LEONARDO DA VINCI on LIGHT : Selected quotes on the nature of vision
Still-life of Paper Sculpture and Avocado in Light, 2016. Digital 35 mm Photograph.
THE EYE
"The eye which is the window of the soul is the chief organ whereby the understanding can have the most complete and magnificent view of the infinite works of nature." (105).
"The eye whereby the beauty of the world is reflected is of such excellence that whoso consents to its loss deprives himself of the representation of all the works of nature. The soul is content to stay imprisoned in the human body because thanks to our eyes we can see these things; for through the eyes all the various things of nature are re-presented to the soul." (106).
(source: culturalheritageimaging.org )
LIGHT
"The air is full of infinite number of images of the things which are distributed through it, and all of these are represented in all, all in one, and all in each." (106).
"The air is full of infinite straight and radiating lines intersected and interwoven with one another, without one occupying the place of another. They represent to whatever object the true form of their cause."(115).
"Just as the stone thrown into the water becomes the centre and cause of various circles, and the sound made in the air spreads out in circles, so every body placed within the luminous air spreads itself out in circles and fills the surrounding parts with an infinite number of images of itself, and appears all in all and all in each part." (36).
Quotes from Leonardo da Vinci Noteboooks published by Oxford University Press 1952; 2008.