The Painter as Mirror; Botticelli's Sponge and Landscape
Chapters 58a-60: solitude and the mirror, painting's edge over sculpture in relief, and the neglect of landscape
Continuing the Treatise on Painting, Leonardo advises the painter to be solitary and to act like a mirror that takes on the colors of all it sees, so that he becomes a second nature. Chapter 59 holds that pleasing first-rank painters is the true test, and that painting surpasses sculpture in making relief where there is none. Chapter 60 attacks the painter who does not love every part of the art equally, citing Botticelli's claim that landscape study was vain because a sponge of colors thrown at a wall already leaves a stain in which a beautiful landscape can be seen.
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Chapter 58a: the solitary painter as a mirror and second nature
Leonardo counsels the painter to remain solitary, to consider all he sees and reason with himself, choosing the most excellent parts of every kind of thing. He should behave like a mirror that transmutes itself into as many colors as there are objects set before it. Doing so, the painter will seem to be a second nature.
Chapter 59: painting surpasses sculpture in relief
Striving to please the leading painters, who alone can judge truly, yields good work, whereas pleasing non-masters leaves paintings with few foreshortenings and little relief or movement. In that lies the excellence of the art: making something with no real relief appear to stand out. Here the painter surpasses the sculptor, whose relief is simply given by nature rather than won by art.
Chapter 60: Botticelli's sponge-stain and the scorn of landscape
Leonardo condemns the painter who is not universal, such as one who dislikes landscapes and deems their study brief and simple. He cites Botticelli, who said such study was vain because merely throwing a sponge full of colors at a wall leaves a stain in which a beautiful landscape appears. Leonardo concedes that such a stain can suggest various inventions, including heads of men.