A Treatise on Painting/Chapter 120

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A Treatise on Painting
by Leonardo da Vinci, translated by John Francis Rigaud

Of the Dimensions of the first Figure in an historical Painting

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4005666A Treatise on Painting — Of the Dimensions of the first Figure in an historical PaintingJohn Francis RigaudLeonardo da Vinci

Chap. CXX.—Of the Dimensions of the first Figure in an historical Painting.

The first figure in your picture will be less than Nature, in proportion as it recedes from the front of the picture, or the bottom line; and by the same rule the others behind it will go on lessening in an equal degree^[1].

↑ It is supposed that the figures are to appear of the natural size, and not bigger. In that case, the measure of the first, to be of the exact dimension, should have its feet resting upon the bottom line; but as you remove it from that, it should diminish.
No allusion is here intended to the distance at which a picture is to be placed from the eye.

Layout 2

[1] It is supposed that the figures are to appear of the natural size, and not bigger. In that case, the measure of the first, to be of the exact dimension, should have its feet resting upon the bottom line; but as you remove it from that, it should diminish.
No allusion is here intended to the distance at which a picture is to be placed from the eye.

[1]