Machine studies with painting notes and a proud aside
A spoked wheel, pulleys and gearing; an upside-down list of painting qualities and a personal jotting
The sheet is filled with mechanical studies — a large spoked wheel with a numbered rim, blocks of pulleys hung with counterweights, gear trains and a scoop- or dredge-like form (here masked) — most of them left untranscribed in the bundle. Turned upside down in a corner, Leonardo has written a short list of terms for a painting treatise (the quality of the limbs; relief; attitude; composition; placement) together with a proud personal aside. The two jottings sit amid the machinery without evident connection to it.
On this page
Spoked wheel, pulley blocks and counterweights
A large wheel with radial spokes and a numbered rim occupies the sheet, its axle linked to gearing. Nearby hang blocks of pulleys weighted with counterpoises, and a scoop- or bucket-like form appears at the centre (masked in this reproduction). These mechanical studies are drawn but not transcribed in the bundle.
Headings for a painting treatise
A short list, written upside down, gathers terms for the depiction of figures: the quality of the limbs, relief (modelling), attitude (pose), composition and placement. It reads as a set of chapter headings for treating the human figure in painting.
A proud aside
Off to the left Leonardo jots a boast in the form of a challenge: whether anything was ever made better than himself. It is a fragment of self-address rather than a note on the machinery around it.