The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (20 page)

That smoke will look bluest which rises from the driest wood and
which is nearest to the fire and is seen against the darkest
background, and with the sunlight upon it.

303.

A dark object will appear bluest in proportion as it has a greater
mass of luminous atmosphere between it and the eye. As may be seen
in the colour of the sky.

304.

The atmosphere is blue by reason of the darkness above it because
black and white make blue.

305.

In the morning the mist is denser above than below, because the sun
draws it upwards; hence tall buildings, even if the summit is at the
same distance as the base have the summit invisible. Therefore,
also, the sky looks darkest [in colour] overhead, and towards the
horizon it is not blue but rather between smoke and dust colour.

The atmosphere, when full of mist, is quite devoid of blueness, and
only appears of the colour of clouds, which shine white when the
weather is fine. And the more you turn to the west the darker it
will be, and the brighter as you look to the east. And the verdure
of the fields is bluish in a thin mist, but grows grey in a dense
one.

The buildings in the west will only show their illuminated side,
where the sun shines, and the mist hides the rest. When the sun
rises and chases away the haze, the hills on the side where it lifts
begin to grow clearer, and look blue, and seem to smoke with the
vanishing mists; and the buildings reveal their lights and shadows;
through the thinner vapour they show only their lights and through
the thicker air nothing at all. This is when the movement of the
mist makes it part horizontally, and then the edges of the mist will
be indistinct against the blue of the sky, and towards the earth it
will look almost like dust blown up. In proportion as the atmosphere
is dense the buildings of a city and the trees in a landscape will
look fewer, because only the tallest and largest will be seen.

Darkness affects every thing with its hue, and the more an object
differs from darkness, the more we see its real and natural colour.
The mountains will look few, because only those will be seen which
are farthest apart; since, at such a distance, the density increases
to such a degree that it causes a brightness by which the darkness
of the hills becomes divided and vanishes indeed towards the top.
There is less [mist] between lower and nearer hills and yet little
is to be distinguished, and least towards the bottom.

306.

The surface of an object partakes of the colour of the light which
illuminates it; and of the colour of the atmosphere which lies
between the eye and that object, that is of the colour of the
transparent medium lying between the object and the eye; and among
colours of a similar character the second will be of the same tone
as the first, and this is caused by the increased thickness of the
colour of the medium lying between the object and the eye.

Of various colours which are none of them blue that which at a great
distance will look bluest is the nearest to black; and so,
conversely, the colour which is least like black will at a great
distance best preserve its own colour.

Hence the green of fields will assume a bluer hue than yellow or
white will, and conversely yellow or white will change less than
green, and red still less.

On the Proportions and on the Movements of the Human Figure.

Leonardo's researches on the proportions and movements of the human
figure must have been for the most part completed and written before
the year
1498;
for LUCA PACIOLO writes, in the dedication to
Ludovico il Moro, of his book
Divina Proportione,
which was
published in that year:
"Leonardo da venci … hauedo gia co tutta
diligetia al degno libro de pictura e movimenti humani posto fine".

The selection of Leonardo's axioms contained in the Vatican copy
attributes these words to the author:
"e il resto si dira nella
universale misura del huomo". (
MANZI, p. 147; LUDWIG, No. 264
).
LOMAZZO, again, in his
Idea del Tempio della Pittura Milano 1590,
cap. IV,
says:
"Lionardo Vinci … dimostro anco in figura tutte
le proporzioni dei membri del corpo umano".

The Vatican copy includes but very few sections of the
"Universale
misura del huomo" _and until now nothing has been made known of the
original MSS. on the subject which have supplied the very extensive
materials for this portion of the work. The collection at Windsor,
belonging to her Majesty the Queen, includes by far the most
important part of Leonardo's investigations on this subject,
constituting about half of the whole of the materials here
published; and the large number of original drawings adds greatly to
the interest which the subject itself must command. Luca Paciolo
would seem to have had these MSS. (which I have distinguished by the
initials W. P.) in his mind when he wrote the passage quoted above.
Still, certain notes of a later date—such as Nos. 360, 362 and 363,
from MS. E, written in 1513—14, sufficiently prove that Leonardo did
not consider his earlier studies on the Proportions and Movements of
the Human Figure final and complete, as we might suppose from Luca
Paciolo's statement. Or else he took the subject up again at a
subsequent period, since his former researches had been carried on
at Milan between 1490 and 1500. Indeed it is highly probable that
the anatomical studies which he was pursuing with so much zeal
between 1510—16 should have led him to reconsider the subject of
Proportion.

Preliminary observations (308. 309).

308.

Every man, at three years old is half the full height he will grow
to at last.

309.

If a man 2 braccia high is too small, one of four is too tall, the
medium being what is admirable. Between 2 and 4 comes 3; therefore
take a man of 3 braccia in height and measure him by the rule I will
give you. If you tell me that I may be mistaken, and judge a man to
be well proportioned who does not conform to this division, I answer
that you must look at many men of 3 braccia, and out of the larger
number who are alike in their limbs choose one of those who are most
graceful and take your measurements. The length of the hand is 1/3
of a braccio [8 inches] and this is found 9 times in man. And the
face [Footnote 7: The account here given of the
braccio
is of
importance in understanding some of the succeeding chapters.
Testa
must here be understood to mean the face. The statements in this
section are illustrated in part on Pl. XI.] is the same, and from
the pit of the throat to the shoulder, and from the shoulder to the
nipple, and from one nipple to the other, and from each nipple to
the pit of the throat.

Proportions of the head and face (310-318).

310.

The space between the parting of the lips [the mouth] and the base
of the nose is one-seventh of the face.

The space from the mouth to the bottom of the chin
c d
is the
fourth part of the face and equal to the width of the mouth.

The space from the chin to the base of the nose
e f
is the third
part of the face and equal to the length of the nose and to the
forehead.

The distance from the middle of the nose to the bottom of the chin
g h
, is half the length of the face.

The distance from the top of the nose, where the eyebrows begin, to
the bottom of the chin,
i k
, is two thirds of the face.

The space from the parting of the lips to the top of the chin
l m
,
that is where the chin ends and passes into the lower lip of the
mouth, is the third of the distance from the parting of the lips to
the bottom of the chin and is the twelfth part of the face. From the
top to the bottom of the chin
m n
is the sixth part of the face
and is the fifty fourth part of a man's height.

From the farthest projection of the chin to the throat
o p
is
equal to the space between the mouth and the bottom of the chin, and
a fourth of the face.

The distance from the top of the throat to the pit of the throat
below
q r
is half the length of the face and the eighteenth part
of a man's height.

From the chin to the back of the neck
s t
, is the same distance as
between the mouth and the roots of the hair, that is three quarters
of the head.

From the chin to the jaw bone
v x
is half the head and equal to
the thickness of the neck in profile.

The thickness of the head from the brow to the nape is once and 3/4
that of the neck.

[Footnote: The drawings to this text, lines 1-10 are on Pl. VII, No.
I. The two upper sketches of heads, Pl. VII, No. 2, belong to lines
11-14, and in the original are placed immediately below the sketches
reproduced on Pl. VII, No. 1.]

311.

The distance from the attachment of one ear to the other is equal to
that from the meeting of the eyebrows to the chin, and in a fine
face the width of the mouth is equal to the length from the parting
of the lips to the bottom of the chin.

312.

The cut or depression below the lower lip of the mouth is half way
between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin.

The face forms a square in itself; that is its width is from the
outer corner of one eye to the other, and its height is from the
very top of the nose to the bottom of the lower lip of the mouth;
then what remains above and below this square amounts to the height
of such another square,
a
b
is equal to the space between
c
d
;
d
n
in the same way to
n
c
, and likewise
s
r
,
q
p
,
h
k
are equal to each other.

It is as far between
m
and
s
as from the bottom of the nose to
the chin. The ear is exactly as long as the nose. It is as far from
x
to
j
as from the nose to the chin. The parting of the mouth
seen in profile slopes to the angle of the jaw. The ear should be as
high as from the bottom of the nose to the top of the eye-lid. The
space between the eyes is equal to the width of an eye. The ear is
over the middle of the neck, when seen in profile. The distance from
4 to 5 is equal to that from s_ to
r
.

[Footnote: See Pl. VIII, No. I, where the text of lines 3-13 is also
given in facsimile.]

313.

(
a
b
) is equal to (
c
d
).

[Footnote: See Pl. VII, No. 3. Reference may also be made here to
two pen and ink drawings of heads in profile with figured
measurements, of which there is no description in the MS. These are
given on Pl. XVII, No. 2.—A head, to the left, with part of the
torso [W. P. 5a], No. 1 on the same plate is from MS. A 2b and in
the original occurs on a page with wholly irrelevant text on matters
of natural history. M. RAVAISSON in his edition of the Paris MS. A
has reproduced this head and discussed it fully [note on page 12];
he has however somewhat altered the original measurements. The
complicated calculations which M. RAVAISSON has given appear to me
in no way justified. The sketch, as we see it, can hardly have been
intended for any thing more than an experimental attempt to
ascertain relative proportions. We do not find that Leonardo made
use of circular lines in any other study of the proportions of the
human head. At the same time we see that the proportions of this
sketch are not in accordance with the rules which he usually
observed (see for instance No. 310).]

The head
a
f
1/6 larger than
n
f
.

315.

From the eyebrow to the junction of the lip with the chin, and the
angle of the jaw and the upper angle where the ear joins the temple
will be a perfect square. And each side by itself is half the head.

The hollow of the cheek bone occurs half way between the tip of the
nose and the top of the jaw bone, which is the lower angle of the
setting on of the ear, in the frame here represented.

From the angle of the eye-socket to the ear is as far as the length
of the ear, or the third of the face.

[Footnote: See Pl. IX. The text, in the original is written behind
the head. The handwriting would seem to indicate a date earlier than
1480. On the same leaf there is a drawing in red chalk of two
horsemen of which only a portion of the upper figure is here
visible. The whole leaf measures 22 1/2 centimetres wide by 29 long,
and is numbered 127 in the top right-hand corner.]

316.

From
a
to
b
—that is to say from the roots of the hair in front
to the top of the head—ought to be equal to
c
d
;—that is from
the bottom of the nose to the meeting of the lips in the middle of
the mouth. From the inner corner of the eye
m
to the top of the
head
a
is as far as from
m
down to the chin
s
.
s
c
f
b
are all at equal distances from each other.

[Footnote: The drawing in silver-point on bluish tinted paper—Pl.
X—which belongs to this chapter has been partly drawn over in ink
by Leonardo himself.]

317.

From the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is 1/9, and from
the roots of the hair to the chin is 1/9 of the distance from the
roots of the hair to the ground. The greatest width of the face is
equal to the space between the mouth and the roots of the hair and
is 1/12 of the whole height. From the top of the ear to the top of
the head is equal to the distance from the bottom of the chin to the
lachrymatory duct of the eye; and also equal to the distance from
the angle of the chin to that of the jaw; that is the 1/16 of the
whole. The small cartilage which projects over the opening of the
ear towards the nose is half-way between the nape and the eyebrow;
the thickness of the neck in profile is equal to the space between
the chin and the eyes, and to the space between the chin and the
jaw, and it is 1/18 of the height of the man.