271

other.

OF PAINTING.

The surface of a body assumes in some degree the hue of those around it. The colours of illuminated objects are reflected from the surfaces of one to the other in various spots, according to the various positions of those objects. Let o be a blue object in full light, facing all by itself the space b c on the white sphere a b e d e f, and it will give it a blue tinge, m is a yellow body reflected onto the space a b at the same time as o the blue body, and they give it a green colour (by the 2nd [proposition] of this which shows that blue and yellow make a beautiful green &c.) And the rest will be set forth in the Book on Painting. In that Book it will be shown, that, by transmitting the images of objects and the colours of bodies illuminated by sunlight through a small round perforation and into a dark chamber onto a plane surface, which itself is quite white, &c.

But every thing will be upside down.

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
. . .