274

The effect of colours in the camera obscura.

OF THE INTERSECTIONS OF THE IMAGES IN THE PUPIL OF THE EYE.

The intersections of the images as they enter the pupil do not mingle in confusion in the space where that intersection unites them; as is evident, since, if the rays of the sun pass through two panes of glass in close contact, of which one is blue and the other yellow, the rays, in penetrating them, do not become blue or yellow but a beautiful green. And the same thing would happen in the eye, if the images which were yellow or green should mingle where they [meet and] intersect as they enter the pupil. As this does not happen such a mingling does not exist.

OF THE NATURE OF THE RAYS COMPOSED OF THE IMAGES OF OBJECTS, AND OF THEIR INTERSECTIONS.

The directness of the rays which transmit the forms and colours of the bodies whence they proceed does not tinge the air nor can they affect each other by contact where they intersect. They affect only the spot where they vanish and cease to exist, because that spot faces and is faced by the original source of these rays, and no other object, which surrounds that original source can be seen by the eye where these rays are cut off and destroyed, leaving there the spoil they have conveyed to it. And this is proved by the 4th [proposition], on the colour of bodies, which says: The surface of every opaque body is affected by the colour of surrounding objects; hence we may conclude that the spot which, by means of the rays which convey the image, faces—and is faced by the cause of the image, assumes the colour of that object.

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

IV * VI
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
V: Theory of colours.
. . .
other.
263,
264,
265,
266,
267,
268,
269,
270,
271
Combination of different colours in cast shadows.
272
The effect of colours in the camera obscura.
273,
274
On the colours of derived shadows.
275,
276
On the nature of colours.
277,
278
On gradations in the depth of colours.
279,
280
On the reflection of colours.
281,
282,
283
On the use of dark and light colours in painting.
284,
285,
286
On the colours of the rainbow.
287,
288
. . .