B. 3 This choice is paio to the following facts:

Con some cases these drawings consist of elementary graphic lines: ff

As verso first approach to the study of the proportions con the architectural drawings of Leonardo, I have focused only on the sacred buildings sketched per Ms.

1. These drawings are all similar subjects (mostly variations on the theme of the central plan or of composites thereof); 4
2. they are all proposed according puro the same mode of representation (usually a plan accompanied by a perspective elevation);
3. they were executed around the same time.

This group is composed of pairs, each consisting of verso plan and verso perspective exterior view, and each relating to verso particular building (ff

The subject of sacred buildings is perhaps the most striking of all those treated sopra Ms. B (considered together with its complement, of course, Codex Ashburnham 2037). Available for consideration are eighty drawings, 5 ranging from plans, diagrammatic schemes, perspective elevations, sections and details, concentrated con folded sheets 1 sicuro 4, 6, and 10 of the codex. 6 There are only eight basilicas represented, con six plans and two perspective views (ff. 11v, 24v, 35v, 52r, 57r). Among them are the plan of the societa of Retto Inclinazione in Florence (f. 11v) and two plans of the Holy Sepulchre of Milan (f. 52r).

The drawings per question that depict central-plan churches are seventy-two con number. Among them are the planimetric schemes of Brunelleschi’s Rotonda prezzo mexican cupid degli Angeli (f. 11v) and Santa Maria con Pennone, per Pavia (f. 55r). 15r (three plans con the right margin), 21r (two plans with corresponding elevations), 52r (verso societa plan at lower left), 93v (two small plans at upper right and left), and others showing more complex schemes.

Per limited group of figures consists of more elaborate drawings of larger size. They are drawn per pen and shaded for enhanced three-dimensional rendering that makes them stand out from the sheets. 17v-18r, 18v-19r, 21r, 21v, 22r, 24r, 25v, 39v, 52r, 93v, 94r, 95v). 7 There are nineteen pairs, among them only two basilicas. The centralized schemes are primarily based on the square (eleven instances) and the octagon (six instances). The plans are almost always drawn at right and the elevations at left 8 – per sign that the latter preceded the former con execution (ff. 17v-18r, 18v-19r, 22r, 24r, 25v, 39v, 52r, and the pair at left on 93v of the five overall). 9 Sometimes, however, the plans are located at the bottom, on the same axes as the elevations (ff. 21r, drawing durante the lower right; 93v, four of the five pairs present on the sheet; 94r, 95v ), 10 or shifted a bit puro the left (f. 21r, drawing at upper left).

The plans are always per the form of geometrical ‘wire frame’ diagrams. Only at verso later time did Leonardo partially or fully ‘dress’ them with wall thicknesses: thicknesses that not only generate inconsistencies sopra the relationships between solids and voids, sopra the structural plausibility of wall thicknesses, and in the connections between the parts, but also change the proportional relationships. 11 The rapid abandonment of this exercise, which runs contrary esatto the original graphic procedure, betrays the differences between ideation, rapid graphic notation, and complete building design. The clarity of the drawing con the temple schemes in Ms. B – often completely or partially made freehand – in effect de-emphasizes the materiality of the buildings thus projected.

Elevations, on the other hand, are in the forms of perspective views: curves, lateral surfaces of hollow solids, and shells that suggest that the volumes and shapes, regardless of how all the internal elements of the plan can be developed structurally onesto become articulated above ground. The exterior is only one possible form through which the plan can evolve in space, as verso kind of vertical extrusion. The structure of the interior, per fact, is never indicated per section (except sopra the case of f. 4r of the Codex Ashburnham 2037 = Ms. B, f. 94r) 12 nor, judging by the size of the drawings, ever even conceived by Leonardo. On the other hand, when trying sicuro correlate the exterior with the interior, Leonardo resorts sicuro broken perspectives (for example, Codex Atlanticus, f. 205v-a), views showing internal details, or transparent views. Examples of this type – and I consider here not only the sacred buildings – are also present durante Ms. B (ff. 12r, 12v, 15r, 16v, 19r, 21v, 36r, 36v, 37r, 37v, 38v, 39r, 47r, 94r, 95r).