19.

OF THE MISTAKES MADE BY THOSE WHO PRACTISE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE.

Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going.  Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.

20.

The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.

The function of the eye (21-23).

21.

INTRODUCTION TO PERSPECTIVE:—­THAT IS OF THE FUNCTION OF THE EYE.

Behold here O reader! a thing concerning which we cannot trust our forefathers, the ancients, who tried to define what the Soul and Life are—­which are beyond proof, whereas those things, which can at any time be clearly known and proved by experience, remained for many ages unknown or falsely understood.  The eye, whose function we so certainly know by experience, has, down to my own time, been defined by an infinite number of authors as one thing; but I find, by experience, that it is quite another. [Footnote 13:  Compare the note to No. 70.]

[Footnote:  In section 13 we already find it indicated that the study of Perspective and of Optics is to be based on that of the functions of the eye.  Leonardo also refers to the science of the eye, in his astronomical researches, for instance in MS. F 25b ’Ordine del provare la terra essere una stella:  Imprima difinisce l’occhio’, &c.  Compare also MS. E 15b and F 60b.  The principles of astronomical perspective.]

22.

Here [in the eye] forms, here colours, here the character of every part of the universe are concentrated to a point; and that point is so marvellous a thing ...  Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity—­by thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause, by the shortest path.  These [indeed] are miracles;...

In so small a space it can be reproduced and rearranged in its whole expanse.  Describe in your anatomy what proportion there is between the diameters of all the images in the eye and the distance from them of the crystalline lens.

23.

OF THE 10 ATTRIBUTES OF THE EYE, ALL CONCERNED IN PAINTING.

Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are:—­Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.  This little work of mine will be a tissue [of the studies] of these attributes, reminding the painter of the rules and methods by which he should use his art to imitate all the works of Nature which adorn the world.

24.

ON PAINTING.

Variability of the eye.