[Footnote i184: Add. to Vasari, 48.]
[Footnote i185: Add. in Vasari, 57.]
[Footnote i186: Add. to Vasari, 58.]
[Footnote i187: Add. to Vasari, 59.]
[Footnote i188: Ibid.]
[Footnote i189: Ibid. This is the picture lately exhibited in Brook
Street, Grosvenor Square, and is said to have been purchased by the
Earl of Warwick.]
[Footnote i190: Add. to Vasari, 59.]
[Footnote i191: Ibid.]
[Footnote i192: Ibid.]
[Footnote i193: Ibid.]
[Footnote i194: Ibid. 60.]
[Footnote i195: Ibid.]
[Footnote i196: Ibid.]
[Footnote i197: Ibid.]
[Footnote i198: Ibid.]
[Footnote i199: Lett. Pitt. vol. ii. 197.]
[Footnote i200: Add. in Vasari, 60.]
[Footnote i201: Add. in Vasari, 61.]
[Footnote i202: Ibid.]
[Footnote i203: Ibid.]
[Footnote i204: Ibid.]
[Footnote i205: Supp. in Vasari, 67.]
[Footnote i206: Ibid. 68.]
[Footnote i207: Supp. in Vasari, 75.]
[Footnote i208: Ibid.]
[Footnote i209: Supp. in Vasari, 80.]
[Footnote i210: Supp. in Vasari, 81.]
[Footnote 1: This passage has been by some persons much misunderstood,
and supposed to require, that the student should be a deep proficient
in perspective, before he commences the study of painting; but it is
a knowledge of the leading principles only of perspective that the
author here means, and without such a knowledge, which is easily to be
acquired, the student will inevitably fall into errors, as gross as
those humorously pointed out by Hogarth, in his Frontispiece to Kirby's
Perspective.]
[Footnote 2: See Chap. 351.]
[Footnote 3: Not to be found in this work.]
[Footnote 4: From this, and many other similar passages, it is evident,
that the author intended at some future time to arrange his manuscript
collections, and to publish them as separate treatises. That he did not
do so is well known; but it is also a fact, that, in selecting from the
whole mass of his collections the chapters of which the present work
consists, great care appears in general to have been taken to extract
also those to which there was any reference from any of the chapters
intended for this work, or which from their subject were necessarily
connected with them. Accordingly, the reader will find, in the notes
to this translation, that all such chapters in any other part of the
present work are uniformly pointed out, as have any relation to the
respective passages in the text. This, which has never before been
done, though indispensably necessary, will be found of singular use,
and it was thought proper here, once for all, to notice it.
In the present instance the chapters, referring to the subject in the
text, are Chap. xvi. xvii. xviii. xix. xx. xxvi.; and though these
do not afford complete information, yet it is to be remembered, that
drawing from relievos is subject to the very same rules as drawing from
Nature; and that, therefore, what is elsewhere said on that subject is
also equally applicable to this.]
[Footnote 5: The meaning of this is, that the last touches of light,
such as the shining parts (which are always narrow), must be given
sparingly. In short, that the drawing must be kept in broad masses as
much as possible.]
[Footnote 6: This is not an absolute rule, but it is a very good one
for drawing of portraits.]
[Footnote 7: See Chap. ci.]
[Footnote 8: See the preceding chapter.]
[Footnote 9: See the two preceding chapters.]
[Footnote 10: Man being the highest of the animal creation, ought to be
the chief object of study.]
[Footnote 11: An intended Treatise, as it seems, on Anatomy, which
however never was published; but there are several chapters in the
present work on the subject of Anatomy, most of which will be found
under the present head of Anatomy; and of such as could not be placed
there, because they also related to some other branch, the following
is a list by which they may be found: Chapters vi. vii. x. xi. xxxiv.
xxxv. xxxvi. xxxvii. xxxviii. xxxix. xl. xli. xlii. xliii. xliv. xlv.
xlvi. xlviii. xlix. l. li. lii. cxxix.]
[Footnote 12: See chap. lxxxvii.]
[Footnote 13: It does not appear that this intention was ever carried
into execution; but there are many chapters in this work on the subject
of motion, where all that is necessary for a painter in this branch
will be found.]
[Footnote 14: Anatomists have divided this muscle into four or five
sections; but painters, following the ancient sculptors, shew only
the three principal ones; and, in fact, we find that a greater number
of them (as may often be observed in nature) gives a disagreeable
meagreness to the subject. Beautiful nature does not shew more than
three, though there may be more hid under the skin.]
[Footnote 15: A treatise on weights, like many others, intended by this
author, but never published.]
[Footnote 16: See the next chapter.]
[Footnote 17: It is believed that this treatise, like many others
promised by the author, was never written; and to save the necessity of
frequently repeating this fact, the reader is here informed, once for
all, that in the life of the author prefixed to this edition, will be
found an account of the works promised or projected by him, and how far
his intentions have been carried into effect.]
[Footnote 18: See chap. lxiv.]
[Footnote 19: See in this work from chap. lx. to lxxxi.]
[Footnote 20: See chapters lxi. lxiv.]
[Footnote 21: See chapters civ. cliv.]
[Footnote 22: The author here means to compare the different quickness
of the motion of the head and the heel, when employed in the same
action of jumping; and he states the proportion of the former to be
three times that of the latter. The reason he gives for this is in
substance, that as the head has but one motion to make, while in fact
the lower part of the figure has three successive operations to perform
at the places he mentions, three times the velocity, or, in other
words, three times the degree of effort, is necessary in the head, the
prime mover, to give the power of influencing the other parts; and
the rule deducible from this axiom is, that where two different parts
of the body concur in the same action, and one of them has to perform
one motion only, while the other is to have several, the proportion of
velocity or effort in the former must be regulated by the number of
operations necessary in the latter.]
[Footnote 23: It is explained in this work, or at least there is
something respecting it in the preceding chapter, and in chap. cli.]
[Footnote 24: The eyeball moving up and down to look at the hand,
describes a part of a circle, from every point of which it sees it
in an infinite variety of aspects. The hand also is moveable _ad
infinitum_ (for it can go round the whole circle--see chap. lxxxvii.),
and consequently shew itself in an infinite variety of aspects, which
it is impossible for any memory to retain.]
[Footnote 25: See chap. xx. clv.]
[Footnote 26: About thirteen yards of our measure, the Florentine
braccia, or cubit, by which the author measures, being 1 foot 10 inches
7-8ths English measure.]
[Footnote 27: See chap. cxxi. and cccv.]
[Footnote 28: It is supposed that the figures are to appear of the
natural size, and not bigger. In that case, the measure of the first,
to be of the exact dimension, should have its feet resting upon the
bottom line; but as you remove it from that, it should diminish.
No allusion is here intended to the distance at which a picture is to
be placed from the eye.]
[Footnote 29: The author does not mean here to say, that one historical
picture cannot be hung over another. It certainly may, because, in
viewing each, the spectator is at liberty (especially if they are
subjects independent of each other) to shift his place so as to stand
at the true point of sight for viewing every one of them; but in
covering a wall with a succession of subjects from the same history,
the author considers the whole as, in fact, but one picture, divided
into compartments, and to be seen at one view, and which cannot
therefore admit more than one point of sight. In the former case, the
pictures are in fact so many distinct subjects unconnected with each
other.]
[Footnote 30: See chap. cccxlviii.
This chapter is obscure, and may probably be made clear by merely
stating it in other words. Leonardo objects to the use of both eyes,
because, in viewing in that manner the objects here mentioned, two
balls, one behind the other, the second is seen, which would not be
the case, if the angle of the visual rays were not too big for the
first object. Whoever is at all acquainted with optics, need not be
told, that the visual rays commence in a single point in the centre, or
nearly the centre of each eye, and continue diverging. But, in using
both eyes, the visual rays proceed not from one and the same centre,
but from a different centre in each eye, and intersecting each other,
as they do a little before passing the first object, they become
together broader than the extent of the first object, and consequently
give a view of part of the second. On the contrary, in using but one
eye, the visual rays proceed but from one centre; and as, therefore,
there cannot be any intersection, the visual rays, when they reach the
first object, are not broader than the first object, and the second is
completely hidden. Properly speaking, therefore, in using both eyes we
introduce more than one point of sight, which renders the perspective
false in the painting; but in using one eye only, there can be, as
there ought, but one point of sight. There is, however, this difference
between viewing real objects and those represented in painting, that in
looking at the former, whether we use one or both eyes, the objects,
by being actually detached from the back ground, admit the visual rays
to strike on them, so as to form a correct perspective, from whatever
point they are viewed, and the eye accordingly forms a perspective of
its own; but in viewing the latter, there is no possibility of varying
the perspective; and, unless the picture is seen precisely under the
same angle as it was painted under, the perspective in all other views
must be false. This is observable in the perspective views painted for
scenes at the playhouse. If the beholder is seated in the central line
of the house, whether in the boxes or pit, the perspective is correct;
but, in proportion as he is placed at a greater or less distance to the
right or left of that line, the perspective appears to him more or less
faulty. And hence arises the necessity of using but one eye in viewing
a painting, in order thereby to reduce it to one point of sight.]
[Footnote 31: Chap. xcvi. and civ.]
[Footnote 32: See the Life of the Author prefixed, and chap. xx. and
ci. of the present work.]
[Footnote 33: The author here speaks of unpolished Nature; and indeed
it is from such subjects only, that the genuine and characteristic
operations of Nature are to be learnt. It is the effect of education
to correct the natural peculiarities and defects, and, by so doing, to
assimilate one person to the rest of the world.]
[Footnote 34: See chap. cxxiii.]
[Footnote 35: See chap. cclxiv.]
[Footnote 36: See chapter cclxvii.]
[Footnote 37: Sir Joshua Reynolds frequently inculcated these precepts
in his lectures, and indeed they cannot be too often enforced.]
[Footnote 38: Probably this would have formed a part of his intended
Treatise on Light and Shadow, but no such proposition occurs in the
present work.]
[Footnote 39: See chapters cc. and ccix.]
[Footnote 40: See chap. ccix.]
[Footnote 41: This cannot be taken as an absolute rule; it must be left
in a great measure to the judgment of the painter. For much graceful
softness and grandeur is acquired, sometimes, by blending the lights of
the figures with the light part of the ground; and so of the shadows;
as Leonardo himself has observed in chapters cxciv. cxcv. and Sir
Joshua Reynolds has often put in practice with success.]
[Footnote 42: See chap. cclxv.]
[Footnote 43: See chap. cxcvi.]
[Footnote 44: He means here to say, that in proportion as the body
interposed between the eye and the object is more or less transparent,
the greater or less quantity of the colour of the body interposed will
be communicated to the object.]
[Footnote 45: See the note to chap. cc.]
[Footnote 46: See the preceding chapter, and chap. cc.]
[Footnote 47: The appearance of motion is lessened according to the
distance, in the same proportion as objects diminish in size.]
[Footnote 48: See chap. ccxvii. and ccxix.]
[Footnote 49: See chap. ccxv. and ccxix.]
[Footnote 50: This was intended to constitute a part of some book of
Perspective, which we have not; but the rule here referred to will be
found in chap. cccx. of the present work.]
[Footnote 51: See chap. ccxv. and ccxvii.]
[Footnote 52: No such work was ever published, nor, for any thing that
appears, ever written.]
[Footnote 53: The French translation of 1716 has a note on this
chapter, saying, that the invention of enamel painting found out since
the time of Leonardo da Vinci, would better answer to the title of this
chapter, and also be a better method of painting. I must beg leave,
however, to dissent from this opinion, as the two kinds of painting
are so different, that they cannot be compared. Leonardo treats of oil
painting, but the other is vitrification. Leonardo is known to have
spent a great deal of time in experiments, of which this is a specimen,
and it may appear ridiculous to the practitioners of more modern
date, as he does not enter more fully into a minute description of
the materials, or the mode of employing them. The principle laid down
in the text appears to me to be simply this: to make the oil entirely
evaporate from the colours by the action of fire, and afterwards to
prevent the action of the air by the means of a glass, which in itself
is an excellent principle, but not applicable, any more than enamel
painting to large works.]
[Footnote 54: It is evident that distemper or size painting is here
meant.]
[Footnote 55: Indian ink.]
[Footnote 56: This rule is not without exception: see chap. ccxxxiv.]
[Footnote 57: See chap. ccxxxviii.]
[Footnote 58: See chap. ccxxxvii.]
[Footnote 59: See chapters ccxlvii. cclxxiv. in the present work.
Probably they were intended to form a part of a distinct treatise, and
to have been ranged as propositions in that, but at present they are
not so placed.]
[Footnote 60: See chap. ccxlviii.]
[Footnote 61: See chap. cclxxiv.]
[Footnote 62: Although the author seems to have designed that this, and
many other propositions to which he refers, should have formed a part
of some regular work, and he has accordingly referred to them whenever
he has mentioned them, by their intended numerical situation in that
work, whatever it might be, it does not appear that he ever carried
this design into execution. There are, however, several chapters in
the present work, viz. ccxciii. cclxxxix. cclxxxv. ccxcv. in which the
principle in the text is recognised, and which probably would have been
transferred into the projected treatise, if he had ever drawn it up.]
[Footnote 63: The note on the preceding chapter is in a great measure
applicable to this, and the proposition mentioned in the text is also
to be found in chapter ccxlvii. of the present work.]
[Footnote 64: See the note on the chapter next but one preceding. The
proposition in the text occurs in chap. ccxlvii. of the present work.]
[Footnote 65: Not in this work.]
[Footnote 66: I do not know a better comment on this passage than
Felibien's Examination of Le Brun's Picture of the Tent of Darius.
From this (which has been reprinted with an English translation, by
Colonel Parsons in 1700, in folio) it will clearly appear, what the
chain of connexion is between every colour there used, and its nearest
neighbour, and consequently a rule may be formed from it with more
certainty and precision than where the student is left to develope
it for himself, from the mere inspection of different examples of
colouring.]
[Footnote 67: See chap. ccxxiii. ccxxxvii. cclxxiv. cclxxxii. of
the present work. We have before remarked, that the propositions so
frequently referred to by the author, were never reduced into form,
though apparently he intended a regular work in which they were to be
included.]
[Footnote 68: No where in this work.]
[Footnote 69: This is evident in many of Vandyke's portraits,
particularly of ladies, many of whom are dressed in black velvet; and
this remark will in some measure account for the delicate fairness
which he frequently gives to the female complexion.]
[Footnote 70: These propositions, any more than the others mentioned
in different parts of this work, were never digested into a regular
treatise, as was evidently intended by the author, and consequently are
not to be found, except perhaps in some of the volumes of the author's
manuscript collections.]
[Footnote 71: See chap. ccxciii. cccvii. cccviii.]
[Footnote 72: See chap. cclxxxvii.]
[Footnote 73: This book on perspective was never drawn up.]
[Footnote 74: See chap. ccxcii.]
[Footnote 75: See chap. ccxii. ccxlviii. cclv.]
[Footnote 76: There is no work of this author to which this can at
present refer, but the principle is laid down in chapters cclxxxiv.
cccvi. of the present treatise.]
[Footnote 77: See chapters cccvii. cccxxii.]
[Footnote 78: See chap. cxvi. cxxi. cccv.]
[Footnote 79: See chap. cccxiii. and cccxxiii.]
[Footnote 80: To our obtaining a correct idea of the magnitude and
distance of any object seen from afar, it is necessary that we consider
how much of distinctness an object loses at a distance (from the mere
interposition of the air), as well as what it loses in size; and these
two considerations must unite before we can decidedly pronounce as to
its distance or magnitude. This calculation, as to distinctness, must
be made upon the idea that the air is clear, as, if by any accident it
is otherwise, we shall (knowing the proportion in which clear air dims
a prospect) be led to conclude this farther off than it is, and, to
justify that conclusion, shall suppose its real magnitude correspondent
with the distance, at which from its degree of distinctness it appears
to be. In the circumstance remarked in the text there is, however, a
great deception; the fact is, that the colour and the minute parts of
the object are lost in the fog, while the size of it is not diminished
in proportion; and the eye being accustomed to see objects diminished
in size at a great distance, supposes this to be farther off than it
is, and consequently imagines it larger.]
[Footnote 81: This proposition, though undoubtedly intended to form a
part of some future work, which never was drawn up, makes no part of
the present.]
[Footnote 82: See chap. cccvii.]
[Footnote 83: Vide chap. ccxcii. ccciii.]
[Footnote 84: See chapter ccxcviii.]
[Footnote 85: This was probably to have been a part of some other work,
but it does not occur in this.]
[Footnote 86: Cento braccia, or cubits. The Florence braccio is one
foot ten inches seven eighths, English measure.]
[Footnote 87: Probably the Author here means yellow lilies, or fleurs
de lis.]
[Footnote 88: That point is always found in the horizon, and is called
the point of sight, or the vanishing point.]
[Footnote 89: See chap. cccxx.]
[Footnote 90: See chap. cccxvii.]
[Footnote 91: This position has been already laid down in chapter
cxxiv. (and will also be found in chapter cccxlviii.); and the reader
is referred to the note on that passage, which will also explain that
in the text, for further illustration. It may, however, be proper to
remark, that though the author has here supposed both objects conveyed
to the eye by an angle of the same extent, they cannot, in fact, be so
seen, unless one eye be shut; and the reason is this: if viewed with
both eyes, there will be two points of sight, one in the centre of each
eye; and the rays from each of these to the objects must of course be
different, and will consequently form different angles.]
[Footnote 92: The braccio is one foot ten inches and seven eighths
English measure.]
[Footnote 93: i.e. To be abridged according to the rules of
perspective.]
[Footnote 94: See chap. cxxii.]
[Footnote 95: The whole of this chapter, like the next but one
preceding, depends on the circumstance of there being in fact two
points of sight, one in the centre of each eye, when an object is
viewed with both eyes. In natural objects the effect which this
circumstance produces is, that the rays from each point of sight,
diverging as they extend towards the object, take in not only that, but
some part also of the distance behind it, till at length, at a certain
distance behind it, they cross each other; whereas, in a painted
representation, there being no real distance behind the object, but the
whole being a flat surface, it is impossible that the rays from the
points of sight should pass beyond that flat surface; and as the object
itself is on that flat surface, which is the real extremity of the
view, the eyes cannot acquire a sight of any thing beyond.]
[Footnote 96: A well-known painter at Florence, contemporary with
Leonardo da Vinci, who painted several altar-pieces and other public
works.]
[Footnote 97: See chap. cxxiv. and cccxlviii.]
[Footnote 98: See chap. x.]
[Footnote 99: See chap. cci.]
[Footnote 100: Leonardo da Vinci was remarkably fond of this kind of
invention, and is accused of having lost a great deal of time that way.]
[Footnote 101: The method here recommended, was the general and common
practice at that time, and continued so with little, if any variation,
till lately. But about thirty years ago, the late Mr. Bacon invented
an entirely new method, which, as better answering the purpose,
he constantly used, and from him others have also adopted it into
practice.]
[Footnote 102: This may be a good method of dividing the figure for the
purpose of reducing from large to small, or _vice versâ_; but it not
being the method generally used by the painters for measuring their
figures, as being too minute, this chapter was not introduced amongst
those of general proportions.]
End of Project Gutenberg's A Treatise on Painting, by Leonardo Da Vinci