This painting was a special delivery from Fiona. She picked it up in from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. She has a thing for Luca Pacioli and believes this painting painted by non other than Leonardo da Vinci! And there is much evidence to back up the theory as Luca and Leo were good friends. Luca was a mathematician wrote a book using the Gutenberg press, containing the cutting edge latest mathematical studies of the time.
The book is called "Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria. Proportioni and proportionality." The last section includes the latest methods of accounting called Double Entry Book Keeping.
SO what is Double Entry Book Keeping and why is it so important.
For every financial transaction has equal and opposite effects in a least two different accounts. Liability and Equity
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
Each entry is recorded to maintain the relationship. Allowing for ledgers to balance. But the end of the 15th century, bankers and merchants i Italy were using this system widely. This was a very practical bit of mathematics that contributed to a growing merchant class.
This red book featured on the right side of table.
Also portrayed in this painting is Slate, Chalk, Compass, and dodecahedron. A rhombicuboctahedron which is half filled with water and suspended from the ceiling. Luca himself is shown demonstrating a theorem by Euclid.
The character on the right is was the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro to whom the book is dedicated.
My sketch started out as gouache but finished up with a lot of colored pencil. I rushed through the robe and draping ant it look terrible. The colored pencil helped at least add some dimension. I need more practice with gouache. How I wish I had one of the masters to help me! And a whole lot more free time.
Izzy 2018
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