Leonardo's Treatise on Painting

This article examines some of Leonardo's activities in the final decade of the Quattrocento, a key period for the development of his theoretical considerations of painting and for the rapid development of his artistic practice involving collaborators under his direction. It asks how knowledge was generated in and circulated through Leonardo's workshop by comparing autograph manuscript evidence from this period to the London Virgin of the Rocks. A direct relationship between the visual and textual evidence is further supported by the new physical information about the underdrawing and superimposed paint layers. With an explanatory text at hand, assistants could be taught the highly complex principles governing the reflected play of light and shadow as Leonardo describes in his notes. Without such guidance, the subtleties would be difficult if not impossible to achieve based on direct observation alone. It proposes concrete connections between Leonardo's notes, collaboration in his workshop, and Leonardo's treatise on painting published in abridged form in 1651 which served as a foundational text for the academic instruction of painters throughout Europe and beyond.