The cherry tree is of the character of the fir-tree as regards its ramification which is placed in stages round its stem; and its branches spring in fours, fives, or sixes opposite one another; and the tips of the topmost shoots form a pyramid from the centre upwards; and the walnut and the oak from the centre upwards form a half-sphere.
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A leaf always turns its upper side towards the sky so that it may the better be able to receive over its whole surface the dew which drops gently from the atmosphere; and these leaves are so distributed on the plants that one covers another as little as possible, but they lie alternately one above another as is seen in the ivy which covers the walls. And this alternation serves two ends; that is in order to leave spaces so that the air and the sun may penetrate between them,—and the second purpose of it is that the drops which fall from the first leaf may fall on to the fourth, or on to the sixth in the case of other trees.
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In representing wind, besides showing the bending of the boughs and the inverting of their leaves at the approach of the wind, you should represent the clouds of fine dust mingled with the troubled air.
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Young plants have more transparent leaves and more lustrous bark than old ones; and particularly the walnut is lighter coloured in May than in September.
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The rings on the cross-section of the branch of a tree show the number of its years, and the greater or smaller width of these rings show which years were wetter and which drier. They also show the direction in which the branch was turned, for the part that was turned towards the north grows thicker than that turned towards the south so that the centre of the stem is nearer to the bark that faces south than to that on the north side.
Although this is of no importance in painting I want nevertheless to describe it in order to leave out as little as possible of what I know about trees.
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4. THE EXPRESSION OF THE SPIRIT
The knowledge of anatomy is not enough and so the artist must penetrate deeper. Actions must be suggestive of the motives which led to them; faces and gestures must reveal frames of mind. The human body was an outward and visible expression of the soul. It was shaped by its spirit. The painter must reverse the process and by constructing a body give expression to a spirit.
Leonardo considered this the artist’s highest purpose and he himself excelled in it. His portrait of the
Mona Lisa
has always been considered a masterpiece for its expression of an inner life
,
and his other paintings are in the same category, with the
Last Supper
a supreme example
.
Among the drawings that have survived are a series of caricatures of faces, showing extremes of expressions
.
The hands and arms in all their actions must display the intention of the mind that moves them, as far as possible, because by means of them whoever has a sympathetic judgement follows mental intentions in all their movements. Good orators, when they wish to persuade their hearers of something, always accompany their words with movements of their hands and arms, although some fools do not take care of such ornaments, and on the tribune seem statues of wood, through whose mouths the voice of some man concealed in the tribune, is conducted by a speaking tube. This practice is a great defect in the living, and even more in painted figures, which, if they are not endowed by their creator with lively actions according to the intention that you imagine to be in such a figure, will be judged twice dead; dead because it is not alive, and dead in its action.
But to return to our subject, here below will be represented and discussed many emotions; that is: the motion of anger, of pain, of sudden fright, of weeping, of flight, of desire, of command, of negligence, of solicitude, and the like.
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A good painter has two chief objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul; the former is easy, the latter hard, because he has to represent it by the attitudes and movements of the limbs. The knowledge of these should be acquired by observing the dumb, because their movements are more natural than those of any other class of persons.
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The most important consideration in painting is that the movements of each figure expresses its mental state, such as desire, scorn, anger, pity, and the like.
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In painting the actions of the figures are in every case expressive of the purpose in their minds.
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Every action must necessarily be expressed in movement. To know and to will are two operations of the human mind. To discern, to judge, to reflect are actions of the human mind.
Our body is subject to heaven, and heaven is subject to the spirit.
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A picture or rather the figures therein should be represented in such a way that the spectator may easily recognize the purpose in their minds by their attitudes . . . as is the case with a deaf and dumb person who, when he sees two men in conversation—although he is deprived of hearing, can nevertheless understand the nature of their discussion from the attitudes and gestures of the speakers.
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The limbs which are subject to labour must be muscular, and those which are not you must make without muscles and soft.
Represent your figures in such action as may be fitted to express what purpose in their minds; otherwise your art will not be good.
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How a figure is not worthy of praise unless such action appears in it as expresses the passion of his sentiment. That figure is most worthy of praise which by its action best expresses the passion which animates it.
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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 folded, their heads inclined and somewhat on the 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, in shy and timid attitudes.
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The subject with its form
The lover is moved by the thing loved, as the sense is by that which it perceives, and it unites with it and they become one and the same thing. The work is the first thing born of the union; if the thing that is loved be base, the lover becomes base. When the thing taken into union is in harmony with that which receives it, there follow delight, pleasure, and satisfaction. When the lover is united to the beloved it finds rest there; when the burden is laid down there it finds rest. . . .
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5. COMPOSITION
When an artist was commissioned to paint a picture in commemoration of a certain event he did not copy a given scene; he composed it. The figures were grouped and set against a suitable background and had to be adapted to a certain space. Leonardo’s advice to a painter seeking inspiration for a composition to look at a wall spotted with stains shows how much he valued a free play of the imagination in fitting things into two-dimensional patterns. Nevertheless, he required a scene to be lifelike. The rendering of bodies in space, their relative positions, illumination, colour, proportions, structure, and poses must be co-ordinated into a harmonious ensemble.
Of the order of study
I say that first you ought to learn the limbs and their mechanism, and after having completed this study you should then learn their actions according to the circumstances in which they occur in man; and thirdly the composition of subjects, the studies for which should be taken from natural actions and made from time to time, as circumstances allow; and pay attention to them in the streets and piazze and fields, and note them down with a brief indication of the forms; thus for a head make a O, and for an arm a straight or a bent line, and the same for the legs and the body and when you return home work out these notes in a complete form. And adverse opinion says that to acquire practice and do a great deal of work it is better that the first period of study should be employed in drawing from various compositions done by divers masters on paper or on walls. And that in this way practice and good methods are rapidly acquired; to which I reply that this method will be good, if based on works of good composition done by skilled masters. But since such masters are so rare that but few of them are to be found, the surer way is to go to the objects of nature rather than to those which are imitated from nature with great deterioration, and so acquire bad habits; for he who can go to the fountain does not go to the water jar.
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How to represent someone who is speaking among
a group of people
When you wish to represent a man speaking among a group of persons consider the matter of which he has to treat and adapt his action to the subject. That is, if the subject be persuasive let his action be in keeping, if the matter is to set forth an argument, let the speaker with the fingers of the right hand hold one finger of the left hand keeping the two smaller ones closed; and his face alert and turned towards the people, with mouth slightly open to look as though he spoke; and if he is seated let him appear as though about to rise, with his head forward. If you represent him standing, make him leaning slightly forward with head and shoulders towards the people. These you should represent silent and attentive and all watching the face of the orator with gestures of admiration; and make some old men in astonishment at what they hear, with the corners of their mouths pulled down drawing back the cheeks in many furrows with their eyebrows raised where they meet, making many wrinkles on their foreheads; some sitting with their fingers clasped over their weary knees; and some bent old man, with one knee crossed over the other and one hand resting upon it and holding his other elbow and the hand supporting the bearded chin.
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Notes on the
Last Supper
One who was drinking and has left the glass in its position and turned his head towards the speaker.
Another twisting the fingers of his hands, turns with stern brows to his companion. Another with his hands spread shows the palms, and shrugs his shoulders up to his ears, making a mouth of astonishment. Another speaks into his neighbour’s ear and he, as he listens, turns towards him to lend an ear while holding a knife in one hand, and in the other the loaf half cut through. Another as he turns with a knife in his hand upsets a glass on the table. Another lays his hands on the table and is looking. Another blows his mouthful. Another leans forward to see the speaker shading his eyes with his hands. Another draws back behind the one who leans forward, and sees the speaker between the wall and the man who is leaning.*
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The painter ought always to consider, when he has a wall on which he has to represent a story, the height at which he will locate his figures, and when he draws from nature for this composition, he ought to take a position with his eye as much below the object that he is drawing, as the object, when inserted into the composition, will be above the eye of the observer. Otherwise the work will be reprehensible.
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Why groups of figures one above another are to be avoided
This practice, which is universally adopted by painters on the walls of chapels, is by reason strongly to be condemned seeing that they represent one scene at one level with its landscape and buildings, and then they mount to the stage above this to represent another scene and so vary the point of sight from that of the first, and then make a third and a fourth scene in such a way that on one wall there are four points of sight, which is extreme folly on the part of such masters.
We know that the point of sight is opposite the eye of the spectator of the scene, and if you were to ask how I should represent the life of a saint divided into several scenes on one end of the same wall I answer to this that you must set the foreground with its point of sight on a level with the eye of the spectator of the scene. And on this plane represent the first episode on a large scale. And then by diminishing gradually the figures and buildings upon the various hills and plains you can represent all the events of the story. And on the rest of the wall up to the top you will make trees of sizes proportioned according to the figures or angels if these are appropriate to the story, or birds or clouds or similar things; otherwise do not put yourself to the trouble for all your work will be wrong.
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I cannot refrain from mentioning among these precepts a new device for study, which although it may seem trivial and almost ludicrous is nevertheless extremely useful in arousing the mind to various inventions. And this is, that when you look at a wall spotted with stains or with a mixture of stones, if you are about to devise some scene, you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and various groups of hills; or again you may see battles and figures in action; or strange faces and costumes, and an infinite number of things which you can then reduce into separate and well-drawn forms. And these appear on such walls confusedly, like the sound of bells in whose clanging you may find any name and word you choose to imagine.
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