Building with Arches and Buttresses
Red-chalk sketch of an arched structure with raking supports
In red chalk Leonardo sketches a structure built up from arches and buttresses, as the page's descriptive title records. The drawing centres on a large rounded arch flanked by raking straight lines that read as buttresses or roof and wall planes, rapidly laid in. Faint further marks and traces of writing appear at the foot of the leaf but were not included among the transcriptions.
On this page
Arched structure with buttresses
A large rounded arch anchors the composition, with sloping straight lines rising to either side that read as buttresses or roof planes bracing the span. The whole is a quick red-chalk study of an arched building rather than a finished elevation.