Colours in Distant Shadow Become Indiscernible
Whites vary most from light to shade; from afar all painted wall-colours read as one darkness
This all-text folio continues the comparison of the darker point a with the less dark b, then gathers several short chapters on the appearance of colour. Chapter [699] argues that colours nearest to whiteness show the greatest difference between their lights and their shadows, since white has the brightest illumination and the darkest shadow, though white and black are not counted among the colours. Chapter [700] holds that all colours in distant shadow are unknown and indiscernible, because a thing not touched by the principal light cannot send its likeness to the eye through the brighter air. Leonardo illustrates this with wall-paintings seen clearly from inside a lit house but dissolving into continuous darkness when viewed from outside through the windows.
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[699] Which colours vary most from light to shadow
Among colours the greatest difference between their shadows and their lights belongs to those most like whiteness, because white has the brightest illumination and the darkest shadow of any colour. Leonardo notes as an aside that neither white nor black is properly numbered among the colours.
[700] Distant shadows swallow all colour
All colours seen from afar are lost in their shadows, because a thing not touched by the principal light is not powerful enough to send its likeness to the eye through the more luminous air, the lesser light being overcome by the greater. Visibility of a colour thus depends on it receiving the dominant light.
Wall-paintings seen through a window from outside
Inside a house the colours on the walls are seen clearly and distinctly when the windows are open. But stepping outside and looking back through those windows at the same wall-paintings, one sees, in their place, a continuous darkness.