The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

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Page 512 of 1565.
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OF THE PAINTER'S WINDOW AND ITS ADVANTAGE.

The painter who works from nature should have a window, which he can
raise and lower. The reason is that sometimes you will want to
finish a thing you are drawing, close to the light.

Let _a b c d_ be the chest on which the work may be raised or
lowered, so that the work moves up and down and not the painter. And
every evening you can let down the work and shut it up above so that
in the evening it may be in the fashion of a chest which, when shut
up, may serve the purpose of a bench.

[Footnote: See Pl. XXXI, No. 2. In this plate the lines have
unfortunately lost their sharpness, for the accidental loss of the
negative has necessitated a reproduction from a positive. But having
formerly published this sketch by another process, in VON LUTZOW'S
_Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst_ (Vol. XVII, pg. 13) I have
reproduced it here in the text. The sharpness of the outline in the
original sketch is here preserved but it gives it from the reversed
side.]

On the best light for painting (513-520).

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