Artful Light and Shade to Feign Relief
Keeping light between arm and chest; dark forms on bright fields
The page continues the method of giving lights by comparison, then chapter [759] teaches how artful lights and shadows heighten a painting's feigned relief. Between a figure and the surface receiving its shadow the painter draws a line of bright light dividing figure from darkened ground, and when an arm crosses the chest he leaves some light between the arm's cast shadow and its own shadow so the space between arm and chest reads as open; a dark part of a body should terminate against a bright field, and a lit part against a dark field. Chapter [760] adds that shadows cast on bodies by various objects should undulate with varied twists according to the variety of the limbs. The compiler's hand is clear with no diagram.
On this page
[759] Aiding feigned relief with a dividing line of light
To increase relief, set between the feigned figure and the surface receiving its shadow a line of bright light dividing the figure from the darkened object, and make two bright parts in that object flanking the shadow cast on the wall by the opposed figure.
Light in the gap between a crossing arm and the chest
When an arm crosses the chest, leave some light between the arm's cast shadow on the chest and the arm's own shadow, so light seems to pass through the space between chest and arm; enlarge that light when the arm should appear more distant from the chest.
[760] Dark forms on bright fields, and undulating shadows
Contrive that a body's dark part terminates against a bright field and its lit part against a dark field. Shadows cast on a body's surface by various objects should always undulate with varied twistings according to the variety of the limbs.