Leonardo da Vinci

Spontaneity in Painting

Pliny the Elder ( 23 - 29 ) : Natural History
Leon Battista Alberti : Della pittura ( 1435-36 )

Leonardo da Vinci : Libro di pittura ( 1490-92 ) ↓

The good painter should paint two main things, and these are man and the intention of his mind (concetto della mente); while the first is easy, the second is difficult, because it has to be captured through the gestures and the movements of the limbs, and these should be learned from mute persons, who better actualize them than any other sort of men.

prontezza di spirito - a spontaneity or immediacy of spirit

bozzare pronto - the quick sketch

componimenti inculti - rough sketches

piccioli libretti - small, portable sketchbooks

con brevi segni - with abbreviated strokes

Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the Baptist; Diagram of a Perspectival Projection (recto); Slight Doodles (verso) | 1480–85

7 5/8 x 6 3/8 in. (19.3 x 16.2 cm)

Silverpoint, partly reworked by the artist with pen and dark brown ink on pink prepared paper; lines ruled with metalpoint (recto); pen and brown ink (verso)

Met Museum NYC