Detaching Figures from Their Grounds
Contrast of light and dark, and the fault of ill-proportioned architecture in pictures
The passage first completes the account of light on a face, noting that the nose stays strongly luminous because it receives the whole light a b c d e. Three short chapters of the Treatise on Painting then follow: how to detach a figure from its ground by opposing light and dark; how small lights cast large, sharp shadows while large lights cast small, blurred ones; and a warning against painting surroundings so out of scale that a city gate fails to reach the knees of its inhabitants.
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Set a dark figure on a light ground, a light figure on a dark ground
You must set your dark figure on a light ground; and if the figure is light, set it on a dark ground. If it is both light and dark, put the dark part on the light ground and the light part on the dark ground.
Small lights make sharp shadows, large lights soft ones
Small lights make large and well-defined shadows upon shadowed bodies, while large lights make small shadows of confused edges. When a small, powerful light is enclosed within a large, weaker one, as the sun within the open air, the weaker will remain in place of shadow upon the bodies it lights.
Avoiding disproportion between figures and their surroundings
A very great fault is shown in many painters: they make the dwellings of men and other surroundings so that the gates of the cities do not reach the knees of their inhabitants, even though the gates are nearer the beholder's eye than the man who shows he wishes to enter.