Leonardo da Vinci defends his studies and his notebooks and sets up rules as to how to interpret what he wrote. Leonardo doesn’t hesitate to deride a trained mathematician or scholars. Leonardo was not revered through formal education, and discusses his opinions of true science, education, and knowledge.

Leonardo provides the reader a background on his works, stating that his studies and efforts are not to challenge the great theorists that came before him. He also makes a point of ridiculing the past geniuses however. “…alleging that my proofs are contrary to the authority of certain men held in great reverence by their inexperienced judgments, not considering that my works are the issue of simple and plain experience.”

Leonardo attacks the naysayers of his abilities despite his inexperience in classical mathematics and Latin. Leonardo insists that the readers must acknowledge his laborious and countless studies. “I am fully aware that the fact of my not being a man of letters may cause certain presumptuous persons to think that… I am a man without learning. Foolish folk! … They do not know that my subjects require for their exposition experience rather than the words of others.” Leonardo has experienced his studies and analyses. He did not sit in a classroom and listen to the work and findings of others. He found his own.

Leonardo ridicules the conventions of classical education, claming the formality and uniformity hinders self-exploration and enlightenment. “They strut about puffed up and pompous, decked out and adorned not with their own labours, but by those of others.”

Leonardo writes a disclaimer for those reading his work: “Let no man who is not a mathematician read the elements of my work.” I like this comment. I often feel as when I am writing a technical paper the reader must be aware of the subject. If not, the writer must first inform the reader, then address and discuss the critical points. Leonardo didn’t have time to do this – he studied life and kept a notebook. By declaring that only math-knowledgeable peoples read his mathematical statements ensures Leonardo that the reader will try to understand and admire the studies of da Vinci.

Leonardo states that sciences that do not go through any of the five senses are vain and full of errors. If you can neither see nor feel such scientific conclusions, the results will stir constant debate. “…such as the nature of God and soul and the like, about which there are endless disputes and controversies.” Leonardo spent most of his time experiencing his studies. “All true sciences are the result of Experience which has passed through our senses, thus silencing the tongues of litigants.”

Leonardo demands that one must show experience to convince one of scientific discovery and knowledge. Leonardo spent most of these notebooks defending his background and work. Leonardo believed the way to learn was to live and study, and never be satisfied.

Leonardo explains the phenomenon of perspective and the workings of the eye in these selected notebooks. Leonardo uses the idea of a pyramid to which he drives all the lines of perspective and what the eye sees.

Leonardo, like at many other points in his notebooks, states the obvious. But then again, what is obvious now, was not obvious during the Renaissance, and Leonardo putting words to these observations on nature and humans, and Leonardo’s directions on painting were revolutionary in thought. But then again, they are obvious. “Among objects of equal size that which is most remote from the eye will look smallest,” is simply why the stop sign keeps getting larger and larger as the occupant of the automobile proceeds towards it. Leonardo states that when a person has in view similar objects at similar distances, the viewer will first recognize the brightest object.

Einstein would have doubted this assertion no doubt that light passes through air in a straight path. Before making this statement, Leonardo references Euclidean geometry and the assumption that the universe lies in x-y-z space. “…to assert that every ray passing through air of equal density travels in a straight line from its cause to the object or place where it strikes.” This statement still explains light traveling through air in the microspective view, what we see in our day-to-day lives, in computer clusters and classrooms and kitchens.

Leonardo amazed me quite simply with his explanation and depiction of the inner-workings of the eye. I cannot even fathom how many hours he studied the workings of the eye, and more amazing, without any technology. I wonder if he had any idea our eyes initially see everything inverted, and what the man would state on that fact.

I had a hard time picturing a few of the perspective “laws” that Leonardo states. First, his statement that an object farthest away will appear lightest, which I think goes against the thought that the objects farther away are darkened in the shadows. Maybe Leonardo is intending to mean a different aspect, as he states, “Of several bodies of equal size and tone, that which is farthest will appear lightest and smallest.” Second, his statements on the “luminous atmosphere” and the application of blue to a dark object is not all too clear with me. Leonardo maybe is stating the idea that air and atmosphere are blue, in conception and reality, thus applying blue in a painting, will describe a rich atmosphere between the viewer and the object.

Perspective is the foundation to painting, or as Leonardo states, “the bridle and rudder.” It is with perspective that a whole painting follows. Leonardo in all his works has established and maintained perspective. He has introduced spectacular settings, foregrounds, and backgrounds, utilizing perspective to keep the painting real in space. “Painting is based upon perspective.”

“The knowledge of these should be acquired by observing the dumb, because their movements are more natural than those of any other class of persons.” I wonder why Leonardo insists this, or believes this. Does he think that dumb people move slower, so that one can study such movements with much more accuracy? Or is this just a rip on slower-minded folk. I think it displays however that societies have always created classes of people; human nature discriminates.

“The most important consideration in painting is that the movements of each figure expresses its mental state, such as desire, scorn, anger, pity, and the like.” I find this comment by Leonardo very intriguing. The painter must set a mood to the painting, and with that mood, reflect it by movement in the painting. Leonardo always painted (and drew) moving figures, whether it were trees in the background, or an arm on a person in the foreground. Leonardo insists that the painting must display a certain emotion, and corresponding motions to capsulate that emotion. “In painting the actions of the figures are in every case expressive of the purpose in their minds.”

“A picture or rather the figures therein should be represented in such a way that the spectator may easily recognize the purpose in their minds by their attitudes.” Leonardo continues by comparing painting and the message being delivered to the viewer in the painting by the painter with a “deaf and dumb” person, and his comprehension of a conversation he clearly can’t hear. I understand this completely. Leonardo believes that a painter must give the painting a “soul” (say-to-speak), and this feeling/emotion must be conveyed to the viewer of said painting. The spectator of a painting must understand the attitudes of the figures.

Leonardo states some obvious painting tips: limbs that carry weight and perform tasks must be made muscular, and limbs that do not do work, must be weak. “Old men ought to be represented with slow and heavy movements.”

Leonardo contends the movement of children must be true to children’s behavior. “…lively and contorted movements when sitting, and, when standing, in shy and timid attitudes.” Leonardo loves to reveal true human behavior in painting, and reflecting truth of human nature; painting the actions and attitudes of figures is quintessential in portraying true human nature.

“I say that first you ought to learn the limbs and their mechanism, and after having completed this study you should learn their actions according to the circumstances in which they occur in man.” This statement must derive from what Leonardo stated much earlier in his notebooks about studying nature and its figure. To study the object intensely, understanding the process and its components completely before progressing to another object/action. Here Leonardo too persists one must study the limb of a figure, how it works, how it moves, and its full range of motion, before moving on to its circumstantial movement by a figure in a painting. Leonardo understands and responds that in order to portray true human emotion and movement, the artist/painter must understand the nature of such movement. And to represent a movement accurately and precisely, the mechanics of the movement must be studied and understood completely. Brilliant.

“The painter strives and competes with nature.” I believe Leonardo is making the point that nature is always one step ahead in its beauty and wonder than that of a painter who is attempting to encapsulate that beauty. “The painter ought to be solitary.” Leonardo reveals here his belief that living and seeing in a solitary fashion yields greater works. “While you are alone you are entirely alone.”

“Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones distract it.” I believe here that Leonardo means that when a person, in this case an artist, more specifically a painter, finds greater insight into his surroundings when his/her surroundings are confining in nature. The smaller the room, the more detail a seer will intricately depict of her surroundings.

“…defining one case, a second should intervene, as happens when an object occupies the mind, then he must decide which of these cases in the more difficult to work out, and follow that until it becomes entirely clear, and then work out the explanation of the other…” I like what Leonardo states here. He claims that when examining one object with great detail, and if a second object or action comes into your mind, and intrigues you even more, go on and discover the workings of the second object/action, and continue to study until you completely understand this phenomenon, then continue with the former object that intrigues you. I like this comment because it insists the person, artist or craftsman, to be consistent and adamant to a thought, to stay focus on what is interesting the person now.

“…when you lie in bed in the dark to go over again in the imagination the outlines of the forms you have been studying…is certainly a praiseworthy exercise and useful in impressing things on the memory.” This is what makes Leonardo a crazy man. He not only insists on strict concentration during exhaustive studies but then to contemplate all of your studies again while one sleeps – to impress upon the brain. This man went to sleep every night dreaming and reviewing his thoughts on gears and nature.

“I say and assist that drawing in company is much better than alone.” I feel this is quite obviously a contradiction to what Leonardo states early about being confined and alone. Maybe, I am wrong. He says that working in front of persons will spur greatness from the natural competition between men, and the praise. I also agree with what Leonardo says, that the competition will do a young studier well.

“I say when you paint you should have a flat mirror and often look at your work as reflected in it, when you will see it reversed, and it will appear to you like some other painter’s work, so you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.” I agree with Leonardo’s assertion that it is easier to find fault in another person’s work than in our own. When I look upon my own work, I usually skim it and often miss little mistakes or errors, but when reviewing another person’s work, I will be on the “look-out” for mistakes, or at least more apt to spot, and to discuss any found mistakes.

“If you wish to have knowledge of the forms of things, you will begin with their details, and not go on to the second until you have the first well fixed in memory and in practice.” Leonardo really wants to drive this message home – don’t continue until you completely understand the prior occurrence/happenstance. He pretty much reiterates his belief for the necessity and importance of patience in observation, thought, and study.