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Notes on the famous ‘sponge passage’ in A Treatise on Painting

In his work A Treatise on Painting, Leonardo da Vinci mentions Sandro Botticelli’s ‘sponge’ anecdote on landscape painting.

In this passage, Leonardo da Vinci laughs at Botticelli over his methods of depicting landscape — asserting that for Botticelli a sponge full of colour thrown against the wall sufficed to produce one of his “melancholy landscapes” (tristissimi paesi).

The book Experimental Approach to Projective Techniques (1965, depicted above) was the first to make the connection between the ‘sponge passage’, Rorschach’s research on ink blots and the interpretation of ambiguous forms.

English translation of the Da Vinci ‘sponge passage’:

as our friend Botticelli remarks, [landscape painting] is 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. It is true also, 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, woods, 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 also, those spots may furnish hints for compositions. —Rigaud translation of A Treatise on Painting

Italian original

disse il nostro Botticella […] solo gettare di una spugna piena di diversi colori in un muro, essa lascia in esso muro una macchia, dove si vede un bel paese. Egli è ben vero che in tale macchia si vedono varie invenzioni di ciò che l’uomo vuole cercare in quella, cioè teste d’uomini, diversi animali, battaglie, scogli, mari, nuvoli e boschi ed altre simili cose; e fa come il suono delle campane, nelle quali si può intendere quelle dire quel che a te pare. Ma ancora ch’esse macchie ti dieno invenzione, esse non t’insegnano finire nessun particolare. (Leonardo da Vinci “Il Trattato della Pittura”)