Treatise index: judging painting, the mirror, and relief
Part Three chapter list — practice, the mirror as master, light on figures, and grounds
This index leaf of the Codex Urbinas, headed 'Parte' (continuing the Third Part), lists chapter titles with page cross-references ('a car.'). The entries turn from the moving figure to the theory of painting: the practice a painter must seek, judging one's own works and those of others, and the recognition of a good painting. A cluster of headings treats the flat mirror as the master of painters, the giving of light to figures, the placing of a high viewpoint, the choice of grounds, and the detaching of figures from their backgrounds. The leaf carries no drawing, only Melzi's scribal list of headings.
On this page
The painter's practice and judgment
The opening headings treat a discourse on practice, the practice a painter must seek with great diligence, and the painter judging both his own works and those of others. Further entries ask how a good painting is recognized and which painting is more praiseworthy.
The mirror as the master of painters
Two headings hold that the mirror is the master of painters and that true painting lies in the surface of the flat mirror.
Light, relief, grounds, and the high viewpoint
Headings cover how light is given to figures, where the viewer should stand, placing the point of view high, the ground the painter should use, and the sites chosen to make things stand out in relief with grace. Another treats dividing and detaching figures from their grounds.
Feigning a wild site
One heading is devoted to feigning a wild, savage site, and an adjacent entry asks how a feigned animal may be made to appear natural.
