Grades of Painting; Color of the Sea and of Shadows
Beauty is not always good; the sea looks dark from shore and blue offshore; garments alter the look of flesh.
This leaf of the Treatise on Painting opens with the maxim 'that which is beautiful is not always good,' rebuking painters who so love bright color that they give feeble shadows and lose relief, likening them to fine talkers with no substance. Leonardo then explains why the sea has no single color: dark from the shore because its waves mirror the darkness of the land, blue from the open sea because they mirror the blue air. Two further notes give rules of contrast, black garments making flesh look whiter and red garments paler, and begin the topic of the color of shadows.
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Beauty is not always good: the fault of weak shadows
Leonardo warns against painters who so love the beauty of colors that they give them very weak, almost imperceptible shadows and lose their relief, comparing such painters to fine talkers empty of any substance.
Why the sea looks dark from shore, blue offshore
The undulating sea has no universal color: from the mainland it looks dark, darkest near the horizon, with slow bright sheens like white sheep, because its waves mirror the darkness of the land; from the high sea it looks blue, because the waves mirror the blue air.
How garments change the apparent color of flesh
On the nature of contrasts: black garments make human flesh look whiter than it is, white garments make it look dark, yellow garments make it look ruddy, and red garments show it pale. The chapter on the color of shadows then begins.