On the Eye and the Harmony of Shadows with Their Lights
Apparent size depends on the pupil; a shadow takes the colour of what faces it
This painting note, written in mirror script on folio 127v, opens with the eye: things appear as large or small as the pupil to which they present themselves, the pupil in the middle of the eye's light receiving the images of all objects. Leonardo then turns to the concord of shadows with their lights, teaching that the surface of any shadowed body borrows the colour of the object facing it. The painter must therefore set green things opposite the shadows of green bodies, for a red, lit object placed against a green shadow makes that shadow redden into a false and ugly colour.
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Apparent size of objects and the size of the pupil
The sizes of things seen appear as varied as the sizes of the pupils to which those things present themselves. The pupil set in the middle of the light of the eye is that in which all the species or likenesses of objects are received.
Matching a shadow to the colour of neighbouring bodies
The surface of every shadowed body participates in the colour of the object facing it, so opposite the shadows of green bodies one should place green things, such as meadows. If a lit red object is set against a shadow that is in itself green, the shadow reddens into a colour most ugly and unlike the true shadow of green.