Leonardo da Vinci | A treatise on painting

Leonardo’s advocacy of a science of painting is best displayed in his notebook writings under the general heading “On Painting”. The notebooks provide evidence that, among many projects he planned, he intended to write a treatise discussing painting.

After inheriting Leonardo’s vast manuscript legacy in 1519, it is believed that, sometime before 1542, Melzi extracted passages from them and organized them into the Trattato della pittura [In italian] ➤ (“Treatise on Painting”) that is attributed to Leonardo.