OF VARIETY IN THE FIGURES.

The painter should aim at universality, because there is a great

want of self-respect in doing one thing well and another badly, as

many do who study only the [rules of] measure and proportion in the

nude figure and do not seek after variety; for a man may be well

proportioned, or he may be fat and short, or tall and thin, or

medium. And a painter who takes no account of these varieties always

makes his figures on one pattern so that they might all be taken for

brothers; and this is a defect that demands stern reprehension.

504.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Volume 1 · 第 255 / 366 题