Leonardo da Vinci says that Sandro Botticelli spoke slightingly of
landscape-painting, and called it "but a vain study, since by
throwing a sponge impregnated with various colours against a wall,
it leaves some spots upon it, which may appear like a landscape."
Leonardo da Vinci continues: "It is true that a variety of
compositions may be seen in such spots according to the disposition
of mind with which they are considered; such as heads of men,
various animals, battles, rocky scenes, seas, clouds, words, and
the like. It may be compared to the sound of bells which may seem
to say whatever we choose to imagine. In the same manner these
spots may furnish hints for composition, though they do not teach
us how to finish any particular part." {6} No one can hate
drunkenness more than I do, but I am confident the human intellect
owes its superiority over that of the lower animals in great
measure to the stimulus which alcohol has given to imagination--
imagination being little else than another name for illusion. As
for wayside chapels, mine, when I am in London, are the shop
windows with pretty things in them.
The flowers on the slopes above Prato are wonderful, and the
village is full of nice bits for sketching, but the best thing, to
my fancy, is the church, and the way it stands, and the lovely
covered porch through which it is entered. This porch is not
striking from the outside, but I took two sketches of it from
within.
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