A Treatise on Painting

A Treatise on Painting is a collection of writings written by Leonardo da Vinci in 1632.

Leonardo argues that painting can be treated as a science and that it is in fact a superior art to others such as music or poetry, offering his arguments in this regard.

It is of vital importance to know the aesthetic ideas that emerged in the Renaissance from the pen of one of the great artists of the time.

Despite having a somewhat technical language, it is a book accessible to anyone with more or less knowledge of the arts. It also has a very interesting philosophical part where Leonardo also refers to classical thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle.

This edition of A Treatise on Painting is based on John Francis Rigaud's translation.

"Chap. I.—What the young Student in Painting ought in the first Place to learn.The young student should, in the first place, acquire a knowledge of perspective, to enable him to give to every object its proper dimensions: after which, it is requisite that he be under the care of an able master, to accustom him, by degrees, to a good style of drawing the parts".