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The eyes are the windows of the soul (mind) Leonardo, Notebooks
Leonardo's theory of vision is espoused both in his Notebooks and Treatise on Painting} This essay focuses on two aspects of Leonardo's theory of vision, one as it is associated with artistic creativity, and the second as it is visualized in his Annunciation of 1472-1478, at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence [Fig. 1].
In his Notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci explains how our knowledge has its formation in our perceptions.2 "The eyes, which are called the windows of the soul, are the chief mean whereby the understanding may most full and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature"3; "All true sciences are the result of experiences which has passed through our senses".4 Leonardo invites the observer to first experience nature and then with reason investigate the causes and effects of the experience.
Irma Anne Richter reports how Leonardo begins his discussion on science by employing experience as a starting point, followed by reason and contemplation that deduce external and general laws from temporary experiences. In doing so, "General laws are not only tested in logical sequence like Euclidian mathematical propositions, but also verified through experiments and then applied the production of works of utility".5 Leonardo finds that the eye is able to observe natural phenomena, and through these observations, the individual deduces laws. "O marvelous, O stupendous necessity, thou with supreme reason compellest all effects to be the direct result of these causes; and by a supreme and irrevocable law every natural action obeys thee by the shortest possible process".6 Leonardo's studies of perception include a careful analysis of the anatomical and physiological formation of the eye. From his keen observations and meticulous drawings, Leonardo formulates his theory of vision, which also derives from the ancient (Euclid and Aristotle) and medieval (lbn al-Haytham) science of optics (appearance) that describes from the actions and property of light and the interaction of light.
Traditionally, the science of optics is associated with geometry and light propagation in the form of rays or pyramids of light.7 Through mathematics, Leonardo analyzes the optical qualities of the eye and discovers the optical path of the line of sight as it ends in the sensus communis or favoea (pit). His theory...