Drapery Must Appear Inhabited, Not a Stripped Bundle
Against loving folds for their own sake; vary cloth by type; nature is the mistress of painters
Continuing the discussion of drapery, Leonardo warns against painters who fall so in love with elaborate groupings of folds that a garment looks like cloth stripped from the body rather than worn upon it, filling a figure with 'bellies or deflated bladders' over its lit reliefs. Cloth exists to dress and encircle the limbs with grace; a few beautiful folds belong only where the limbs gather the fabric. He urges varying the cloths across a narrative scene, distinguishing dense fabrics with faced breaks, soft-turning rare cloths like serge, silk, veils and linen, and thick felts and blankets of few large folds. The passage closes with an admonition that painters who withhold teaching abandon study, whose true school is the works of nature, mistress of painters. A new chapter, 'Of the manner of dressing figures,' begins at the foot.
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Cloth should look worn, not a heap stripped from the body
The cloth must be so adapted that it does not appear uninhabited, like a bundle of drapery stripped from the man. Painters who dote on tangled groupings of folds forget the purpose of cloth, which is to dress and encircle the limbs with grace, not to swell everything with bellies or deflated bladders over the lit reliefs of the members.
Vary the fabrics across a narrative scene
Above all, vary the cloths in the stories: dense cloths take folds with faced breaks; serges and thin rare cloths, veils and linens take soft foldings whose turns are curved rather than sided; thick felts, rough blankets and bed-coverings take few and large folds. Each fabric must show its own manner.
Nature is the mistress of painters
These reminders are addressed not to true masters but to those unwilling to teach, who fear losing their gain; and whoever esteems gain abandons study. Study is contained in the works of nature, the mistress of painters; what is learned is forgotten, and what has not been learned is learned no more.