The Difference and Likeness Between Painting and Poetry
The eye grasps the whole at once; sound, like verse, dies as fast as it is born
Continuing the paragone, this leaf closes the argument that commentators rarely grasp a poet's mind and that readers, for lack of time, read only a small part of his work, whereas the painter's work is understood at once by its beholders. The chapter rubric [23] 'Of the difference, and also the likeness, of painting and poetry' then holds that painting delivers its whole essence to the visual faculty in an instant, while poetry conveys the same more confusedly and slowly through the ear. Leonardo likens verse to music, whose harmony dies as swiftly as it is born, unlike what the eye receives. The whole page is unbroken prose in Melzi's fair-copy hand.
On this page
The painter's work is grasped at once, the poet's is not
Commentators seldom understand what a poet truly meant, and readers, pressed for time, read only a small part of his works. By contrast, the painter's work is immediately comprehended by those who behold it. This opens the chapter [23] on the difference and likeness of the two arts.
The eye is a worthier means than the ear
Painting presents its whole essence to the visual power in an instant, composing at the same moment the harmonic proportion of the parts that make the whole. The eye is the true means between object and mind, conferring the true surfaces and figures at once. The ear is less worthy, for its harmony dies as swiftly as it is born, as sound does.