Nature, not art: the decline and revival of painting
From Giotto to Masaccio — why painters who copy paintings decline, and the eye and candle flame
In a full left-hand column Leonardo argues that painting declines from age to age whenever painters take earlier paintings, rather than nature, as their authority. He traces the fall of art after the Romans, its revival by Giotto (who, keeping goats in lonely mountains, drew their movements on the rocks and surpassed the masters of many centuries), its second decline, and its renewal by Tommaso 'Masaccio,' concluding that the same holds for mathematical study: those who follow only the authors, not nature, are its grandchildren, not its children. At the top, with the sheet turned ninety degrees, a small diagram shows a lit candle and a section of the eye (letters a, n, m, b).
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Painting declines when it copies painting, not nature
Leonardo holds that a painter who takes others' paintings as his authority achieves little, while one who learns from natural things bears good fruit. He cites the decline after the Romans, Giotto's revival through drawing animals from life, and Masaccio's later renewal, then extends the lesson to mathematics: study nature, the mistress of masters, not merely the authors.
A lit candle and a section of the eye
At the top of the sheet, drawn with the page rotated ninety degrees, is a lit candle beside a section of the eye lettered a, n, m, b, apparently studying how the flame's light enters and forms an image within the eye.