. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science;. ith the left hand, as we see by the directionof the hatchings (from left to right), says Emile Galichon, we are amazed at the facilitywith which Leonardo handled the pen. A careful examination of his drawings would almostlead us to the conclusion that his left hand was the more, obedient to the pulsations of hissoul, his right to the directions of his reason. When he wished to translate the feelingsthat stirred his heart, when he came home, perhaps, after having followed a man about allday whose bizarre or expressive features had struck
. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science;. ith the left hand, as we see by the directionof the hatchings (from left to right), says Emile Galichon, we are amazed at the facilitywith which Leonardo handled the pen. A careful examination of his drawings would almostlead us to the conclusion that his left hand was the more, obedient to the pulsations of hissoul, his right to the directions of his reason. When he wished to translate the feelingsthat stirred his heart, when he came home, perhaps, after having followed a man about allday whose bizarre or expressive features had struck him, his left hand his emotionor his recollection rapidly on the paper. But when he wanted to model or work out afigure clearly present to his mind, the final study of the Infant Jesus for the Virgin of theRocks, or the head of the .S. Anne in the Louvre, his right hand undertook the task.{Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1867, vol. ii., p. 536.) 3 Les derniers Travaux sur Léonard de Vinci, p. 55- ■• Trattato, cap. 291. E E 2 21 2 DA VINCI. He recommends theuse of the same colourfor the contours as thatused for the background—in other words, he de-precates the practice ofseparating the figuresfrom the background bymeans of a dark outHne(cap. 116). To him, the chiettriumph of painting layin chiaroscuro and fore-shortening : II chiaro elo scuro insieme co liscorti è la eccelenzia dellascienza della pittura (cap. 671). He at- A SHEET OF SKETCHES. (Bonnat Collection, Paris.) tached the utmost importance to relief, to thetactile quality of painting. Here he is at onewith Michelangelo, who, in his letter toVarchi, pronounced painting to be excellentin proportion to the effect of relief it pro-duces.^ On the other hand, as if divining theabuses that were to spring from Michel-angelos example, the author of the Trattatocondemns the anatomist-painters, who, anx-ious to show their knowledge of bones,nerves, and muscles, paint figures that mightbe of wood (cap. 125. Cf. c
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