The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (35 page)

[Footnote: See Pl. XXXI. No. 4; the sketch on the right hand side.]

575.

Since it is proved that every definite light is, or seems to be,
derived from one single point the side illuminated by it will have
its highest light on the portion where the line of radiance falls
perpendicularly; as is shown above in the lines
a g
, and also in
a h
and in
l a
; and that portion of the illuminated side will be
least luminous, where the line of incidence strikes it between two
more dissimilar angles, as is seen at
b c d
. And by this means you
may also know which parts are deprived of light as is seen at
m k
.

Where the angles made by the lines of incidence are most equal there
will be the highest light, and where they are most unequal it will
be darkest.

I will make further mention of the reason of reflections.

[Footnote: See Pl. XXXII. The text, here given complete, is on the
right hand side. The small circles above the beginning of lines 5
and 11 as well as the circle above the text on Pl. XXXI, are in a
paler ink and evidently added by a later hand in order to
distinguish the text as belonging to the
Libro di Pittura
(see
Prolegomena. No. 12, p. 3). The text on the left hand side of this
page is given as Nos. 577 and 137.]

576.

Where the shadow should be on the face.

General suggestions for historical pictures (577-581).

577.

When you compose a historical picture take two points, one the point
of sight, and the other the source of light; and make this as
distant as possible.

578.

Historical pictures ought not to be crowded and confused with too
many figures.

579.

Let you sketches of historical pictures be swift and the working out
of the limbs not be carried too far, but limited to the position of
the limbs, which you can afterwards finish as you please and at your
leisure.

[Footnote: See Pl. XXXVIII, No. 2. The pen and ink drawing given
there as No. 3 may also be compared with this passage. It is in the
Windsor collection where it is numbered 101.]

580.

The sorest misfortune is when your views are in advance of your
work.

581.

Of composing historical pictures. Of not considering the limbs in
the figures in historical pictures; as many do who, in the wish to
represent the whole of a figure, spoil their compositions. And when
you place one figure behind another take care to draw the whole of
it so that the limbs which come in front of the nearer figures may
stand out in their natural size and place.

How to represent the differences of age and sex (582-583).

582.

How the ages of man should be depicted: that is, Infancy, Childhood,
Youth, Manhood, Old age, Decrepitude.

[Footnote: No answer is here given to this question, in the original
MS.]

583.

Old men ought to be represented with slow and heavy movements, their
legs bent at the knees, when they stand still, and their feet placed
parallel and apart; bending low with the head leaning forward, and
their arms but little extended.

Women must be represented in modest attitudes, their legs close
together, their arms closely folded, their heads inclined and
somewhat on one side.

Old women should be represented with eager, swift and furious
gestures, like infernal furies; but the action should be more
violent in their arms and head than in their legs.

Little children, with lively and contorted movements when sitting,
and, when standing still, in shy and timid attitudes.

[Footnote:
bracci raccolte
. Compare Pl. XXXIII. This drawing, in
silver point on yellowish tinted paper, the lights heightened with
white, represents two female hands laid together in a lap. Above is
a third finished study of a right hand, apparently holding a veil
from the head across the bosom. This drawing evidently dates from
before 1500 and was very probably done at Florence, perhaps as a
preparatory study for some picture. The type of hand with its
slender thin forms is more like the style of the
Vierge aux
Rochers
in the Louvre than any later works—as the Mona Lisa for
instance.]

Of representing the emotions.

584.

That figure is most admirable which by its actions best expresses
the passion that animates it.

You must make an angry person holding someone by the hair, wrenching
his head against the ground, and with one knee on his ribs; his
right arm and fist raised on high. His hair must be thrown up, his
brow downcast and knit, his teeth clenched and the two corners of
his mouth grimly set; his neck swelled and bent forward as he leans
over his foe, and full of furrows.

You must show a man in despair with a knife, having already torn
open his garments, and with one hand tearing open the wound. And
make him standing on his feet and his legs somewhat bent and his
whole person leaning towards the earth; his hair flying in disorder.

Of representing imaginary animals.

585.

You know that you cannot invent animals without limbs, each of
which, in itself, must resemble those of some other animal. Hence if
you wish to make an animal, imagined by you, appear natural—let us
say a Dragon, take for its head that of a mastiff or hound, with the
eyes of a cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the
brow of a lion, the temples of an old cock, the neck of a water
tortoise.

[Footnote: The sketch here inserted of two men on horseback fighting
a dragon is the facsimile of a pen and ink drawing belonging to
BARON EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD of Paris.]

The selection of forms.

586.

A painter who has clumsy hands will paint similar hands in his
works, and the same will occur with any limb, unless long study has
taught him to avoid it. Therefore, O Painter, look carefully what
part is most ill-favoured in your own person and take particular
pains to correct it in your studies. For if you are coarse, your
figures will seem the same and devoid of charm; and it is the same
with any part that may be good or poor in yourself; it will be shown
in some degree in your figures.

587.

It seems to me to be no small charm in a painter when he gives his
figures a pleasing air, and this grace, if he have it not by nature,
he may acquire by incidental study in this way: Look about you and
take the best parts of many beautiful faces, of which the beauty is
confirmed rather by public fame than by your own judgment; for you
might be mistaken and choose faces which have some resemblance to
your own. For it would seem that such resemblances often please us;
and if you should be ugly, you would select faces that were not
beautiful and you would then make ugly faces, as many painters do.
For often a master's work resembles himself. So select beauties as I
tell you, and fix them in your mind.

588.

Of the limbs, which ought to be carefully selected, and of all the
other parts with regard to painting.

589.

When selecting figures you should choose slender ones rather than
lean and wooden ones.

590.

The hollow spaces interposed between the muscles must not be of such
a character as that the skin should seem to cover two sticks laid
side by side like
c
, nor should they seem like two sticks somewhat
remote from such contact so that the skin hangs in an empty loose
curve as at
f
; but it should be like
i
, laid over the spongy fat
that lies in the angles as the angle
n m o
; which angle is formed
by the contact of the ends of the muscles and as the skin cannot
fold down into such an angle, nature has filled up such angles with
a small quantity of spongy and, as I may say, vesicular fat, with
minute bladders [in it] full of air, which is condensed or rarefied
in them according to the increase or the diminution of the substance
of the muscles; in which latter case the concavity
i
always has a
larger curve than the muscle.

591.

When representing a human figure or some graceful animal, be careful
to avoid a wooden stiffness; that is to say make them move with
equipoise and balance so as not to look like a piece of wood; but
those you want to represent as strong you must not make so,
excepting in the turn of the head.

How to pose figures.

592.

The limbs should be adapted to the body with grace and with
reference to the effect that you wish the figure to produce. And if
you wish to produce a figure that shall of itself look light and
graceful you must make the limbs elegant and extended, and without
too much display of the muscles; and those few that are needed for
your purpose you must indicate softly, that is, not very prominent
and without strong shadows; the limbs, and particularly the arms
easy; that is, none of the limbs should be in a straight line with
the adjoining parts. And if the hips, which are the pole of a man,
are by reason of his position, placed so, that the right is higher
than the left, make the point of the higher shoulder in a
perpendicular line above the highest prominence of the hip, and let
this right shoulder be lower than the left. Let the pit of the
throat always be over the centre of the joint of the foot on which
the man is leaning. The leg which is free should have the knee lower
than the other, and near the other leg. The positions of the head
and arms are endless and I shall therefore not enlarge on any rules
for them. Still, let them be easy and pleasing, with various turns
and twists, and the joints gracefully bent, that they may not look
like pieces of wood.

Of appropriate gestures (593-600).

593.

A picture or representation of human figures, ought to be done in
such a way as that the spectator may easily recognise, by means of
their attitudes, the purpose in their minds. Thus, if you have to
represent a man of noble character in the act of speaking, let his
gestures be such as naturally accompany good words; and, in the same
way, if you wish to depict a man of a brutal nature, give him fierce
movements; as with his arms flung out towards the listener, and his
head and breast thrust forward beyond his feet, as if following the
speaker's hands. Thus it is with a deaf and dumb person who, when he
sees two men in conversation—although he is deprived of
hearing—can nevertheless understand, from the attitudes and
gestures of the speakers, the nature of their discussion. I once saw
in Florence a man who had become deaf who, when you spoke very loud
did not understand you, but if you spoke gently and without making
any sound, understood merely from the movement of the lips. Now
perhaps you will say that the lips of a man who speaks loudly do not
move like those of one speaking softly, and that if they were to
move them alike they would be alike understood. As to this argument,
I leave the decision to experiment; make a man speak to you gently
and note [the motion of] his lips.

[Footnote: The first ten lines of this text have already been
published, but with a slightly different reading by Dr. M. JORDAN:
Das Malerbuch Leonardo da Vinci's
p. 86.]

594.

When you wish to represent a man speaking to a number of people,
consider the matter of which he has to treat and adapt his action to
the subject. Thus, if he speaks persuasively, let his action be
appropriate to it. If the matter in hand be to set forth an
argument, let the speaker, with the fingers of the right hand hold
one finger of the left hand, having the two smaller ones closed; and
his face alert, and turned towards the people with mouth a little
open, to look as though he spoke; and if he is sitting let him
appear as though about to rise, with his head forward. If you
represent him standing make him leaning slightly forward with body
and head towards the people. These you must represent as silent and
attentive, all looking at the orator's face with gestures of
admiration; and make some old men in astonishment at the things they
hear, with the corners of their mouths pulled down and drawn in,
their cheeks full of furrows, and their eyebrows raised, and
wrinkling the forehead where they meet. Again, some sitting with
their fingers clasped holding their weary knees. Again, some bent
old man, with one knee crossed over the other; on which let him hold
his hand with his other elbow resting in it and the hand supporting
his bearded chin.

[Footnote: The sketches introduced here are a facsimile of a pen and
ink drawing in the Louvre which Herr CARL BRUN considers as studies
for the Last Supper in the church of
Santa Maria delle Grazie
(see
Leonardo da Vinci, LXI, pp. 21, 27 and 28 in DOHME'S
Kunst und
Kunstler
, Leipzig, Seemann). I shall not here enter into any
discussion of this suggestion; but as a justification for
introducing the drawing in this place, I may point out that some of
the figures illustrate this passage as perfectly as though they had
been drawn for that express purpose. I have discussed the
probability of a connection between this sketch and the picture of
the Last Supper on p. 335. The original drawing is 27 3/4
centimetres wide by 21 high.—The drawing in silver point on reddish
paper given on Pl. LII. No. 1—the original at Windsor Castle—may
also serve to illustrate the subject of appropriate gestures,
treated in Nos. 593 and 594.]