Table of Contents, Part One: poetry and painting
Opening chapters of the paragone, from 'Whether painting is a science' to astrology born of the eye
This calligraphic leaf opens the index (Tavola) of the First Part of the Book, headed 'And first, of poetry and painting'. It lists the opening chapters of Leonardo's paragone, numbered [1] to [17] with page references, arguing whether painting is a science, how it embraces the surfaces, figures and colours of natural bodies, that the painter is lord of all things, and comparing painter and poet. Several entries turn on the eye and vision, closing with the claim that the science of astrology is born from the eye.
On this page
Whether painting is a science
The first entries ([1]-[10]) frame painting as a science: its first and second principles, what its science encompasses, and how it embraces all the surfaces, figures and colours of natural bodies, while philosophy extends only into their natural properties. This establishes the theoretical claim underpinning the whole treatise.
The painter as lord of all things; painter and poet
Entries [12]-[15] hold that whoever despises painting loves neither philosophy nor nature, that the painter is lord of every sort of people and of all things, and set the painter beside the poet with an example comparing poetry and painting. These are the core moves of the paragone between the arts.
The eye, least deceived of the senses
Several entries turn on vision: how the eye is less deceived in its exercises than any other sense among luminous, transparent, uniform and intermediate things ([11]); which is the greater harm, to lose the eye or the ear ([16]); and how the science of astrology is born from the eye ([17]). Sight is made the foundation of knowledge and of painting.