495.

OF WHETHER IT IS BETTER TO DRAW WITH COMPANIONS OR NOT.

I say and insist that drawing in company is much better than alone,
for many reasons. The first is that you would be ashamed to be seen
behindhand among the students, and such shame will lead you to
careful study. Secondly, a wholesome emulation will stimulate you to
be among those who are more praised than yourself, and this praise
of others will spur you on. Another is that you can learn from the
drawings of others who do better than yourself; and if you are
better than they, you can profit by your contempt for their defects,
while the praise of others will incite you to farther merits.

[Footnote: The contradiction by this passage of the foregoing
chapter is only apparent. It is quite clear, from the nature of the
reasoning which is here used to prove that it is more improving to
work with others than to work alone, that the studies of pupils only
are under consideration here.]

496.

OF STUDYING, IN THE DARK, WHEN YOU WAKE, OR IN BED BEFORE YOU GO TO
SLEEP.

I myself have proved it to be of no small use, when in bed in the
dark, to recall in fancy the external details of forms previously
studied, or other noteworthy things conceived by subtle speculation;
and this is certainly an admirable exercise, and useful for
impressing things on the memory.

497.

OF THE TIME FOR STUDYING SELECTION OF SUBJECTS.

Winter evenings ought to be employed by young students in looking
over the things prepared during the summer; that is, all the
drawings from the nude done in the summer should be brought together
and a choice made of the best [studies of] limbs and bodies among
them, to apply in practice and commit to memory.

OF POSITIONS.

After this in the following summer you should select some one who is
well grown and who has not been brought up in doublets, and so may
not be of stiff carriage, and make him go through a number of agile
and graceful actions; and if his muscles do not show plainly within
the outlines of his limbs that does not matter at all. It is enough
that you can see good attitudes and you can correct [the drawing of]
the limbs by those you studied in the winter.

[Footnote: An injunction to study in the evening occurs also in No.
524.]

On the productive power of minor artists (498-501).

498.

He is a poor disciple who does not excel his master.

499.

Nor is the painter praiseworthy who does but one thing well, as the
nude figure, heads, draperies, animals, landscapes or other such
details, irrespective of other work; for there can be no mind so
inept, that after devoting itself to one single thing and doing it
constantly, it should fail to do it well.

[Footnote: In MANZI'S edition (p. 502) the painter G. G. Bossi
indignantly remarks on this passage. "_Parla il Vince in questo
luogo come se tutti gli artisti avessero quella sublimita d'ingegno
capace di abbracciare tutte le cose, di cui era egli dotato"_ And he
then mentions the case of CLAUDE LORRAIN. But he overlooks the fact
that in Leonardo's time landscape painting made no pretensions to
independence but was reckoned among the details (_particulari_,
lines 3, 4).]

500.

THAT A PAINTER IS NOT ADMIRABLE UNLESS HE IS UNIVERSAL.

Some may distinctly assert that those persons are under a delusion
who call that painter a good master who can do nothing well but a
head or a figure. Certainly this is no great achievement; after
studying one single thing for a life-time who would not have
attained some perfection in it? But, since we know that painting
embraces and includes in itself every object produced by nature or
resulting from the fortuitous actions of men, in short, all that the
eye can see, he seems to me but a poor master who can only do a
figure well. For do you not perceive how many and various actions
are performed by men only; how many different animals there are, as
well as trees, plants, flowers, with many mountainous regions and
plains, springs and rivers, cities with public and private
buildings, machines, too, fit for the purposes of men, divers
costumes, decorations and arts? And all these things ought to be
regarded as of equal importance and value, by the man who can be
termed a good painter.

501.



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