Index of Part Two: composing scenes and colour (175-196)
Chapter titles of the Treatise on Painting on composing storie and colour, with page references.
A neatly ruled table-of-contents page for the Second Part of the Treatise on Painting, headed 'SECVNDA' with the folio number 306, listing chapter titles against page references ('a car.'). The entries (numbered 175-196 in the edition) run from the composition of narrative scenes to the harmony and behaviour of colours. Topics include placing figures, depicting a man and his mind, the variety of men and faces in a scene, and the colours of shadows. The page is written in a clean italic hand throughout.
On this page
Precepts for composing narrative scenes (storie)
The opening entries index Leonardo's precepts for composing storie: placing the figures, the manner and precepts of composition, and not burdening the figures with ornaments. They include how the good painter must depict two things, man and his mind, and the variety and compositions of narrative scenes. Page references point to the text at folios 59-61.
Variety of men, faces, ages and complexions
Several entries treat the diversity of the human figure within a scene: the variety of men in storie, diversifying the airs of the faces, and varying the constitution, age and complexion of bodies. One entry directs the painter to learn the movements of man.
Harmony of colours and colour of shadows
The later entries turn to colour: accompanying colours so that one lends grace to another, making colours lively and beautiful, and the colours of the shadows of any colour. Others treat how the colours of remote or near things vary, at what distance the colours of things are wholly lost, and the shadow-colour of white.