Why White Is Not a Colour; Colours in Shadow
White as receptacle of all colour; firelight's yellow cast; grounds of painted figures
A text page of the Trattato della pittura (folio 74 recto) gathering four chapters on colour in shadow and light. Colours in deep shadow show little variety, as when paintings glimpsed through the shadowy doors of churches all appear clothed in darkness; the ground surrounding painted figures should be darker than their lit part and lighter than their shadowed part. A longer chapter argues that white is not a colour but the receptive potency of every colour, its shadows turning blue in high country because a surface partakes of the colour of what faces it. A final chapter observes that firelight tinges everything yellow, a cast made evident only by comparison with things lit by daylight.
On this page
Colours in deep shadow lose their variety
Colours placed in shadow show the less variety among themselves as the shadows are darker. Leonardo cites those who, from the open squares, look into the doors of shadowy churches, where paintings clothed in various colours all appear clothed in darkness; at a long distance the shadows of the various colours appear of one and the same obscurity, while the illuminated part shows its true colour.
The ground surrounding painted figures
The ground that surrounds the figures of any painted thing should be darker than the illuminated part of those figures and lighter than their shadowed part.
Why white is not a colour
White is not a colour but is in receptive potency of every colour. In high country all its shadows are blue, because the surface of every opaque body partakes of the colour of its object. A white deprived of sunlight by an interposed object keeps, where it sees sun and air, the colour of sun and air, and where it does not see the sun becomes shadowed and partakes of the colour of the air.
Firelight tinges everything yellow (e)
The light of fire tinges everything yellow, but this appears true only when there is a comparison with things lit by the air. Such a comparison can be made near the end of the day, or after the dawn, the chapter continuing onto the next page.