The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
falls again. It is the finest part that rises highest; hence that
part will be least seen and will look almost of the same colour as
the air. The higher the smoke mixed with the dust-laden air rises
towards a certain level, the more it will look like a dark cloud;
and it will be seen that at the top, where the smoke is more
separate from the dust, the smoke will assume a bluish tinge and the
dust will tend to its colour. This mixture of air, smoke and dust
will look much lighter on the side whence the light comes than on
the opposite side. The more the combatants are in this turmoil the
less will they be seen, and the less contrast will there be in their
lights and shadows. Their faces and figures and their appearance,
and the musketeers as well as those near them you must make of a
glowing red. And this glow will diminish in proportion as it is
remote from its cause.
The figures which are between you and the light, if they be at a
distance, will appear dark on a light background, and the lower part
of their legs near the ground will be least visible, because there
the dust is coarsest and densest [19]. And if you introduce horses
galloping outside the crowd, make the little clouds of dust distant
from each other in proportion to the strides made by the horses; and
the clouds which are furthest removed from the horses, should be
least visible; make them high and spreading and thin, and the nearer
ones will be more conspicuous and smaller and denser [23]. The air
must be full of arrows in every direction, some shooting upwards,
some falling, some flying level. The balls from the guns must have a
train of smoke following their flight. The figures in the foreground
you must make with dust on the hair and eyebrows and on other flat
places likely to retain it. The conquerors you will make rushing
onwards with their hair and other light things flying on the wind,
with their brows bent down,
[Footnote: 19--23. Compare 608. 57--75.]
602.
and with the opposite limbs thrust forward; that is where a man puts
forward the right foot the left arm must be advanced. And if you
make any one fallen, you must show the place where he has slipped
and been dragged along the dust into blood stained mire; and in the
half-liquid earth arround show the print of the tramping of men and
horses who have passed that way. Make also a horse dragging the dead
body of his master, and leaving behind him, in the dust and mud, the
track where the body was dragged along. You must make the conquered
and beaten pale, their brows raised and knit, and the skin above
their brows furrowed with pain, the sides of the nose with wrinkles
going in an arch from the nostrils to the eyes, and make the
nostrils drawn up--which is the cause of the lines of which I
speak--, and the lips arched upwards and discovering the upper
teeth; and the teeth apart as with crying out and lamentation. And
make some one shielding his terrified eyes with one hand, the palm
towards the enemy, while the other rests on the ground to support
his half raised body. Others represent shouting with their mouths
open, and running away. You must scatter arms of all sorts among the
feet of the combatants, as broken shields, lances, broken swords and
other such objects. And you must make the dead partly or entirely
covered with dust, which is changed into crimson mire where it has
mingled with the flowing blood whose colour shows it issuing in a
sinuous stream from the corpse. Others must be represented in the
agonies of death grinding their teeth, rolling their eyes, with
their fists clenched against their bodies and their legs contorted.
Some might be shown disarmed and beaten down by the enemy, turning
upon the foe, with teeth and nails, to take an inhuman and bitter
revenge. You might see some riderless horse rushing among the enemy,
with his mane flying in the wind, and doing no little mischief with
his heels. Some maimed warrior may be seen fallen to the earth,
covering himself with his shield, while the enemy, bending over him,
tries to deal him a deathstroke. There again might be seen a number
of men fallen in a heap over a dead horse. You would see some of the
victors leaving the fight and issuing from the crowd, rubbing their
eyes and cheeks with both hands to clean them of the dirt made by
their watering eyes smarting from the dust and smoke. The reserves
may be seen standing, hopeful but cautious; with watchful eyes,
shading them with their hands and gazing through the dense and murky
confusion, attentive to the commands of their captain. The captain
himself, his staff raised, hurries towards these auxiliaries,
pointing to the spot where they are most needed. And there may be a
river into which horses are galloping, churning up the water all
round them into turbulent waves of foam and water, tossed into the
air and among the legs and bodies of the horses. And there must not
be a level spot that is not trampled with gore.
603.
OF LIGHTING THE LOWER PARTS OF BODIES CLOSE TOGETHER, AS OF MEN IN
BATTLE.
As to men and horses represented in battle, their different parts
will be dark in proportion as they are nearer to the ground on which
they stand. And this is proved by the sides of wells which grow
darker in proportion to their depth, the reason of which is that the
deepest part of the well sees and receives a smaller amount of the
luminous atmosphere than any other part.
And the pavement, if it be of the same colour as the legs of these
said men and horses, will always be more lighted and at a more
direct angle than the said legs &c.
604.
OF THE WAY TO REPRESENT A NIGHT [SCENE].
That which is entirely bereft of light is all darkness; given a
night under these conditions and that you want to represent a night
scene,--arrange that there shall be a great fire, then the objects
which are nearest to this fire will be most tinged with its colour;
for those objects which are nearest to a coloured light participate
most in its nature; as therefore you give the fire a red colour, you
must make all the objects illuminated by it ruddy; while those which
are farther from the fire are more tinted by the black hue of night.
The figures which are seen against the fire look dark in the glare
of the firelight because that side of the objects which you see is
tinged by the darkness of the night and not by the fire; and those
who stand at the side are half dark and half red; while those who
are visible beyond the edges of the flame will be fully lighted by
the ruddy glow against a black background. As to their gestures,
make those which are near it screen themselves with their hands and
cloaks as a defence against the intense heat, and with their faces
turned away as if about to retire. Of those farther off represent
several as raising their hands to screen their eyes, hurt by the
intolerable glare.
Of depicting a tempest (605. 606).
605.
Describe a wind on land and at sea. Describe a storm of rain.
606.
HOW TO REPRESENT A TEMPEST.
If you wish to represent a tempest consider and arrange well its
effects as seen, when the wind, blowing over the face of the sea and
earth, removes and carries with it such things as are not fixed to
the general mass. And to represent the storm accurately you must
first show the clouds scattered and torn, and flying with the wind,
accompanied by clouds of sand blown up from the sea shore, and
boughs and leaves swept along by the strength and fury of the blast
and scattered with other light objects through the air. Trees and
plants must be bent to the ground, almost as if they would follow
the course of the gale, with their branches twisted out of their
natural growth and their leaves tossed and turned about [Footnote
11: See Pl. XL, No. 2.]. Of the men who are there some must have
fallen to the ground and be entangled in their garments, and hardly
to be recognized for the dust, while those who remain standing may
be behind some tree, with their arms round it that the wind may not
tear them away; others with their hands over their eyes for the
dust, bending to the ground with their clothes and hair streaming in
the wind. [Footnote 15: See Pl. XXXIV, the right hand lower sketch.]
Let the sea be rough and tempestuous and full of foam whirled among
the lofty waves, while the wind flings the lighter spray through the
stormy air, till it resembles a dense and swathing mist. Of the
ships that are therein some should be shown with rent sails and the
tatters fluttering through the air, with ropes broken and masts
split and fallen. And the ship itself lying in the trough of the sea
and wrecked by the fury of the waves with the men shrieking and
clinging to the fragments of the vessel. Make the clouds driven by
the impetuosity of the wind and flung against the lofty mountain
tops, and wreathed and torn like waves beating upon rocks; the air
itself terrible from the deep darkness caused by the dust and fog
and heavy clouds.
Of representing the deluge (607-609).
607.
TO REPRESENT THE DELUGE.
The air was darkened by the heavy rain whose oblique descent driven
aslant by the rush of the winds, flew in drifts through the air not
otherwise than as we see dust, varied only by the straight lines of
the heavy drops of falling water. But it was tinged with the colour
of the fire kindled by the thunder-bolts by which the clouds were
rent and shattered; and whose flashes revealed the broad waters of
the inundated valleys, above which was seen the verdure of the
bending tree tops. Neptune will be seen in the midst of the water
with his trident, and [15] let AEolus with his winds be shown
entangling the trees floating uprooted, and whirling in the huge
waves. The horizon and the whole hemisphere were obscure, but lurid
from the flashes of the incessant lightning. Men and birds might be
seen crowded on the tall trees which remained uncovered by the
swelling waters, originators of the mountains which surround the
great abysses [Footnote 23: Compare Vol. II. No. 979.].
608.
OF THE DELUGE AND HOW TO REPRESENT IT IN A PICTURE.
Let the dark and gloomy air be seen buffeted by the rush of contrary
winds and dense from the continued rain mingled with hail and
bearing hither and thither an infinite number of branches torn from
the trees and mixed with numberless leaves. All round may be seen
venerable trees, uprooted and stripped by the fury of the winds; and
fragments of mountains, already scoured bare by the torrents,
falling into those torrents and choking their valleys till the
swollen rivers overflow and submerge the wide lowlands and their
inhabitants. Again, you might have seen on many of the hill-tops
terrified animals of different kinds, collected together and subdued
to tameness, in company with men and women who had fled there with
their children. The waters which covered the fields, with their
waves were in great part strewn with tables, bedsteads, boats and
various other contrivances made from necessity and the fear of
death, on which were men and women with their children amid sounds
of lamentation and weeping, terrified by the fury of the winds which
with their tempestuous violence rolled the waters under and over and
about the bodies of the drowned. Nor was there any object lighter
than the water which was not covered with a variety of animals
which, having come to a truce, stood together in a frightened
crowd--among them wolves, foxes, snakes and others--fleing from
death. And all the waters dashing on their shores seemed to be
battling them with the blows of drowned bodies, blows which killed
those in whom any life remained [19]. You might have seen
assemblages of men who, with weapons in their hands, defended the
small spots that remained to them against lions, wolves and beasts