Notebooks (31 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
How to make an imaginary animal appear natural
You know that you cannot make any animal without it having its limbs such that each bears some resemblance to that of some one of the other animals. If therefore you wish to make one of your imaginary animals appear natural—let us suppose it to be a dragon—take for its head that of a mastiff or setter, for its eyes those of a cat, for its ears those of a porcupine, for its nose that of a greyhound, with the eyebrows of a lion, the temples of an old cock and the neck of a water-tortoise.
147
(147
h
) Draperies
The draperies thin, thick, new, old, with folds broken and pleated, soft light, shadows obscure and less obscure, with or without reflections, definite or indistinct according to distances and colours; and the garments according to the rank of those who wear them, long or short, fluttering or stiff according to the movements; so encircling the figures as to bend or flutter with ends streaming upwards or downwards, according to the folds; clinging close to the feet or separated from them, according as the legs within are shown at rest or bending, or twisting or striding; fitting closely or separating from the joints, according to the step or movement or whether the wind is represented.
And the folds should correspond to the quality of the draperies whether transparent or opaque. . . .
On the thin clothes of the women in walking, running, and jumping, and their variety.
148
148
How draperies should be drawn from nature: that is to say, if you want to represent woollen cloth draw the folds from that, and if it is to be silk, or fine cloth or coarse, or linen or crape, vary the folds in each and do not represent dresses, as many do, from models covered with paper or thin leather which will deceive you greatly.
149
149
Everything by nature tends to remain at rest. Drapery of equal density and thickness has a tendency to lie flat; therefore when you give it a fold or plait forcing it out of its flatness, note the effect of the restraint in the part where it is strongest; and the part farthest away from the restraint will be seen to relapse most into the natural state; that is to say it spreads out freely.
150
150
You must not give to drapery a great confusion of many folds, but rather introduce only those held by the hands or arms; the rest you may let fall simply where its nature makes it flow; and do not let the nude forms be traversed by too many lines and broken folds.
151
151
Figures dressed in a cloak should not show the shape so much that the cloak looks as if it were next to the flesh. For surely you would not wish that the cloak should be next to the flesh since you must realize that between the cloak and the flesh are other garments which prevent the shapes of the limbs from being visible and appearing through the cloak. And those limbs which you show make thick of their kind so that there may seem to be other garments under the cloak. The limbs of a nymph or an angel should be shown in almost their original state, for these are represented clad in light draperies, which are driven and pressed against the limbs of the figures by the blowing wind.
152
(152
i
) Botany
The following pages contain a selection of Leonardo’s notes on plants. Other notes relating to landscape, such as studies of the formation of rocks, the movements of water and clouds, are given in Chapter II. Notes on atmosphere, light, and colour in landscape are given in Chapter IV, pp. 126 ff
.
.
Numerous drawings of trees and flowering plants indigenous to Italy are to be found in his manuscripts. He was interested in the influence of sunlight and water on their growth
.
He watched the process of ripening of a gourd
(
see p
.
344
).
He observed the gravitational attraction of the earth on certain plants
(
geotropism
)
and the habit of others to turn towards the sun
(
heliotropism
).
He examined the sap of trees and discovered that their age corresponds to the number of rings in the cross
-
sections of the stems
.
His observation of the order according to which the leaves occupy various positions on the stem or axis was a first step in establishing the laws of phyllotaxis which were developed centuries later
.
.
He watched the process of ripening of a gourd
(
see p
.
344
).
He observed the gravitational attraction of the earth on certain plants
(
geotropism
)
and the habit of others to turn towards the sun
(
heliotropism
).
He examined the sap of trees and discovered that their age corresponds to the number of rings in the cross
-
sections of the stems
.
His observation of the order according to which the leaves occupy various positions on the stem or axis was a first step in establishing the laws of phyllotaxis which were developed centuries later
.
He is not universal who does not love equally well all that is comprised in Painting. Someone for instance who does not care for landscapes and esteems them a matter involving merely cursory and simple investigations. So does our Botticelli, who said that such studies are vain since by merely throwing a sponge soaked with different colour at a wall a stain is formed wherein a lovely landscape might be discerned. I admit as quite true that in such a stain one might detect various inventions if one looks for them, like heads of men, different animals, battles, rocks, seas, clouds, trees, and the like, just as in listening to the chimes of bells one seems to hear whatever one chooses. But although such stains may suggest to you compositions, they do not teach you how to complete any detail.
And this artist painted very poor landscapes!
153
153
The representation of the four seasons of the year or of the things that participate therein
In the autumn you will make things according to the progress of the season, that is, at the beginning the trees begin to fade in their leaves on the oldest branches, more or less, depending on whether the tree is represented as growing on sterile or fertile soil, and even more pale and reddish those kinds of tree which were first to produce fruit.
Do not, as many do, make all kinds of trees, even though they are equally distant, of the same kind of green. Speaking of fields, and plants and various kinds of ground, and of stones, and trunks of trees, they are always different. Because nature is infinitely variable, not only as regards species but in the same plants different colours are found, that is on the twigs the leaves are more beautiful and larger than on other branches. Nature is so delightful and abundant in its variations that among trees of the same kind there would not be found one which nearly resembles another, and not only the plants as a whole, but among their branches, leaves, and fruit, will not be found one which is precisely like another.
Therefore, observe this and vary them as much as you can.
154
154
The tips of the boughs of plants unless they are borne down by the weight of their fruits, turn towards the sky as much as possible. The upper side of their leaves is turned towards the sky that it may receive the nourishment of the dew which falls at night.
The sun gives spirit and life to the plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture.
155
155
The lower branches, after they have formed the angle of their separation from the parent stem, always bend downwards so as not to crowd against the other branches which follow above them on the same stem and to be better able to take the air which nourishes them.
156
156
Every shoot and every fruit is produced above the insertion (in the axil) of its leaf which serves it as mother, by bringing it water of the rains and moisture of the dew that falls there at night from above and often protects them from the excessive heat of the sun’s rays.
157
157
Of the birth of leaves upon their branches
The thickness of a branch is never diminished in the space there is between one leaf and another except by as much as the thickness of the eye that is above the leaf; and this thickness is lacking in the following branch up to the next leaf.
Nature has so placed the leaves of the latest shoots of many plants that the sixth leaf is always above the first and so on in succession if the rule is not impeded.
And this serves two uses for the plants, the first being that as the branch and fruit spring in the following year from the bud or eye which is above in contact with the attachment of the leaf, the water which wets this branch can descend to nourish this bud, the drop being caught in the axil where the leaf springs; and the second use is that as these shoots develop in the following year, one will not cover the other, since the five branches come forth turned in five different directions, and the sixth comes forth above the first at some distance.
158
158
All the flowers which see the sun mature their seeds and not the others, that is those which see only the reflection of the sun.
159
159
If you take away a ring from the bark of a tree it will wither from the ring upwards and remain alive from the ring downwards, and if you make this ring during a bad moon and then cut the plant from the foot during a good moon, that of the good moon will survive and the rest will wither.
160
160
The branches always start above the leaf.
161
161
The beginning of the branch will always have the central line of its thickness [axis] directed to the central line [axis] of the plant.
162
162
In general almost all the upright parts of trees curve somewhat turning the convexity towards the south; and their branches are longer and thicker and more numerous towards the south than towards the north. And this occurs because the sun draws the sap towards that surface of the tree which is nearest to it. And one notices this unless the sun is screened off by other trees.
163
163
All the branches of trees at every stage of their height, united together, are equal to the thickness of their trunk.
All the ramifications of the waters at every stage of their length being of equal movement are equal to the size of their parent stream.
164
164
Of the insertion of the branches on plants
The beginning of the ramification of plants upon their principal branches is the same as the beginning of the leaves upon the shoots of the same plant. These leaves have four ways of growing one above another; the first and most usual is that the sixth always originates over the sixth below; the second is that the two-thirds above are over the two-thirds below; the third way is that the third above is over the third below; and the fourth is the fir tree which is arranged in tiers.
157
157
All seeds have the umbilical cord when the seed is ripe. And in like manner they have matrix and secundina, as is seen in herbs and all the seeds which grow in pods. But those which grow in shells, such as hazelnuts, pistachio nuts and the like have the umbilical cord long and this shows itself in their infancy.
165
165
Other books
The Penalty Box by Deirdre Martin
No Joke by Wisse, Ruth R.
A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess
Inescapable Eye of the Storm by O'Rourke, Sarah
Meeting by Nina Hoffman
Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves by James Matlack Raney
The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio
Chasing Before by Lenore Appelhans
Dragon's Melody by Bell, Ophelia
More Than Memories by Kristen James
