Rules of appearance for the eye, and crossing water currents
Red-chalk notes on size, binocular roundness and relief, with a diagram of intersecting currents
Written upside down in red chalk, this page pairs a painter's optics with a water study. Three precepts state that near objects look larger than distant ones, that things seen with two eyes look rounder than with one eye, and that objects seen between light and shadow show greater relief. Below, a diagram of intersecting currents lettered s, o, b, a, n, c explains how falling water crosses and opens, deepening at the wide crossings and laying down gravel where it grows shallow.
On this page
Near things look larger; relief comes from light and shade
Two painter's rules: things near the eye appear of greater size than distant ones, and things seen between the light and the shadow appear of greater relief. Both concern how a painter renders scale and modelling on a flat surface.
Objects seen with two eyes appear rounder
A note on binocular vision states that things seen with two eyes appear more rounded than those seen with a single eye. It records Leonardo's observation of how two viewpoints give solidity to what is seen.
Intersecting currents deepen at the crossings and drop gravel where shallow
A lettered diagram (s, o, b, a, n, c) accompanies a note that when water falls from o s it crosses and opens; at the greater opening it reaches the greatest depth, then crosses and opens again, laying down gravel where the water becomes shallow.