Aerial Perspective: How Colours Fade with Distance
Distant darks lighten and distant lights darken; the air is thicker near the earth
A text leaf of the Treatise on Painting stating the rules of aerial perspective. Leonardo teaches that things darker than the air appear less dark the more remote they are, and things brighter than the air appear less white the more remote, so that at long distance bright and dark exchange colour. He then explains that colours are wholly lost at greater or lesser distance according to the height of the eye and the object, since the air is thicker nearer the earth, obscuring the colour of low objects while sparing the colour of those seen high above the ground.
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Distant darks lighten and distant lights darken
Of things darker than the air, the more remote appears of less darkness; of things brighter than the air, the more remote appears of less whiteness. At long distance bright and dark things exchange colour, for the bright acquires darkness and the dark acquires brightness.
At what distance colours are wholly lost
The colours of things are lost entirely at a greater or lesser distance according as the eye and the object are at a greater or lesser height. This follows because the interposed air impedes the colour of the thing seen.
The air is thicker nearer the earth
By the seventh proposition of this book, the air is more or less thick as it is nearer or more remote from the earth. If eye and object are near the earth, the thick interposed air much impedes the object's colour; if both are remote from the earth, such air little obscures its colour.