The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete


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on a spot of the net which will serve as a fixed point, which,  
whenever you look at your model, must cover the pit of the throat;  
or, if his back is turned, it may cover one of the vertebrae of the  
neck. Thus these threads will guide you as to each part of the body  
which, in any given attitude will be found below the pit of the  
throat, or the angles of the shoulders, or the nipples, or hips and  
other parts of the body; and the transverse lines of the net will  
show you how much the figure is higher over the leg on which it is  
posed than over the other, and the same with the hips, and the knees  
and the feet. But always fix the net perpendicularly so that all the  
divisions that you see the model divided into by the net work  
correspond with your drawing of the model on the net work you have  
sketched. The squares you draw may be as much smaller than those of  
the net as you wish that your figure should be smaller than nature.  
Afterwards remember when drawing figures, to use the rule of the  
corresponding proportions of the limbs as you have learnt it from  
the frame and net. This should be 3 braccia and a half high and 3  
braccia wide; 7 braccia distant from you and 1 braccio from the  
model.  
[Footnote: Leonardo is commonly credited with the invention of the  
arrangement of a plate of glass commonly known as the "vertical  
plane." Professor E. VON BRUCKE in his "Bruchstucke aus der Theorie  
der bildenden Kunste," Leipzig 1877, pg. 3, writes on this  
contrivance. "Unsere Glastafel ist die sogenannte Glastafel des  
Leonardo da Vinci, die in Gestalt einer Glastafel vorgestellte  
370  


Page
368 369 370 371 372

Quick Jump
1 306 613 919 1225