763

Decorations for feasts.

The water should be allowed to fall from the whole circle a b. [Footnote: Other drawings of fountains are given on Pl. CI (W. XX); the original is a pen and ink drawing on blue paper; on Pl. CIII (MS. B.) and Pl. LXXXII.]

VI. Studies of architectural details.

Several of Leonardo’s drawings of architectural details prove that, like other great masters of that period, he had devoted his attention to the study of the proportion of such details. As every organic being in nature has its law of construction and growth, these masters endeavoured, each in his way, to discover and prove a law of proportion in architecture. The following notes in Leonardo’s manuscripts refer to this subject.

MS. S. K. M. Ill, 47b (see Fig. 1). A diagram, indicating the rules as given by Vitruvius and by Leon Battista Alberti for the proportions of the Attic base of a column.

MS. S. K. M. Ill 55a (see Fig. 2). Diagram showing the same rules.

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

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XII: Architectural Designs.
. . .
743,
744,
745,
746,
747,
748,
749,
750,
751,
752,
753,
754,
755,
756,
757,
758,
759
On the proportions of a court yard.
760
On the dispositions of a stable.
761
Decorations for feasts.
762,
763,
764,
765,
766,
767,
768,
769