Mantles, Windblown Garments, and Folds in Foreshortening
How much of the body a mantle should reveal, and why foreshortened figures need more turning folds
Leonardo cautions that a mantled figure should not so reveal the nude that the mantle seems to lie on bare flesh, since other garments between mantle and skin thicken the apparent form; only nymphs and angels, figured in thin garments driven by the wind, may show the almost true thickness of their limbs. A chapter on folds in foreshortening advises that where a figure foreshortens it should show a greater number of folds, its limbs encircled by frequent folds turning around them. The text names the eye's position as a and the line m n through the centres of the circles, and a pen diagram at the foot shows the foreshortened folds as a row of rings or cylinders labelled Q, P, O, A, N, M.
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A mantle should not cling as if on bare flesh
A mantled figure should not reveal the nude so that the mantle seems to lie on the flesh, for other garments come between mantle and skin; the form you let show should be made thick, as if further clothing lay beneath. Only on a nymph or an angel, dressed in thin garments pressed by the blowing winds, may the almost true thickness of the limbs be revealed.
Foreshortened figures need more, tightly turning folds (a, m n)
Where the figure foreshortens, show a greater number of folds than where it does not, and let its limbs be encircled by frequent folds turning around them. Let a be where the eye stands, while the line m n carries the middle of each of the circles further from the eye.
Pen diagram of foreshortened folds as rings (Q P O A N M)
At the foot of the text a pen diagram renders the foreshortened drapery as a row of ringed cylinders, its points labelled Q, P, O, A, N and M. It illustrates how the middles of successive circular folds recede from the eye, as the accompanying chapter on foreshortening describes.