The text outlines the essential relationship between Geometry and Drawing, emphasizing that understanding shapes and lines is foundational to learning the art effectively. It suggests that students start by mastering basic principles and recommends a structured timeline for developing artistic skills, including learning to read, write, and even Latin, to fully engage with arts or sciences. The author stresses the importance of early and focused study under a skilled teacher to ensure long-term success in drawing.
THE PRINCIPLES OF DRAWING, OR
A brief and assured method to learn it thoroughly through Geometry.
Just as the Alphabet, or the knowledge of Letters, serves as an introduction to Grammar, so too does Geometry serve as the first step in learning Drawing. One cannot succeed in Drawing or any other Art & Science without it. Indeed, it is through Geometry and the use of lines that we understand the length and width of Bodies—what is straight or curved, positioned crosswise or obliquely, what is round, oval, square, hexagonal, octagonal, curved, concave, or convex, and all other imaginable figures. Since everything in the World can be described by these terms, this should be the first lesson for youth interested in Drawing, and they should focus on it until it is well impressed in their memory. If I had several Students, I would not want any of them to pursue an Art or Science without being able to read and write well. Furthermore, if it were within my power, I would wish them to learn a little Latin, and it seems that at the age of ten or twelve, they should reason enough to choose a Profession. I add ten more years to mature the mind, allowing it to flourish, making it twenty-two years. I allocate another ten years to choose and test the way of life one wants to pursue, making it thirty-two years. Add another ten years to achieve perfection, whether in Theory or Practice; this sums up to forty-two years. From this age up to fifty and beyond, if one can reach it, is the proper time to acquire a great Name and gain Prosperity. This is how I divide the Life of a skillful Painter. However, God disposes as He sees fit, making some succeed sooner and others later, although without genius, labor is in vain, absque ingenio, labor inutilis. Lastly, Experience teaches us that the surest way to succeed in Drawing is to start early, under a skilled Master, having a mindset turned towards this, and bringing great and constant application, which alone can render the most difficult things easy.
FIRST LESSON.
TO give a student a good foundation in this Art, and to guide them to its most hidden aspects or its greatest intricacies, the Master should not hesitate to begin with the simplest Principles, and retain them until they are well engraved in memory; for without this, it would be impossible for the Student to make any progress, let alone reach perfection. The first rudiments of Drawing involve making various strokes or lines differently turned, and this is what one may call the Alphabet of Art.
Translation Notes:
"vois courbe": refers to curves or curved lines. "absque ingenio, labor inutilis": Latin for "without genius, labor is useless."