Notebooks (49 page)
Authors: Leonardo da Vinci,Irma Anne Richter,Thereza Wells
Tags: #History, #Fiction, #General, #European, #Art, #Renaissance, #Leonardo;, #Leonardo, #da Vinci;, #1452-1519, #Individual artists, #Art Monographs, #Drawing By Individual Artists, #Notebooks; sketchbooks; etc, #Individual Artist, #History - Renaissance, #Renaissance art, #Individual Painters - Renaissance, #Drawing & drawings, #Drawing, #Techniques - Drawing, #Individual Artists - General, #Individual artists; art monographs, #Art & Art Instruction, #Techniques
The measurement of the Corte Vecchia, the measurement of the castle.
Of the measurement of San Lorenzo.*
Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle.
Get Messer Fazio* to show you the book on proportion.
Get the friar of Brera to show you de Ponderibus.*
On proportion by Alchino* with notes by Marliano from Messer Fazio.
The book on celestial phenomena by Aristotle, in Italian.* The measurement of the sun promised me by Giovanni the Frenchman.
Memorandum, to ask Giannino Bombardieri* how the tower of Ferrara is walled without holes.
Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars are placed on bastions by day or by night. The crossbow of Maestro Gianetto.
Ask Benedetto Portinari* how people go on the ice in Flanders. The measurement of the canal, locks, and supports, and large boats; and the expense.
Find a master learned in waterworks and get him to explain the repair and the cost of a repair, and a lock and a canal and a mill in the Lombard fashion.
A grandson of Gian Angelo, the painter, has a book on water from his father.
Paolino Scarpellino, called Assiolo, has great knowledge of waterwork.
‘Knots’ by Bramante.*
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17
The first dated sheet containing anatomical studies reads, ‘on the second day of April 1489
’
. He also writes a note about a book entitled ‘On the Human Figure’.
’
. He also writes a note about a book entitled ‘On the Human Figure’.
On the same sheet are drawings of skulls showing the blood vessels of the face. On the reverse is a list of subjects for consideration:
Which tendon causes the eye to move so that one eye moves the other?
Of frowning the brows. Of raising the brows. Of lowering the brows.
Of closing the eyes. Of opening the eyes.
Of raising the nostrils.
Of opening the lips with the teeth shut. Of pouting with the lips.
Of smiling. Of astonishment.
What is sneezing? What is yawning?
Falling sickness, spasms, paralysis, shivering with cold, sweating, fatigue, hunger, sleepiness, thirst, lust.
Describe the beginning of man when it is caused in the womb. . . .
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Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, the sixteenth-century Milanese artist, gives the following description of Leonardo’s methods of studying expressions: ‘There is a tale told by his servants, that Leonardo once wished to make a picture of some laughing peasants, though he did not carry it out but only drew it. He chose certain men whom he thought appropriate for his purpose, and, after getting acquainted with them, arranged a feast for them with some of his friends. Sitting close to them he then proceeded to tell the maddest and most ridiculous tales imaginable, making them who were unaware of his intentions laugh uproariously. Whereupon he observed all their gestures very attentively and those ridiculous things they were doing, and impressed them on his mind; and after they had left, he retired to his room and there made a perfect drawing which moved those who looked at it to laughter, as if they had been moved by Leonardo’s stories at the feast!’
On the 28th of April [1489?] I received from the Marchesino [Stanga, secretary to the duke] 103 lire and 12 soldi.
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19
On 22 July 1489 Pietro Alamanni, the Florentine ambassador at Milan, wrote to Lorenzo de’ Medici: ‘Prince Ludovico is planning to erect a worthy monument to his father, and in accordance with his orders Leonardo has been asked to make a model in the form of a large horse in bronze ridden by the Duke Francesco in full armour. As his Highness has in mind something wonderful, the like of which has never been seen, he has directed me to write to you and ask if you would kindly send him one of two Florentine artists who specialize in this kind of work. Moreover, although he has given the commission to Leonardo, it seems to me that he is not confident that he will succeed.’
If Sabba Castiglione, who wrote about Leonardo in the sixteenth century (Riccordi, 1546), is right in saying that Leonardo worked on the model for the horse of the Sforza monument for sixteen years he must have started soon after his arrival at Milan.
The following note written many years later refers to an earthquake that took place about this time at Rhodes.
In eighty-nine [the year 1489] there was an earthquake in the sea of Atalia near Rhodes, which opened the sea, that is its bottom; and into this opening such a torrent of water was poured that for more than three hours the bed of the sea lay bare because of the water that had been lost from it; and then it closed to the former level.
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On 13 January 1400 Leonardo collaborated with the poet Bernardo Bellincioni in staging the Feast of Paradise (La Festa del Paradiso) at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan in honour of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan, and his young wife, Isabella of Aragon. An enormous gilt hemisphere and personifications of the planets featured on the stage.
The following notes accompany sketches for an elevation and plan for a small domed edifice
Pavilion of the garden of the Duchess of Milan.
Ground plan of the pavilion which is in the middle of the Labyrinth of the Duke of Milan.
On the reverse is the plan of a house with the following note:
If you have your family in your house make their habitations in such a way that at night neither they nor the strangers lodging with you are in control of the door of the house; in order that they may not be able to enter the rooms where you live or sleep, close the exit
m
, and you will have closed the whole house.
21
m
, and you will have closed the whole house.
21
A new notebook known as MS C begun at this time is devoted to problems of light and shade.
On the 23rd of April 1490 I began this book and recommenced the horse.
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22
While at work on the Sforza monument he was looking out for horses that might serve as models. He found what he liked in the stable of Galeazzo di San Severino, the son-in-law of Ludovico Sforza.
The following notes are written beside sketches from horses:
Messer Galeazzo’s big genet.
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23
Messer Galeazzo’s Sicilian horse.
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24
Measurement of the Sicilian horse, the leg from behind, in front lifted and extended.
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25
In the mountains of Parma and Piacenza multitudes of shells and corals filled with wormholes may be seen still adhering to the rocks. When I was making the great horse at Milan a large sack of those shells which had been found in these parts was brought to my workshop by some peasants, and among them were many still in their original condition.
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26
On 10 May 1490 the Works Department of Milan Cathedral returned to Leonardo at his own request the model which he had constructed for the
tiburio
, asking him to keep it in readiness. Leonardo had expressed the wish to repair it, but a week later he received 12 lire for the construction of a new model.
tiburio
, asking him to keep it in readiness. Leonardo had expressed the wish to repair it, but a week later he received 12 lire for the construction of a new model.
On 8 June 1490 Ludovico Sforza wrote to his secretary, Bartolomeo Calco, that the Works Department of the Cathedral of Pavia was in need of the advice of the Sienese architect who was then in Milan and added as a postscript that also Leonardo and the Lombard architect Amadeo should proceed to Pavia.
On 10 June 1490 Bartolomeo Calco replied that the Sienese architect was working hard to complete his model for the
tiburio
of Milan Cathedral and that Leonardo would always be at the duke’s disposal.
tiburio
of Milan Cathedral and that Leonardo would always be at the duke’s disposal.
In the month of June 1490 Leonardo and the Sienese architect, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, set out together on horseback with a following of engineers and helpers for Pavia. They put up at the inn ‘Saracino’ and their bill was paid by the Works Department on 21 June, it being stated that they had both been specially called for a consultation about the cathedral.
Plan of Santa Maria in Praticha in Pavia.
While at Pavia Leonardo used the notebook known as MS B. He studied in the famous Sforza library, where the work on perspective by Witelo (Vitolone), the Polish optical theorist of the thirteenth century, attracted his attention
.
.
Try to get Vitolone which is in the library of Pavia and treats on mathematics.
17
17
In Vitolone there are 805 conclusions about perspective.
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27
On the piazza in front of the Duomo at Pavia stood a bronze equestrian statue known as ‘Regisole’ which had been removed from Ravenna by Charlemagne. Leonardo, bearing in mind his Sforza monument, studied the action of this horse.
In that of Pavia the movement more than anything else is deserving of praise.
The imitation of antique works is better than that of modern.
Beauty and utility cannot go together as may be seen in fortresses and in men.
The trot has almost the quality of a free horse.
Where natural vivacity is lacking it is necessary to make accidental liveliness.
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28
I have watched the repair of part of the old walls of Pavia which have their foundations in the banks of the Ticino. The piles there were old and were of oak as black as charcoal, those of alder had a red colour like Brazil wood; they were of great weight and hard as iron, without blemish.
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29
On 27 June 1490 a consultation took place at the Castello Sforzesco in the presence of Ludovico Sforza and the archbishop to decide on the
tiburio
of the cathedral. Four models were under consideration, none of which was by Leonardo, and the task of construction was entrusted to two Lombard architects.
tiburio
of the cathedral. Four models were under consideration, none of which was by Leonardo, and the task of construction was entrusted to two Lombard architects.
The following note records the entry into Leonardo’s household of Salaì (Gian Giacomo Caprotti di Oreno), who grew up in his service, and remained with him until his death.
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