Colour of Sunlight and the Grace of Sfumato Shadows
White bodies take the sun's hue at sunset; a figure seen from a dark house gains soft relief.
A text page under the running head PARTE, continuing chapter 86 on how illuminated bodies take the colour of their light. It describes the sunset, when reddened clouds and sun make everything that draws light from them turn red, so that a body may seem of two colours, and warns the painter to show these causes truthfully. It then praises the grace of a figure seen from within a dark house, with soft sfumato shadows and great relief, and opens chapter 87 condemning light too sharply cut off by shadow, to be softened with feigned mist or transparent cloud.
On this page
White bodies partake of the sun's colour at sunset
White things most reveal it: the part lit by the sun shows the sun's own colour. As the sun sinks amid reddening clouds, those clouds tinge themselves with the light and, with the red sun, make everything that takes light from them redden.
A body of two colours: reddened light and airy shadow
The part of a body that does not see the redness stays the colour of the air, so an observer judges it to be of two colours. The painter cannot escape showing these causes, making shadows and lights partake of them, or else the work is vain and false.
A figure in a dark house: soft relief and grace
A figure inside a dark house, seen from outside along the line of the light, has dark sfumato shadows and great relief that honour its imitator. The shadows are softest and almost imperceptible where the figure least sees the darkness of the dwelling.
Avoid light too sharply cut; veil figures in mist
Light cut off by shadow with too much sharpness is highly blamed among painters. To avoid it, when painting bodies in the open country make the figures not lit by direct sun, feigning some quantity of mist or transparent cloud interposed before the object.