Chiaroscuro: Reflected Colour and the Deception of the Eye
How a body borrows colour from its surroundings, and why bright tones can look dark by contrast
Completing the worked example, Leonardo explains that a sphere set among coloured objects shows in its own colour the influence of each: the strongest is the luminous side, the second the illuminated wall, the third the shadow, with a remaining zone sharing the colour of the edges. He then advises the painter drawing from nature to note the quantity, quality and figure of the lights and shadows on each muscle and the direction of their central lines. A further chapter warns that the eye is often deceived, judging brightness by the neighbouring tones, so that a less bright part bordered by dark can seem more luminous than a brighter part bordered by the sky. The page ends by declaring light and dark, with foreshortening, the excellence of the science of painting.
On this page
A sphere borrows colour from sun, wall, shadow and edges
The natural colour of a body set among coloured objects participates in each of them: the most powerful is the luminous side, the second the illuminated wall, the third the shadow, and a remaining quantity shares the colour of the edges.
Note the lights and shadows of every muscle
The painter who portrays the works of nature should mark the quantities, qualities and figures of the lights and shadows of each muscle, and note in the lengths of their figure to which muscle they direct themselves by the straightness of their central lines.
The eye deceived: brightness judged by its neighbours
The eye is often deceived, taking the less bright for the brighter. Where two unequal brightnesses border different tones — the dimmer beside darkness, the brighter beside the sky — the dimmer will seem more luminous and the brighter will seem darker.
Light, dark and foreshortening: the excellence of painting
Light and dark, together with foreshortenings, is the excellence of the science of painting. The final chapter begins to state that light and dark — the lights and the shadows — have a middle.