Compiled many years after his death from numerous original manuscripts, A Treatise on Painting is the principal repository of Leonardo da Vinci's practical thoughts on the technique of drawing and painting. It begins with precise instructions on drawing the human body and then moves on to techniques of rendering motion. Other topics covered are perspective, composition, the expression of various emotions, creating effects of light and shadow, and color. With 48 anatomical drawings by the French classicist master Nicholas Poussin and geometrical and architectural designs by the great Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, this famous book remains one of the most useful and valuable art instruction books of all time.
Unabridged republication of the John Francis Rigaud translation, as published by George Bell and Sons, London, 1877.