508

Useful games and exercises.

A WAY OF DEVELOPING AND AROUSING THE MIND TO VARIOUS INVENTIONS.

I cannot forbear to mention among these precepts a new device for study which, although it may seem but trivial and almost ludicrous, is nevertheless extremely useful in arousing the mind to various inventions. And this is, when you look at a wall spotted with stains, or with a mixture of stones, if you have to devise some scene, you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes, beautified with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and hills in varied arrangement; or again you may see battles and figures in action; or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects, which you could reduce to complete and well drawn forms. And these appear on such walls confusedly, like the sound of bells in whose jangle you may find any name or word you choose to imagine.

II.

THE ARTIST’S STUDIO.—INSTRUMENTS AND HELPS FOR THE APPLICATION OF PERSPECTIVE.—ON JUDGING OF A PICTURE.

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

VII * X
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
VIII: Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.
. . .
The necessity of anatomical knowledge.
488,
489
How to acquire practice.
490
Industry and thoroughness the first conditions.
491,
492
The artist’s private life and choice of company.
493,
494
The distribution of time for studying.
495,
496,
497
On the productive power of minor artists.
498,
499,
500,
501
A caution against one-sided study.
502
How to acquire universality.
503,
504,
505,
506
Useful games and exercises.
507,
508
On the size of the studio.
509
On the construction of windows.
510,
511,
512
On the best light for painting.
513,
514,
515,
516,
517,
518,
519,
520
On various helps in preparing a picture.
521,
522,
523,
524,
525,
526,
527,
528
. . .