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_ 4_a 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_ 2_a

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.

462.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Volume 1 · 第 230 / 366 题