them
of the crystalline lens.23.OF
THE 10 ATTRIBUTES OF THE EYE, ALL CONCERNED IN PAINTING.Painting
is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which
are:—Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position,
Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest. This little work of mine
will be a tissue [of the studies] of these attributes, reminding the
painter of the rules and methods by which he should use his art to
imitate all the works of Nature which adorn the world.24.ON
PAINTING.Variability
of the eye.1st.
The pupil of the eye contracts, in proportion to the increase of
light which is reflected in it. 2nd. The pupil of the eye expands in
proportion to the diminution in the day light, or any other light,
that is reflected in it. 3rd. [Footnote: 8. The subject of this third
proposition we find fully discussed in MS. G. 44a.]. The eye
perceives and recognises the objects of its vision with greater
intensity in proportion as the pupil is more widely dilated; and this
can be proved by the case of nocturnal animals, such as cats, and
certain birds—as the owl and others—in which the pupil varies in
a high degree from large to small, &c., when in the dark or in
the light. 4th. The eye [out of doors] in an illuminated atmosphere
sees darkness behind the windows of houses which [nevertheless] are
light. 5th. All colours when placed in the shade appear of an equal
degree of darkness, among themselves. 6th. But all colours when
placed in a full light, never vary from their true and essential hue.25.OF
THE EYE.Focus
of sight.If
the eye is required to look at an object placed too near to it, it
cannot judge of it well—as happens to a man who tries to see the
tip of his nose. Hence, as a general rule, Nature teaches us that an
object can never be seen perfectly unless the space between it and
the eye is equal, at least, to the length of the face.Differences
of perception by one eye and by both eyes (26-29).26.OF
THE EYE.When
both eyes direct the pyramid of sight to an object, that object
becomes clearly seen and comprehended by the eyes.27.Objects
seen by one and the same eye appear sometimes large, and sometimes
small.28.The
motion of a spectator who sees an object at rest often makes it seem
as though the object at rest had acquired the motion of the moving
body, while the moving person appears to be at rest.ON
PAINTING.Objects
in relief, when seen from a short distance with one eye, look like a
perfect picture. If you look with the eye
a,
b at the spot
c, this point
c will appear to be
at d,
f, and if you look
at it with the eye
g,
h will appear to be
at m.
A picture can never contain in itself both aspects.29.Let
the object in relief
t be seen by both
eyes; if you will look at the object with the right eye
m, keeping the left
eye n
shut, the object will appear, or fill up the space, at
a; and if you shut
the right eye and open the left, the object (will occupy the) space
b; and if you open
both eyes, the object will no longer appear at
a or
b, but at
e,
r,
f. Why will not a
picture seen by both eyes produce the effect of relief, as [real]
relief does when seen by both eyes; and why should a picture seen
with one eye give the same effect of relief as real relief would
under the same conditions of light and shade?[Footnote:
In the sketch, m
is the left eye and
n the right, while
the text reverses this lettering. We must therefore suppose that the
face in which the eyes
m and
n are placed is
opposite to the spectator.]30.The
comparative size of the image depends on the amount of light (30-39).The
eye will hold and retain in itself the image of a luminous body
better than that of a shaded object. The reason is that the eye is in
itself perfectly dark and since two things that are alike cannot be
distinguished, therefore the night, and other dark objects cannot be
seen or recognised by the eye. Light is totally contrary and gives
more distinctness, and counteracts and differs from the usual
darkness of the eye, hence it leaves the impression of its image.31.Every
object we see will appear larger at midnight than at midday, and
larger in the morning than at midday.This
happens because the pupil of the eye is much smaller at midday than
at any other time.32.The
pupil which is largest will see objects the largest. This is evident
when we look at luminous bodies, and particularly at those in the
sky. When the eye comes out of darkness and suddenly looks up at
these bodies, they at first appear larger and then diminish; and if
you were to look at those bodies through a small opening, you would
see them smaller still, because a smaller part of the pupil would
exercise its function.[Footnote:
9. buso
in the Lomb. dialect is the same as
buco.]33.When
the eye, coming out of darkness suddenly sees a luminous body, it
will appear much larger at first sight than after long looking at it.
The illuminated object will look larger and more brilliant, when seen
with two eyes than with only one. A luminous object will appear
smaller in size, when the eye sees it through a smaller opening. A
luminous body of an oval form will appear rounder in proportion as it
is farther from the eye.34.Why
when the eye has just seen the light, does the half light look dark
to it, and in the same way if it turns from the darkness the half
light look very bright?35.ON
PAINTING.If
the eye, when [out of doors] in the luminous atmosphere, sees a place
in shadow, this will look very much darker than it really is. This
happens only because the eye when out in the air contracts the pupil
in proportion as the atmosphere reflected in it is more luminous. And
the more the pupil contracts, the less luminous do the objects appear
that it sees. But as soon as the eye enters into a shady place the
darkness of the shadow suddenly seems to diminish. This occurs
because the greater the darkness into which the pupil goes the more
its size increases, and this increase makes the darkness seem less.[Footnote
14: La luce entrerŕ.
Luce occurs here in
the sense of pupil of the eye as in no 51: C. A. 84b; 245a; I—5;
and in many other places.]36.ON
PERSPECTIVE.The
eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes
into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark. And this
happens either because the pupils of the eyes which have rested on
this brilliantly lighted white object have contracted so much that,
given at first a certain extent of surface, they will have lost more
than 3/4 of their size; and, lacking in size, they are also deficient
in [seeing] power. Though you might say to me: A little bird (then)
coming down would see comparatively little, and from the smallness of
his pupils the white might seem black! To this I should reply that
here we must have regard to the proportion of the mass of that
portion of the brain which is given up to the sense of sight and to
nothing else. Or—to return—this pupil in Man dilates and
contracts according to the brightness or darkness of (surrounding)
objects; and since it takes some time to dilate and contract, it
cannot see immediately on going out of the light and into the shade,
nor, in the same way, out of the shade into the light, and this very
thing has already deceived me in painting an eye, and from that I
learnt it.37.Experiment
[showing] the dilatation and contraction of the pupil, from the
motion of the sun and other luminaries. In proportion as the sky is
darker the stars appear of larger size, and if you were to light up
the medium these stars would look smaller; and this difference arises
solely from the pupil which dilates and contracts with the amount of
light in the medium which is interposed between the eye and the
luminous body. Let the experiment be made, by placing a candle above
your head at the same time that you look at a star; then gradually
lower the candle till it is on a level with the ray that comes from
the star to the eye, and then you will see the star diminish so much
that you will almost lose sight of it.[Footnote:
No reference is made in the text to the letters on the accompanying
diagram.]38.The
pupil of the eye, in the open air, changes in size with every degree
of motion from the sun; and at every degree of its changes one and
the same object seen by it will appear of a different size; although
most frequently the relative scale of surrounding objects does not
allow us to detect these variations in any single object we may look
at.39.The
eye—which sees all objects reversed—retains the images for some
time. This conclusion is proved by the results; because, the eye
having gazed at light retains some impression of it. After looking
(at it) there remain in the eye images of intense brightness, that
make any less brilliant spot seem dark until the eye has lost the
last trace of the impression of the stronger light.
II.
Linear
Perspective.We
see clearly from the concluding sentence of section 49, where the
author directly addresses the painter, that he must certainly have
intended to include the elements of mathematics in his Book on the
art of Painting. They are therefore here placed at the beginning. In
section 50 the theory of the "Pyramid of Sight" is
distinctly and expressly put forward as the fundamental principle of
linear perspective, and sections 52 to 57 treat of it fully. This
theory of sight can scarcely be traced to any author of antiquity.
Such passages as occur in Euclid for instance, may, it is true, have
proved suggestive to the painters of the Renaissance, but it would be
rash to say any thing decisive on this point.Leon
Battista Alberti treats of the "Pyramid of Sight" at some
length in his first Book of Painting; but his explanation differs
widely from Leonardo's in the details. Leonardo, like Alberti, may
have borrowed the broad lines of his theory from some views commonly
accepted among painters at the time; but he certainly worked out its
application in a perfectly original manner.The
axioms as to the perception of the pyramid of rays are followed by
explanations of its origin, and proofs of its universal application
(58—69). The author recurs to the subject with endless variations;
it is evidently of fundamental importance in his artistic theory and
practice. It is unnecessary to discuss how far this theory has any
scientific value at the present day; so much as this, at any rate,
seems certain: that from the artist's point of view it may still
claim to be of immense practical utility.According
to Leonardo, on one hand, the laws of perspective are an inalienable
condition of the existence of objects in space; on the other hand, by
a natural law, the eye, whatever it sees and wherever it turns, is
subjected to the perception of the pyramid of rays in the form of a
minute target. Thus it sees objects in perspective independently of
the will of the spectator, since the eye receives the images by means
of the pyramid of rays "just as a magnet attracts iron".
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