Dall'immagine al modello Note sulla cartografia geometrica in Italia ...

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). Il passaggio dal rilievo alla carta avviene poi attraverso unasintesi individuale di elementi percettivi, metrici ed ordinali,che propongono sempre una visione diagrammatica dellospazio, percepito e delineato nella sua unitarietà.Il suo più alto contributo alla rappresentazione del territorioriguarda specialmente la componente verticale dei monti edei laghi. Il metodo che Leonardo impiega nella restituzionegrafica delle masse orografiche si basa sul tentativo didelineazione delle forme di monti e colline nel rispetto deiloro mutui rapporti di proporzionalità e nell’introduzionedella sua teoria delle ombre, che conferisce alle carte unaforza comunicativa senza precedenti e conferma l’importanzacartographical science.Talking about the representation, during the Renaissancenew surveyors, painters and miniaturists went further intothe creation of maps with greater power of description andexpression.After more or less fi fty years since the publishing of Alberti’sessays, another genius in both Art and Science, Leonardo daVinci (1452-1519), gave a unique, original contributionto this discipline, thanks to the methods proposed by LeonBattista Alberti and to the Ptolemaic Geographia, both inthe drawing techniques from the reality (through perspectiveinstruments such as the “Velo”, conceived by Alberti in orderto establish a geometrical correspondence with a perspectiveview) and in the methods of surveying and sketching maps.Leonardo’s maps stand out a mile from the naïve and childishsketches realised by the surveyors and the experts of the time,even if his interest for the cartographical representation doesn’thave a professional purpose.Leonardo isn’t a cartographer, but he deals with this sciencefor scientifi c and analytic purposes: landscape planning andwar strategies.In order to understand his cartographical work, we need totake a step behind, shifting our focus from the maps to therepresentations more in general; that’s to say to the language ofthe drawings and of the paintings. For Leonardo, this latterwasn’t a mere visual repetition of what was already known;instead, it was “the key to open the world of phenomena” (asGiulio Carlo Argan said).The innovative basis of his cartographical production, therefore,can be found in the rules enunciated in the Libro di pittura.The way Leonardo chooses to survey and graphically representa piece of land is summarised in the rule given in his own notein the Manuscript L, France Institute (f. 21 r): “On the topof the hills and on theirs sides, look at the shapes of the landportions, at their division, and at all the things in front ofyou, and draw them in their own shape”. The transformationfrom the sketch to the map is done through a personal synthesisof perceptive elements, metric and ordinal, always giving adiagrammatical view of the land (conceived and representedas a whole).Leonardo’s contribution to an accurate landscape representationis particularly relevant for what concerns the vertical componentof mountains and hydrography. In the graphical reproductionof mountainous blocks, he tries to sketch the shapes of everymassif and hill following their mutual proportions. Moreover,his “theory of the shadows” gives to the maps a communicativepower never achieved before, a proof of the importance of acareful study on them. “… shades in painting need much moreinvestigation and speculation than their outline; and evidenceof this precept is that the outline can be made to shine usingveils transparency, or fl at glass placed between the eye and thething to be drawn; but this rule does not apply to shades, dueto the lack of sensitivity of their shape, for, more often than69
ANNO I | n. 6 | NOVEMBRE - DICEMBRE 2009Leonardo da Vinci,Carta della ValdichianaLeonardo da Vinci,Map of Valdichianache per Leonardo ha il loro profondo studio: “Di moltomaggiore investigazione e speculazione sono le ombre nellapittura che i loro lineamenti; e la prova di questo s’insegnache i lineamenti si possono lucidare con veli, o vetri pianiinterposti fra l’occhio e la cosa che si deve lucidare; ma leombre non sono comprese da tale regola, per l’insensibilitàdei loro termini, i quali il più delle volte sono confusi”(Leonardo da Vinci, Libro di Pittura).Così, è da riscontrare il geniale uso di luce ed ombra, adottatoper la Carta dell’Italia centro-nord, nella quale Leonardointroduce una modalità di rappresentazione che consenteuna percezione delle variazioni di quota del territoriocartografato, senza precedenti nella storia della Cartografia,e che può essere riconosciuta come l’archetipo della tecnicadi rappresentazione orografica a tinte ipsometriche, ancoraoggi adottata per la realizzazione degli atlanti scolastici delnostro tempo e riproducente con efficacia ed immediatezza ilconcetto di “più scuro più alto”.not, they are undefi ned or uncertain...” (Leonardo da Vinci,c. 1508-10).Therefore, we have to take into account the clever use of lightsand shadows in the Carta dell’Italia centro-nord (Windsor,RL 12277). In this map, Leonardo introduces a new way ofrepresentation that makes it possible to perceive the diff erencesof altitude in the landscape. Such a method had never beenpreviously applied in cartography and constitutes the archetypeof the way to represent an altitude through hypsometric colours(a method nowadays still in use for school atlases and apractical and understandable example of the abstract concept“the darker, the higher”).Together with the representation of a mountain shape, evenLeonardo’s hydrographical sketches are a demonstration of thesame idea of three-dimensionality, obtained with the samemethod, although with the opposite concept “the darker, thedeepest”. The best example is the Carta della Valdichiana(Windsor, RL 12278r), where the shallow stretch of waterin the valley contrasts with the deepest waters of its tributaryfl ows, thanks to the use of diff erent tones of blue for every levelof depth.Windsor Castle, Royal Library, 12278r70
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