461

On the treatment of light for landscapes.

OF PAINTING.

In landscapes which represent [a scene in] winter. The mountains should not be shown blue, as we see in the mountains in the summer. And this is proved [Footnote 5. 6.: Per la 4a di questo. It is impossible to ascertain what this quotation refers to. Questo certainly does not mean the MS. in hand, nor any other now known to us. The same remark applies to the phrase in line 15: per la 2a di questo.] in the 4th of this which says: Among mountains seen from a great distance those will look of the bluest colour which are in themselves the darkest; hence, when the trees are stripped of their leaves, they will show a bluer tinge which will be in itself darker; therefore, when the trees have lost their leaves they will look of a gray colour, while, with their leaves, they are green, and in proportion as the green is darker than the grey hue the green will be of a bluer tinge than the gray. Also by the 2nd of this: The shadows of trees covered with leaves are darker than the shadows of those trees which have lost their leaves in proportion as the trees covered with leaves are denser than those without leaves—and thus my meaning is proved.

The definition of the blue colour of the atmosphere explains why the landscape is bluer in the summer than in the winter.

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

VII * X
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
VIII: Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.
. . .
of the spectator.
441,
442,
443
The effects of morning light.
444,
445,
446,
447,
448
The effects of midday light.
449
The appearance of trees in the distance.
450,
451
The cast shadow of trees.
452
Light and shade on groups of trees.
453,
454,
455,
456,
457
On the treatment of light for landscapes.
458,
459,
460,
461,
462,
463,
464
On the treatment of light for views of towns.
465,
466,
467,
468,
469
The effect of wind on trees.
470,
471,
472,
473
Light and shade on clouds.
474,
475,
476,
477
On images reflected in water.
478
Of rainbows and rain.
479,
480
Of flower seeds.
481
. . .