The Ten Parts of the Eye and the Seven of Painting
Painting as a surface without body; light and shadow made a single book because they mingle
The page first completes the vault-figure method, noting the receding wall diminishes the figure by itself while the portion on the vault must be reduced on a well-level floor and re-projected onto a wall in relief. Leonardo then defines painting through the ten parts of the office of the eye — light, darkness, colour, body, figure, site, remoteness, nearness, motion and rest — of which painting takes seven, setting aside body, motion and rest because painting is a superficial thing and a surface, by geometry, has no body. He concludes that whatever is visible belongs to the science of painting, and that light and darkness form a single book, since shadow is always in contact with light and the two mingle at their confines.
On this page
The ten predicaments of the eye divided into ten books
Leonardo lists the ten parts of the office of the eye and assigns painting seven of them, removing body, motion and rest. Because painting is a superficial thing whose surface has no body, these predicaments become the ten books into which he divides his treatise. Whatever is visible, he says, is counted in the science of painting.
Light and shadow united in a single book
Light and darkness are treated as one book, meaning shadow and light, or bright and dark colour. They are joined because shadow is surrounded by, or in contact with, the light, and the same happens to light with shadow. At their confines light and shadow always mingle together.