The Aptitude and Range of the Painter; Twig Growth
Signs of talent in the young, the versatile painter, and how twigs are born
This leaf interleaves two of Leonardo's recurring themes in red chalk and pen, beside light branch sketches. On painting he warns that many love drawing without aptitude — recognizable in children who work without diligence and never finish their copies with shadow — and holds that no painter is praiseworthy who does only one thing well, since any mind can master a single subject through constant practice. In red chalk he adds that each year's new twigs spring only where the plant's old branchings stood, one above another at every sixth position, and that the bare humps on the largest boughs mark places where twigs failed in infancy so the branch grew straight for a long stretch.
On this page
Recognizing the youth fit for painting
Many men have desire and love for drawing but not the aptitude for it. This shows in children, who work without diligence and never finish their copies with shadows.
A painter must not do only one thing well
That painter is not praiseworthy who does well only a single thing — a nude, a head, drapery, animals, landscapes or the like. There is no mind so dull that, turning to one subject and always practicing it, would not do it well; true worth lies in mastering all.
Where each year's new twigs are born
The twigs of the same year spring on all parts of the plant only in those places where its old branchings were, following the order of the birth of their leaves. That is, every 6 one is born above the other.
Bare humps where twigs failed in infancy
The rare bulges on the largest branches are not in the same order as the closely set leaves, because the twigs above such humps were wanting in their infancy. Having sent up no more sap there, the branch grew straight for a long stretch.