to be, standing at a distance of 10 braccia; then each one may go up to the line to measure the length he has judged it to be.  And he who has come nearest with his measure to the length of the pattern is the best man, and the winner, and shall receive the prize you have settled beforehand.  Again you should take forshortened measures:  that is take a spear, or any other cane or reed, and fix on a point at a certain distance; and let each one estimate how many times he judges that its length will go into that distance.  Again, who will draw best a line one braccio long, which shall be tested by a thread.  And such games give occasion to good practice for the eye, which is of the first importance in painting.

508.

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.

On the size of the studio.

509.

Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it.

On the construction of windows (510-512).

510.

The larger the wall the less the light will be.

511.

The different kinds of light afforded in cellars by various forms of windows.  The least useful and the coldest is the window at a.  The most useful, the lightest and warmest and most open to the sky is the window at b.  The window at c is of medium utility.

[Footnote:  From a reference to the notes on the right light for painting it becomes evident that the observations made on cellar-windows have a direct bearing on the construction of the studio-window.  In the diagram b as well as in that under No. 510 the window-opening is reduced to a minimum, but only, it would seem, in order to emphasize the advantage of walls constructed on the plan there shown.]

512.

OF THE PAINTER’S WINDOW AND ITS ADVANTAGE.

The painter who works from nature should have a window, which he can raise and lower.  The reason is that sometimes you will want to finish a thing you are drawing, close to the light.