A Dense Body Between Light and Shade; Color of the Object
How a surface takes the color of what faces it, and where object-colors mix on a shadowed body
A text page of the Treatise on Painting with an inset diagram, completing the argument that colors impress most strongly on denser, more polished surfaces. Leonardo sets a dense body r s between a luminous object n m and a shadowed object o p, invoking the rule that every surface partakes of the color of its facing object: the part d c r is illuminated by n m, while the opposite part a b s is shadowed. A headed section then explains which part of a surface takes best the color of its object, and a final section begins to treat where the colors of several objects mix on a shadowed surface.
On this page
A dense body between a light and a dark object
Let the dense body r s be interposed between the luminous object n m and the shadowed object o p. By the rule that every surface partakes of the color of its object, the part d c r is illuminated because its object n m is luminous, while the opposite part a b s is shadowed because its object is dark, and so the proposition is concluded.
Diagram of the dense body between light and shadow
A small lens-like figure is drawn into the middle of the upper text. It shows the dense body r s placed between the luminous n m and the shadowed o p, with rays marking the illuminated face d c r and the shaded face a b s of the body.
Which surface takes best the color of its object
That part of a dense body's surface takes most intensely the color of its object which is least seen by other objects of other colors. Using the same figure, if the surface a r b is not seen by the darkness o p it is wholly deprived of shadow, and if the surface c s d is not seen by the luminous n m it is wholly deprived of light.
Where the colors of several objects mix on a shadowed surface
A new section opens on the part of a shadowed body's surface where the colors of its objects mingle. Leonardo begins to say that throughout that part of the surface seen by several colored objects, the images of those colors will be mixed.