From the Notebook of . . . is a masterful work of structural harmony, binary oppositions, and self-reflexive form. The title refers to Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook and to the filmmaker’s own written observations on filmmaking techniques. The filmmaker’s view of the world (in this case, Florence) is mediated by a careful sequencing of moving mattes, which split the screen vertically, giving the effect of a page turning in a book. The Painting uses masking and rack focus techniques to disclose portions of The Martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus, a fifteenth-century altarpiece. Robert “Beavers gives a . . . rarefied psychodramatic jolt, juxtaposing shots of Gregory J. Markopoulos, bisected by shafts of light, with a torn photo of himself and the recurring image of a shattered windowpane” (J. Hoberman).