Painting as a Mental Science; Painter, Poet, and Musician
Painting weighs continuous proportion like geometry; the painter shows the whole at once, the poet part by part
Answering the claim that only the mental sciences are non-mechanical, Leonardo declares painting mental, ranking it with music and geometry as a study of the proportions of continuous quantity, while arithmetic treats discontinuous quantity. Painting, he adds, considers all continuous quantities and the qualities of the proportions of shadows, lights, and distances in its perspective. A concluding section on the poet, painter, and musician holds that the painter shows a body all in one instant, whereas the poet describes it member by member and at different times. He likens the poet to a musician singing a four-part song alone, one line after another, so that no grace of harmonic proportionality results.
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Painting, like geometry, a study of continuous quantity
Painting is mental and, like music and geometry, considers the proportions of continuous quantities, while arithmetic treats the discontinuous. Painting considers all continuous quantities and the qualities of the proportions of shadows, lights, and distances in its perspective.
The painter shows the whole at once, the poet part by part
In representing bodies the difference between painter and poet is as between dismembered bodies and whole ones. The poet describes beauty or ugliness member by member and at different times, while the painter makes it all seen in one instant with the truth possible in nature.
The poet like a lone singer of a four-part song
The poet, Leonardo writes, is like the musician who alone sings a song written for four voices, giving first the treble, then the tenor, contralto, and bass. From this no grace of harmonic proportionality results, for beauty consists in the divine proportion of members composed together in a single instant.