Garments, Fold Profiles, and the Three Sorts of Cloth
Do not let folds cut the limbs; imitate the antique; folds thick in the middle, thin at the sides
Leonardo continues on dressing figures according to their rank and age, insisting that garments must not obstruct movement nor let folds and their shadows cut across the limbs, and urging painters to imitate the Greeks and Latins in revealing the body where the wind presses the cloth against it. He prescribes few folds in general, many only on old togaed men of authority. A chapter on garments describes how loose thick cloth makes rounded, sparse folds while medium dense cloth makes faced folds of small angles, with each fold thick in the middle and thin at the sides. A further chapter divides cloths into three sorts, thin, thick and middling, and analyses how a thin cloth behaves as a running figure sets down the right leg and the drapery rises and reflects like a wave.
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Folds must not obstruct or cut the limbs; imitate the antique
Dress figures according to their rank and age, and above all let the cloths not obstruct the movement of the limbs, nor let the folds or their shadows cut across them. Imitate the Greeks and Latins in revealing the limbs where the wind presses the cloth upon them; make few folds, and many only on old togaed men of authority.
Fold profile: thick in the middle, thin at the sides
Garments should be varied with pleats suited to the fabric: loose thick cloth gives rounded, sparse folds, while medium and dense cloth gives faced folds of small angles. In every quality of cloth the fold between one break and the next should be thick in the middle and thin at the sides, its least thickness at the middle of the fold's rounded angle.
Three sorts of cloth and drapery in movement
Cloths are of three sorts, thin, thick and middling; the thin are most agile and apt to motion. When a figure runs, the drapery unfolds now right, now left; as the right leg sets down, the cloth on that side rises from the foot, reflecting the percussion of its wave, while the trailing leg does the same and the front folds rest upon chest, body, thighs and legs.