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Paris Manuscript G — 41

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Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris

A sanguigna.

Ombre e lume delle città1.

Quando il sole è all'oriente e l'occhio stia sopra il mezzo d'una città, esso occhio vederà la parte meridionale d'essa città aver li tetti mezzi ombrosi e mezzo luminosi, e così la settentrionale, ma la orientale fia tutta ombrosa e la occidentale tutta luminosa.

Occhio che vede due gruppi di edifici, il primo coperto dallo scritto precedente:

Dove si de' ritrarre li paesi.

Li paesi si debbon ritrarre in modo che li alberi sien mezzi alluminati e mezzo aombrati, ma meglio è farli quando il sole è occupato da nuvoli, che allora li alberi s'alluminano dal lume universale del cielo e da ombra universale della terra; e questi son tanto più oscuri nelle lor parti, quanto esse parte son più presso al mezzo dell'albero e della terra.

In red chalk.

Shadows and light of cities. When the sun is in the east and the eye is above the middle of a city, that eye will see the southern part of the city have its roofs half in shadow and half in light, and likewise the northern part, but the eastern part will be wholly in shadow and the western wholly in light.

An eye seeing two groups of buildings, the first covered by the preceding writing:

Where landscapes should be portrayed. Landscapes should be portrayed so that the trees are half illuminated and half shadowed; but it is better to make them when the sun is obscured by clouds, for then the trees are lit by the universal light of the sky and by the universal shadow of the earth, and these are the darker in their parts the closer those parts are to the middle of the tree and of the earth.

Light and Shade of Cities and Landscapes

How a city's roofs read from above at sunrise, and how to portray trees under an overcast sun

Painting & Perspective Landscape

Two red-chalk notes on rendering light for pictures. In the first, with the sun in the east and the eye placed above the centre of a city, the southern and northern roofs appear half in shadow and half in light, while the eastern side is wholly shadowed and the western wholly bright. The second advises portraying landscapes with the trees half lit and half shadowed, better still when the sun is veiled by cloud, so the trees take the sky's universal light and the earth's universal shadow and grow darker toward the middle of the tree and of the ground. A red-chalk sketch of rooftops runs across the middle of the leaf.

On this page

A city's roofs seen from above at sunrise

With the sun in the east and the eye above the centre of a city, the southern and northern roofs look half shadowed and half lit, the eastern side wholly in shadow, and the western wholly in light. Leonardo uses the observation to set the distribution of light and shade over a townscape.

Portray trees under an overcast sun

Landscapes should be portrayed with the trees half lit and half shadowed, and best when the sun is hidden by cloud: then the trees take the sky's universal light and the earth's universal shadow, growing darker the nearer their parts lie to the middle of the tree and of the ground. A row of rooftops is sketched in red chalk across the page.

Reader's Edition — described with AI from the e-Leo transcription.