[Footnote 147: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1374 and 632. The manuscripts
by him, mentioned in No. 131 of the _Quarterly Review_, as in the
possession of his descendant, Count Marini, of Borgo S. Sepolcro, no
longer exist; and a small portrait there of himself does not appear
to be by his hand. As a further specimen of the Friar's ideas on
this matter, we may offer an extract from his _De Divina Proportione
Epistola_ (Venice, 1509), wherein he compares perspective to music,
ranking both with the geometrical sciences, since just as "the former
refreshes the mind with harmony, the latter delights it greatly by
correct distance and variety of colours." "Who, indeed, is there
that, seeing an elegant figure with its exact outlines well defined,
and seeming to want nothing but breath, would not pronounce it
something rather divine than human? And painting imitates nature as
nearly as can be told, which is proved to our eyes in the exquisite
representation, so worthily composed by the graceful hand of our
Leonardo, of the ardent desire after our salvation; wherein it is
impossible to imagine greater attention than that of the apostles,
aroused on hearing, in the words of infallible truth, 'One of you
shall betray me,'--when, interchanging with each other attitudes and
gestures, they seem to converse in startled and sad astonishment."]
[Footnote *148: "He was perhaps the first," says Mr. Berenson, "to
use effects of light for their direct tonic or subduing or soothing
qualities." He uses light as the "plein air" school of France uses
it. See a chapter devoted to his work in my _Cities of Umbria_
(Methuen, 1904).]
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