585

Of representing imaginary animals.

HOW YOU SHOULD MAKE AN IMAGINARY ANIMAL LOOK NATURAL.

You know that you cannot invent animals without limbs, each of which, in itself, must resemble those of some other animal. Hence if you wish to make an animal, imagined by you, appear natural—let us say a Dragon, take for its head that of a mastiff or hound, with the eyes of a cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the brow of a lion, the temples of an old cock, the neck of a water tortoise.

[Footnote: The sketch here inserted of two men on horseback fighting a dragon is the facsimile of a pen and ink drawing belonging to BARON EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD of Paris.]

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

VII * X
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
VIII: Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.
. . .
565
On the lighting of white objects.
566
The methods of aerial.
567,
568,
569,
570
Of sketching figures and portraits.
571,
572
The position of the head.
573
Of the light on the face.
574,
575,
576
General suggestions for historical pictures.
577,
578,
579,
580,
581
How to represent the differences of age and sex.
582,
583
Of representing the emotions.
584
Of representing imaginary animals.
585
The selection of forms.
586,
587,
588,
589,
590,
591
How to pose figures.
592
Of appropriate gestures.
593,
594,
595,
596,
597,
598,
599,
600
Of painting battle pieces.
601,
602,
603
Of depicting night-scenes.
604
Of depicting a tempest.
605
. . .