Grounds, Colour Harmonies, and the Seven Simple Colours
A darker edge detaches a lit body; harmonious colour pairs; white and black debated
A text page of the Trattato della pittura (folio 75 verso) with a labelled diagram set into the top of the text. It finishes the argument on relief, noting that the lit part of a body never meets a lit ground at full brightness because a darker edge of the body is interposed between them. Short chapters follow on the grounds of figures (light against dark, dark against light, and the mutual strengthening of white and black and of contraries generally), on harmonious colour pairings (green with red, purple, or greyish-blue; yellow with blue), and on the colours that result from mixing others, called the second species. The last opens Leonardo's list of the seven simple colours, beginning with white, and notes that some philosophers exclude white and black though the painter cannot do without them. The diagram carries word-labels for the luminous and shadowy bodies, their rays, the eye, and the ground that are not part of the transcription.
On this page
A darker edge separates a lit body from a lit ground
The illuminated part of a body never terminates against an illuminated ground at its first, full brightness. Between the ground and the first light of the body there is interposed an edge of the body that is darker than the ground or than the body's light respectively, so the two do not meet abruptly.
Grounds and harmonious colour pairs (f)
On the grounds of figures: the light figure set in the dark, the dark set in the light ground; white with black, or black with white, each appears more powerful by the other, as contraries always do. The colours that go well together are green with red, purple, or greyish-blue (biffa), and yellow with blue.
The seven simple colours; white and black debated
A chapter opens on the colours that result from mixing others, called the second species. The simple colours are seven, the first being white, although some philosophers refuse white and black a place among the colours, since one is the cause of colours and the other their privation. Because the painter cannot do without them, Leonardo counts them with the rest, the passage breaking off onto the next page.
Labelled diagram of luminous and shadowy bodies
A schematic diagram is set into the top of the text column, with the prose wrapping around it. It shows a luminous body and a shadowy body linked by rays down to an eye, illustrating how a lit body and a shadowed body appear against their ground. Word-labels written on the figure for the bodies, the rays, the eye, and the ground supply text not included in the transcription.