Painting light and shade on foliage, mountains and battle scenes
Blue in the shadows of greenery, and the darkening of the lowest parts
The red-chalk heading opens the problem of depicting a composition of bodies lit by the sun or another single source. Pen notes teach that the shadows of greenery, and every shadow, partake of blue, the more so the farther off they are, and that leaves mirroring the blue air show edge-on. A main column treats the lit parts of greenery and mountains keeping their colour into the distance, and the darkening of the lowest, crowded parts of bodies such as men in battle. A diagram of three wells in section, labelled a, c, d, b, grounds this: the deeper part of a well is darker because it sees and is seen by less of the luminous air, and a margin note adds that pavements are lit more strongly than the legs above them.
On this page
Composing bodies under one light source
On depicting a composition of bodies that receives the particular light of the sun, or of another splendour, for its illumination.
Shadows of greenery take on blue
The shadows of greenery always partake of blue, as does every other shadow; and a shadow takes the more of it the farther it is from the eye, and the less the nearer it is.
Sky-mirroring leaves seen edge-on
Leaves that mirror the blue of the air always show themselves to the eye edge-on.
The wells: why the deepest parts are darkest
Men and horses toiling in battle are darker in their parts the closer these are to the earth that bears them. This is proved by the walls of wells, which grow darker the deeper they go, because the deepest part of a well sees and is seen by less of the luminous air than any other part.
Lit greenery and mountains keep their colour far off
The illuminated part keeps its natural colour more into the distance the more powerful the light that strikes it. A further heading opens the illumination of the lowest parts of bodies pressed together, as with men in battle.
Pavements brighter than the legs above them
Pavements of the same colour as the legs of the said men and horses are always more illuminated, between equal angles, than those legs.