Painting goes straight to nature and deceives even animals
Anecdotes of the dog, the monkey, and the swallows
A continuous text page pressing the poet-versus-painter argument. It says the poet borrows the sciences of others (astrology, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic) to reach nature, while the painter goes directly to imitating nature's works. Painting moves lovers and peoples to worship images, and even deceives animals: Leonardo reports a painting that a dog took for its master, dogs barking at painted dogs, a monkey raging at a painted monkey, and swallows alighting on painted iron bars. A new chapter then opens comparing poetry and painting through the eye that receives the species of objects.
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The painter reaches nature without borrowed sciences
The poet who would describe nature's works with his simple profession is surpassed by the painter with infinite power; and if he clothes himself in other sciences separate from poetry, such as astrology, rhetoric, theology, philosophy, geometry, or arithmetic, they are not his and he is no longer a poet. The painter, by himself and without the help of scholars or other means, goes immediately to the imitation of nature's works.
Paintings that deceive dogs, a monkey, and swallows
Leonardo reports having seen a painting that deceived a dog by the likeness of its master, at which the dog made great festivity, and dogs that barked at and tried to bite painted dogs, and a monkey doing endless follies against another painted monkey. He also saw swallows fly and alight upon painted iron bars projecting from the windows of buildings.
The eye receives the species of objects
The imagination does not see such excellence as the eye sees, because the eye receives the species, or likenesses, of the objects. The chapter opens the example set between poetry and painting on this basis.