Stains, Universality, and Precepts on Sketching Limbs
Chapters 61-65: the suggestive stain, darkness and soft shadow, doubt, copying masters, and loose sketching
This folio of the Treatise on Painting completes the account of the random stain, which suggests animals, battles, seas, clouds, and woods yet teaches no finishing of detail. Chapter 61 urges universality by combining great darkness with great sweetness of shadow in one composition; chapter 62 warns that a painter who does not doubt gains little, and that a work never stops improving while judgment exceeds it. Chapters 63 through 65 give practical precepts: first copy good masters and reliefs, sketch narratives promptly without over-finishing the limbs, and correct errors before publishing so as not to publish one's own foolishness.
On this page
The stain that hints at battles, seas, and woods
Leonardo says the random stain suggests diverse animals, battles, rocks, seas, clouds, and woods, working like the sound of bells in which one hears whatever one pleases. Yet while such stains supply invention, they teach nothing of how to finish any particular detail. The painter who relied on them made most wretched landscapes.
Chapters 61-62: universality of shadow, and the value of doubt
To be universal and please diverse judgments, the painter should place in one composition both great darkness and great sweetness of shadow, making the causes of those shadows evident. Chapter 62 adds that a painter who does not doubt gains little: when the work surpasses the maker's judgment he gains little, but when judgment surpasses the work, that work never ceases to improve unless avarice impedes it.
Chapters 63-64: copy masters, then sketch limbs loosely
The painter should first train his hand by copying drawings of good masters under a teacher's judgment, then copy good works in relief by set rules. The sketching of narrative scenes should be prompt, with the limbs not too finished; be content only with their placement, finishing them later at leisure.