Distant and Nocturnal Things Lose Their Edges
Shadows like smoke; do not terminate remote forms; every illuminant gives its own colour
An all-text page in which Leonardo argues that things seen in open country show little difference between light and shade, their shadows fading like smoke without termination, and that at nightfall or in full night form is lost entirely, visible only to nocturnal animals. He counsels the painter to render distant objects with deliberate confusion, never terminating their boundaries, since a boundary is a line or angle and the mathematical line and point are invisible even close at hand. Two closing maxims: all lit things partake of the colour of their illuminant, and shaded things retain the colour of what darkens them.
On this page
Shadows in open country fade like smoke
Things seen in the countryside have little difference between shadow and light; their shadows are almost imperceptible and without termination, losing themselves like smoke toward the lit parts, darkest only where deprived of the object of the air. At the onset of night, and more so in full night, the eye loses form entirely, which shows only to the keen sight of nocturnal animals.
Do not terminate remote forms
Distant things show ambiguous and doubtful; make them with such confusion, or they will not read as at that distance. Do not give their boundaries a definite termination, for boundaries are lines or angles, and, like the mathematical line and point, are invisible even near — so at remote distances not only the boundaries but the very parts of bodies are imperceptible.
Illuminant and shadow give their colour
Two closing maxims: all illuminated things partake of the colour of their illuminant, and shaded things retain the colour of the thing that darkens them.