Bronze, Copper, and Glass: the Permanence of Painting and Sculpture
A compiler's note on a misplaced half-chapter, then the durability of media
The leaf opens with an editorial note by the compiler explaining that this half-chapter belongs after its other half at folio 23, marked with the sign W, an error caused by Leonardo's left-handed writing being transposed the wrong way round. The text then resumes: a skilled sculptor removes little at a time; clay or wax models can be added to and taken from and then cast in bronze, sculpture's most permanent state, while marble alone is subject to ruin. Painting on copper or glass, likewise reworkable, is said to be even more eternal and full of colour where bronze stays black; Leonardo concedes only that panel painting is more beautiful and copious while sculpture is more durable, closing that painting seems miraculous in making the flat appear in relief and the near appear distant.
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Clay or wax models cast in bronze: sculpture's most permanent state
The sculptor working in clay or wax can take away and add, and when finished the work is easily cast in bronze; this is the last and most permanent operation of sculpture, since marble alone is subject to ruin whereas bronze is not.
Painting on copper and glass rivals and outlasts bronze
Painting made on copper can, like wax, be added to and taken from, on a par with bronze; if bronze sculpture is eternal, painting of copper and of glass is most eternal, and where bronze stays black and ugly this painting is full of various and lovely colours and infinite variety.
Painting makes the impalpable palpable and the flat in relief
Granting sculpture greater durability while calling painting more beautiful, of more fantasy and more copious, Leonardo says sculpture with little effort shows what it is, whereas painting seems a miraculous thing, making palpable things appear impalpable, flat things in relief, and near things distant.