Every Surface Borrows the Color of Its Object
Placing figures among colored objects, and where shadows are strongest
Text page carrying a group of short chapters cross-referenced to 'Book A.' It opens on colored light — a rosy object under the reddening light of the setting sun looks more beautiful, a sign that other-colored lights would spoil it. The core rule states that the surface of every shadowed body partakes of the color of its object, so the painter must take great care in placing his figures among objects of varying light-power and color, since no body surrounded by them shows its true color. Further chapters note that the darkest part of a shadow is where least light is infused, and that shadows are weak on parts turned toward the light but strongest between the cause of the shadow and the cause of the light.
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Placing figures among objects of different colors and lights
The surface of every shadowed body partakes of the color of its object. Great care is therefore needed by the painter in placing his figures among objects of various powers of light and various lit colors, since every body surrounded by them never shows itself entirely in its true color.
The darkest part of a shadow receives the least light
On the insensible boundaries of shadows: that part of the shadow will be darker into which a lesser sum of light is infused.
Shadows are strongest between the cause of shadow and the cause of light
Shadows are of little power on the parts of bodies turned toward the cause of the light, as are the shadows among shadows turned toward the cause of those shadows. Shadows and lights of great power appear where they lie between the cause of the shadows and the cause of the light.