84

Demomstration of perspective by means of a vertical glass plane.

[figure][figure]

Pictorial perspective can never make an object at the same distance, look of the same size as it appears to the eye. You see that the apex of the pyramid f c d is as far from the object c d as the same point f is from the object a b; and yet c d, which is the base made by the painter’s point, is smaller than a b which is the base of the lines from the objects converging in the eye and refracted at s t, the surface of the eye. This may be proved by experiment, by the lines of vision and then by the lines of the painter’s plumbline by cutting the real lines of vision on one and the same plane and measuring on it one and the same object.

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

83 * 85
I * III
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
II: Linear Perspective.
. . .
64
Proof by experiment.
65,
66
General conclusions.
67
That the contrary is impossible.
68
A parallel case.
69
The function of the eye as explained by the camera obscura.
70,
71
The practice of perspective.
72,
73
Refraction of the rays falling upon the eye.
74,
75
The inversion of the images.
76
The intersection of the rays.
77,
78,
79,
80,
81,
82
Demomstration of perspective by means of a vertical glass plane.
83,
84,
85
The angle of sight varies with the distance.
86,
87,
88
Opposite pyramids in juxtaposition.
89
On simple and complex perspective.
90
The proper distance of objects from the eye.
91,
92
eye.
93,
94,
95,
96,
97,
98
The apparent size of objects defined by calculation.
99,
100,
101,
102,
103,
104
. . .