246

objects.

An opaque body will appear smaller when it is surrounded by a highly luminous background, and a light body will appear larger when it is seen against a darker background. This may be seen in the height of buildings at night, when lightning flashes behind them; it suddenly seems, when it lightens, as though the height of the building were diminished. For the same reason such buildings look larger in a mist, or by night than when the atmosphere is clear and light.

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

III * V
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
IV: Perspective of Disappearance.
. . .
An experiment.
226
On indistinctness at short distances.
227,
228,
229,
230,
231
On indistinctness at great distances.
232,
233,
234
disappearance.
235,
236,
237,
238,
239
objects.
240,
241,
242,
243,
244,
245,
246,
247,
248,
249
Propositions on perspective of disappearance from MS. C..
250,
251,
252,
253,
254,
255,
256,
257,
258,
259,
260,
261,
262
. . .