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Why did Leonardo da Vinci consider sight so important for gaining knowledge?

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Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci drawn in red chalk, showing an elderly man with long hair and a flowing beard, with a serious, contemplative expression. — Leonardo da Vinci Self-portrait, drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1517–18; in the Royal Library, Turin, Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci considered sight to be the most important sense for gaining knowledge because he believed it was the primary avenue through which a person could acquire the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty.1

For Leonardo, the eye was superior to the other senses, as he asserted that "the eye deludes itself less than any of the other senses". This conviction formed the basis of his "theory of knowledge," in which he emphasized saper vedere—or "knowing how to see"—as the central theme of his scientific and artistic inquiries.231

By utilizing his powers of observation, Leonardo argued that the painter was uniquely qualified to achieve true knowledge, as they could closely observe the visible world and accurately reproduce its form and structure. Consequently, he viewed painting as a science, using it as a tool to probe the mysteries of nature and translate visual data into a precise, analytical understanding of the universe.23