Pariete di rilieuo; “sur une parai en relief" (RAVAISSON). "Auf einer Schnittlinie zum Aufrichten" (LUDWIG).  The explanation of this puzzling expression must be sought in No. 545, lines 15-17.].

[Footnote:  See Pl.  XXXI. 3.  The second sketch, which in the plate is incomplete, is here reproduced and completed from the original to illustrate the text.  In the original the larger diagram is placed between lines 5 and 6.

1. 2.  C. A. 157a; 463a has the similar heading:  ’del cressciere della figura’, and the text begins:  “Se voli fare 1a figura grande b c” but here it breaks off.  The translation here given renders the meaning of the passage as I think it must be understood.  The MS. is perfectly legible and the construction of the sentence is simple and clear; difficulties can only arise from the very fullness of the meaning, particularly towards the end of the passage.]

527.

If you would to draw a cube in an angle of a wall, first draw the object in its own proper shape and raise it onto a vertical plane until it resembles the angle in which the said object is to be represented.

528.

Why are paintings seen more correctly in a mirror than out of it?

529.

HOW THE MIRROR IS THE MASTER [AND GUIDE] OF PAINTERS.

When you want to see if your picture corresponds throughout with the objects you have drawn from nature, take a mirror and look in that at the reflection of the real things, and compare the reflected image with your picture, and consider whether the subject of the two images duly corresponds in both, particularly studying the mirror.  You should take the mirror for your guide—­that is to say a flat mirror—­because on its surface the objects appear in many respects as in a painting.  Thus you see, in a painting done on a flat surface, objects which appear in relief, and in the mirror—­also a flat surface—­they look the same.  The picture has one plane surface and the same with the mirror.  The picture is intangible, in so far as that which appears round and prominent cannot be grasped in the hands; and it is the same with the mirror.  And since you can see that the mirror, by means of outlines, shadows and lights, makes objects appear in relief, you, who have in your colours far stronger lights and shades than those in the mirror, can certainly, if you compose your picture well, make that also look like a natural scene reflected in a large mirror.

[Footnote:  I understand the concluding lines of this passage as follows:  If you draw the upper half a figure on a large sheet of paper laid out on the floor of a room (sala be piana) to the same scale (con le sue vere grosseze) as the lower half, already drawn upon the wall (lines 10, 11)you must then reduce them on a ’pariete di rilievo,’ a curved vertical plane which serves as a model to reproduce the form of the vault.]