The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

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Page 497 of 1565.
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OF THE TIME FOR STUDYING SELECTION OF SUBJECTS.

Winter evenings ought to be employed by young students in looking
over the things prepared during the summer; that is, all the
drawings from the nude done in the summer should be brought together
and a choice made of the best [studies of] limbs and bodies among
them, to apply in practice and commit to memory.

OF POSITIONS.

After this in the following summer you should select some one who is
well grown and who has not been brought up in doublets, and so may
not be of stiff carriage, and make him go through a number of agile
and graceful actions; and if his muscles do not show plainly within
the outlines of his limbs that does not matter at all. It is enough
that you can see good attitudes and you can correct [the drawing of]
the limbs by those you studied in the winter.

[Footnote: An injunction to study in the evening occurs also in No.
524.]

On the productive power of minor artists (498-501).

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