On Painting: Green Shadows at Sunset, Piombino 1504
Note on coloured shadows cast by ropes and mast on a white wall facing the sea
Under the heading 'On painting', dated 1504 at Piombino on All Saints' Day, Leonardo records a coloured-shadow observation for painters. As the sun set he saw the green shadows cast by ropes, mast and yards on a white wall; the part of the wall not lit by the sun took on the colour of the sea facing it. The dated, first-person memory ties a painting rule to a specific place and moment. Faint red-chalk numerical calculations are also present in the lower part of the sheet but are not included in the transcription.
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Green shadows and reflected colour
The shadows of ropes, mast and yards on a white wall appeared green at sunset because the wall's surface, where it was not tinged by direct sunlight, took the colour of the sea set opposite it. Leonardo reads the shadow's hue as ambient reflected colour rather than mere absence of light.
Dated memorandum: Piombino, All Saints' Day 1504
The observation is fixed in time and place: '1504, at Piombino, on All Saints' Day', introduced as something Leonardo had once seen ('Io vidi gia'). The note reads as an autobiographical record of a phenomenon witnessed.