The Divisions of Painting: Figure, Colour, and Movement
How painting splits into line and colour, and the proportion and motion of limbs
A tightly ordered set of definitions from the Treatise on Painting. Chapter 111 divides painting into two principal parts: figure (the line distinguishing bodies) and colour contained within those bounds. Chapter 112 divides figure into proportionality of the parts and movement appropriate to the mental state of the living thing; chapter 113 divides the proportion of limbs into quality and motion. Leonardo insists a painter not mix young limbs with old or fat with thin, and that the movements of the old, the child, and the woman each keep their proper vivacity, matched to the character of the gesturer.
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Chapter 111: painting divides into figure and colour
Painting is divided into two principal parts. The first is figure, that is, the line that distinguishes the figure of bodies and their parts. The second is the colour contained within those boundaries.
Chapters 112-113: proportion of limbs, in quality and in motion
Figure divides into the proportionality of the parts to the whole and the movement fitting the mental state of the moving creature. Under quality the painter must not mix the limbs of the young with the old, the fat with the thin, nor give men female limbs or graceful limbs with clumsy ones. Under motion, the movements of the old must not have a young man's vivacity, nor a child's those of a youth, nor a woman's those of a man; and no gesture should be unfitting to its maker.