in a particular light, and that entirely of your own choosing. If you
imagine such objects to be in the country, and the sun be overcast,
they will be surrounded by a great quantity of general light. If the
sun strikes upon those objects, then the shadows will be very dark,
in proportion to the lights, and will be determined and sharp; the
primitive as well as the secondary ones. These shadows will vary from
the lights in colour, because on that side the object receives a
reflected light hue from the azure of the air, which tinges that part;
and this is particularly observable in white objects. That side which
receives the light from the sun, participates also of the colour of
that. This may be particularly observed in the evening, when the sun
is setting between the clouds, which it reddens; those clouds being
tinged with the colour of the body illuminating them, the red colour
of the clouds, with that of the sun, casts a hue on those parts which
receive the light from them. On the contrary, those parts which are not
turned towards that side of the sky, remain of the colour of the air,
so that the former and the latter are of two different colours. This
we must not lose sight of, that, knowing the cause of those lights and
shades, it be made apparent in the effect, or else the work will be
false and absurd. But if a figure be situated within a house, and seen
from without, such figure will have its shadows very soft; and if the
beholder stands in the line of the light, it will acquire grace, and do
credit to the painter, as it will have great relief in the lights, and
soft and well-blended shadows, particularly in those parts where the
inside of the room appears less obscure, because there the shadows are
almost imperceptible: the cause of which we shall explain in its proper
place.
COLOURS IN REGARD TO BACK-GROUNDS.
/Chap. CCLXIII./--_Of avoiding hard Outlines._
/Do/ not make the boundaries of your figures with any other colour
than that of the back-ground, on which they are placed; that is, avoid
making dark outlines.
/Chap. CCLXIV./--_Of Outlines._
/The/ extremities of objects which are at some distance, are not seen
so distinctly as if they were nearer. Therefore the painter ought to
regulate the strength of his outlines, or extremities, according to the
distance.
The boundaries which separate one body from another, are of the nature
of mathematical lines, but not of real lines. The end of any colour
is only the beginning of another, and it ought not to be called a
line, for nothing interposes between them, except the termination of
the one against the other, which being nothing in itself, cannot be
perceivable; therefore the painter ought not to pronounce it in distant
objects.
/Chap. CCLXV./--_Of Back-grounds._
/One/ of the principal parts of painting is the nature and quality of
back-grounds, upon which the extremities of any convex or solid body
will always detach and be distinguished in nature, though the colour
of such objects, and that of the ground, be exactly the same. This
happens, because the convex sides of solid bodies do not receive the
light in the same manner with the ground, for such sides or extremities
are often lighter or darker than the ground. But if such extremities
were to be of the same colour as the ground, and in the same degree
of light, they certainly could not be distinguished. Therefore such a
choice in painting ought to be avoided by all intelligent and judicious
painters; since the intention is to make the objects appear as it were
out of the ground. The above case would produce the contrary effect,
not only in painting, but also in objects of real relievo.
/Chap. CCLXVI./--_How to detach Figures from the Ground._
/All/ solid bodies will appear to have a greater relief, and to come
more out of the canvass, on a ground of an undetermined colour, with
the greatest variety of lights and shades against the confines of
such bodies (as will be demonstrated in its place), provided a proper
diminution of lights in the white tints, and of darkness in the shades,
be judiciously observed.
/Chap. CCLXVII./--_Of Uniformity and Variety of Colours upon plain
Surfaces._
/The/ back-grounds of any flat surfaces which are uniform in colour and
quantity of light, will never appear separated from each other; _vice
versâ_, they will appear separated if they are of different colours or
lights.
/Chap. CCLXVIII./--_Of Back-grounds suitable both to Shadows and
Lights._
/The/ shadows or lights which surround figures, or any other objects,
will help the more to detach them the more they differ from the
objects; that is, if a dark colour does not terminate upon another dark
colour, but upon a very different one; as white, or partaking of white,
but lowered, and approximated to the dark shade.
/Chap. CCLXIX./--_The apparent Variation of Colours, occasioned by the
Contraste of the Ground upon which they are placed._
/No/ colour appears uniform and equal in all its parts unless it
terminate on a ground of the same colour. This is very apparent when a
black terminates on a white ground, where the contraste of colour gives
more strength and richness to the extremities than to the middle.
CONTRASTE, HARMONY, AND REFLEXES, IN REGARD TO COLOURS.
/Chap. CCLXX./--_Gradation in Painting._
/What/ is fine is not always beautiful and good: I address this to
such painters as are so attached to the beauty of colours, that they
regret being obliged to give them almost imperceptible shadows, not
considering the beautiful relief which figures acquire by a proper
gradation and strength of shadows. Such persons may be compared to
those speakers who in conversation make use of many fine words without
meaning, which altogether scarcely form one good sentence.
/Chap. CCLXXI./--_How to assort Colours in such a Manner as that they
may add Beauty to each other._
/If/ you mean that the proximity of one colour should give beauty to
another that terminates near it, observe the rays of the sun in the
composition of the rainbow, the colours of which are generated by the
falling rain, when each drop in its descent takes every colour of that
bow, as is demonstrated in its place[65].
If you mean to represent great darkness, it must be done by contrasting
it with great light; on the contrary, if you want to produce great
brightness, you must oppose to it a very dark shade: so a pale yellow
will cause red to appear more beautiful than if opposed to a purple
colour.
There is another rule, by observing which, though you do not increase
the natural beauty of the colours, yet by bringing them together they
may give additional grace to each other, as green placed near red,
while the effect would be quite the reverse, if placed near blue.
Harmony and grace are also produced by a judicious arrangement of
colours, such as blue with pale yellow or white, and the like; as will
be noticed in its place.
/Chap. CCLXXII./--_Of detaching the Figures._
/Let/ the colours of which the draperies of your figures are composed,
be such as to form a pleasing variety, to distinguish one from the
other; and although, for the sake of harmony, they should be of the
same nature[66], they must not stick together, but vary in point of
light, according to the distance and interposition of the air between
them. By the same rule, the outlines are to be more precise, or lost,
in proportion to their distance or proximity.
/Chap. CCLXXIII./--_Of the Colour of Reflexes._
/All/ reflected colours are less brilliant and strong, than those which
receive a direct light, in the same proportion as there is between the
light of a body and the cause of that light.
/Chap. CCLXXIV./--_What Body will be the most strongly tinged with the
Colour of any other Object._
/An/ opake surface will partake most of the genuine colour of the body
nearest to it, because a great quantity of the species of colour will
be conveyed to it; whereas such colour would be broken and disturbed if
coming from a more distant object.
/Chap. CCLXXV./--_Of Reflexes._
/Reflexes/ will partake, more or less, both of the colour of the object
which produces them, and of the colour of that object on which they are
produced, in proportion as this latter body is of a smoother or more
polished surface, than that by which they are produced.
/Chap. CCLXXVI./--_Of the Surface of all shadowed Bodies._
/The/ surface of any opake body placed in shadow, will participate of
the colour of any other object which reflects the light upon it. This
is very evident; for if such bodies were deprived of light in the space
between them and the other bodies, they could not shew either shape or
colour. We shall conclude then, that if the opake body be yellow, and
that which reflects the light blue, the part reflected will be green,
because green is composed of blue and yellow.
/Chap. CCLXXVII./--_That no reflected Colour is simple, but is mixed
with the Nature of the other Colours._
/No/ colour reflected upon the surface of another body, will tinge that
surface with its own colour alone, but will be mixed by the concurrence
of other colours also reflected on the same spot. Let us suppose A to
be of a yellow colour, which is reflected on the convex C O E, and that
the blue colour B be reflected on the same place. I say that a mixture
of the blue and yellow colours will tinge the convex surface; and that,
if the ground be white, it will produce a green reflexion, because it
is proved that a mixture of blue and yellow produces a very fine green.
[Illustration]
/Chap. CCLXXVIII./--_Of the Colour of Lights and Reflexes._
/When/ two lights strike upon an opake body, they can vary only in
two ways; either they are equal in strength, or they are not. If
they be equal, they may still vary in two other ways, that is, by
the equality or inequality of their brightness; they will be equal,
if their distance be the same; and unequal, if it be otherwise. The
object placed at an equal distance, between two equal lights, in point
both of colour and brightness, may still be enlightened by them in two
different ways, either equally on each side, or unequally. It will be
equally enlightened by them, when the space which remains round the
lights shall be equal in colour, in degree of shade, and in brightness.
It will be unequally enlightened by them when the spaces happen to be
of different degrees of darkness.
/Chap. CCLXXIX./--_Why reflected Colours seldom partake of the Colour
of the Body where they meet._
/It/ happens very seldom that the reflexes are of the same colour with
the body from which they proceed, or with that upon which they meet.
To exemplify this, let the convex body D F G E be of a yellow colour,
and the body B C, which reflects its colour on it, blue; the part of
the convex surface which is struck by that reflected light, will take
a green tinge, being B C, acted on by the natural light of the air, or
the sun.
[Illustration]
/Chap. CCLXXX./--_The Reflexes of Flesh Colours._
/The/ lights upon the flesh colours, which are reflected by the light
striking upon another flesh-coloured body, are redder and more lively
than any other part of the human figure; and that happens according
to the third proposition of the second book[67], which says, the
surface of any opake body participates of the colour of the object
which reflects the light, in proportion as it is near to or remote
from it, and also in proportion to the size of it; because, being
large, it prevents the variety of colours in smaller objects round it,
from interfering with, and discomposing the principal colour, which
is nearer. Nevertheless it does not prevent its participating more of
the colour of a small object near it, than of a large one more remote.
See the sixth proposition[68] of perspective, which says, that large
objects may be situated at such a distance as to appear less than small
ones that are near.
/Chap. CCLXXXI./--_Of the Nature of Comparison._
/Black/ draperies will make the flesh of the human figure appear whiter
than in reality it is[69]; and white draperies, on the contrary, will
make it appear darker. Yellow will render it higher coloured, while red
will make it pale.
/Chap. CCLXXXII./--_Where the Reflexes are seen._
/Of/ all reflexions of the same shape, size, and strength, that will be
more or less strong, which terminates on a ground more or less dark.
The surface of those bodies will partake most of the colour of the
object that reflects it, which receive that reflexion by the most
nearly equal angles.
Of the colours of objects reflected upon any opposite surface by equal
angles, that will be the most distinct which has its reflecting ray the
shortest.
Of all colours, reflected under equal angles, and at equal distance
upon the opposite body, those will be the strongest, which come
reflected by the lightest coloured body.
That object will reflect its own colour most precisely on the opposite
object, which has not round it any colour that clashes with its own;
and consequently that reflected colour will be most confused which
takes its origin from a variety of bodies of different colours.
That colour which is nearest the opposed object, will tinge it the most
strongly; and _vice versâ_: let the painter, therefore, in his reflexes
on the human body, particularly on the flesh colour, mix some of the
colour of the drapery which comes nearest to it; but not pronounce it
too distinctly, if there be not good reason for it.
PERSPECTIVE OF COLOURS.
/Chap. CCLXXXIII./--_A Precept of Perspective in regard to Painting._
/When/, on account of some particular quality of the air, you can no
longer distinguish the difference between the lights and shadows of
objects, you may reject the perspective of shadows, and make use only
of the linear perspective, and the diminution of colours, to lessen the
knowledge of the objects opposed to the eye; and this, that is to say,
the loss of the knowledge of the figure of each object, will make the
same object appear more remote.
The eye can never arrive at a perfect knowledge of the interval between
two objects variously distant, by means of the linear perspective
alone, if not assisted by the perspective of colours.
/Chap. CCLXXXIV./--_Of the Perspective of Colours._
/The/ air will participate less of the azure of the sky, in proportion
as it comes nearer to the horizon, as it is proved by the third and
ninth proposition[70], that pure and subtile bodies (such as compose
the air) will be less illuminated by the sun than those of thicker and
grosser substance: and as it is certain that the air which is remote
from the earth, is thinner than that which is near it, it will follow,
that the latter will be more impregnated with the rays of the sun,
which giving light at the same time to an infinity of atoms floating
in this air, renders it more sensible to the eye. So that the air will
appear lighter towards the horizon, and darker as well as bluer in
looking up to the sky; because there is more of the thick air between
our eyes and the horizon, than between our eyes and that part of the
sky above our heads.
[Illustration]
For instance: if the eye placed in P, looks through the air along the
line P R, and then lowers itself a little along P S, the air will begin
to appear a little whiter, because there is more of the thick air in
this space than in the first. And if it be still removed lower, so
as to look straight at the horizon, no more of that blue sky will be
perceived which was observable along the first line P R, because there
is a much greater quantity of thick air along the horizontal line P D,
than along the oblique P S, or the perpendicular P R.
/Chap. CCLXXXV./--_The Cause of the Diminution of Colours._
/The/ natural colour of any visible object will be diminished in
proportion to the density of any other substance which interposes
between that object and the eye.
/Chap. CCLXXXVI./--_Of the Diminution of Colours and Objects._
/Let/ the colours vanish in proportion as the objects diminish in size,
according to the distance.
/Chap. CCLXXXVII./--_Of the Variety observable in Colours, according to
their Distance, or Proximity._
/The/ local colour of such objects as are darker than the air, will
appear less dark as they are more remote; and, on the contrary, objects
lighter than the air will lose their brightness in proportion to their
distance from the eye. In general, all objects that are darker or
lighter than the air, are discoloured by distance, which changes their
quality, so that the lighter appears darker, and the darker lighter.
/Chap. CCLXXXVIII./--_At what Distance Colours are entirely lost._
/Local/ colours are entirely lost at a greater or less distance,
according as the eye and the object are more or less elevated from the
earth. This is proved by the seventh proposition[71], which says, the
air is more or less pure, as it is near to, or remote from the earth.
If the eye then, and the object are near the earth, the thickness of
the air which interposes, will in a great measure confuse the colour of
that object to the eye. But if the eye and the object are placed high
above the earth, the air will disturb the natural colour of that object
very little. In short, the various gradations of colour depend not only
on the various distances, in which they may be lost; but also on the
variety of lights, which change according to the different hours of the
day, and the thickness or purity of the air, through which the colour
of the object is conveyed to the eye.
/Chap. CCLXXXIX./--_Of the Change observable in the same Colour,
according to its Distance from the Eye._
/Among/ several colours of the same nature, that which is the nearest
to the eye will alter the least; because the air which interposes
between the eye and the object seen, envelopes, in some measure, that
object. If the air, which interposes, be in great quantity, the object
seen will be strongly tinged with the colour of that air; but if the
air be thin, then the view of that object, and its colour, will be very
little obstructed.
/Chap. CCXC./--_Of the blueish Appearance of remote Objects in a
Landscape._
/Whatever/ be the colour of distant objects, the darkest, whether
natural or accidental, will appear the most tinged with azure. By
the natural darkness is meant the proper colour of the object; the
accidental one is produced by the shadow of some other body.
/Chap. CCXCI./--_Of the Qualities in the Surface which first lose
themselves by Distance._
/The/ first part of any colour which is lost by the distance, is the
gloss, being the smallest part of it, as a light within a light. The
second that diminishes by being farther removed, is the light, because
it is less in quantity than the shadow. The third is the principal
shadows, nothing remaining at last but a kind of middling obscurity.
/Chap. CCXCII./--_From what Cause the Azure of the Air proceeds._
/The/ azure of the sky is produced by the transparent body of the
air, illumined by the sun, and interposed between the darkness of the
expanse above, and the earth below. The air in itself has no quality
of smell, taste, or colour, but is easily impregnated with the quality
of other matter surrounding it; and will appear bluer in proportion to
the darkness of the space behind it, as may be observed against the
shady sides of mountains, which are darker than any other object. In
this instance the air appears of the most beautiful azure, while on the
other side that receives the light, it shews through that more of the
natural colour of the mountain.
/Chap. CCXCIII./--_Of the Perspective of Colours._
/The/ same colour being placed at various distances and equal
elevation, the force and effect of its colouring will be according
to the proportion of the distance which there is from each of these
colours to the eye. It is proved thus: let C B E D be one and the same
colour. The first, E, is placed at two degrees of distance from the eye
A; the second, B, shall be four degrees, the third, C, six degrees,
and the fourth, D, eight degrees; as appears by the circles which
terminate upon and intersect the line A R. Let us suppose that the
space A R, S P, is one degree of thin air, and S P E T another degree
of thicker air. It will follow, that the first colour, E, will pass
to the eye through one degree of thick air, E S, and through another
degree, S A, of thinner air. And B will send its colour to the eye in
A, through two degrees of thick air, and through two others of the
thinner sort. C will send it through three degrees of the thin, and
three of the thick sort, while D goes through four degrees of the one,
and four of the other. This demonstrates, that the gradation of colours
is in proportion to their distance from the eye[72]. But this happens
only to those colours which are on a level with the eye; as for those
which happen to be at unequal elevations, we cannot observe the same
rule, because they are in that case situated in different qualities of
air, which alter and diminish these colours in various manners.
[Illustration]
/Chap. CCXCIV./--_Of the Perspective of Colours in dark Places._
/In/ any place where the light diminishes in a gradual proportion till
it terminates in total darkness, the colours also will lose themselves
and be dissolved in proportion as they recede from the eye.
/Chap. CCXCV./--_Of the Perspective of Colours._
/The/ principal colours, or those nearest to the eye, should be pure
and simple; and the degree of their diminution should be in proportion
to their distance, viz. the nearer they are to the principal point, the
more they will possess of the purity of those colours, and they will
partake of the colour of the horizon in proportion as they approach to
it.
/Chap. CCXCVI./--_Of Colours._
/Of/ all the colours which are not blue, those that are nearest to
black will, when distant, partake most of the azure; and, on the
contrary, those will preserve their proper colour at the greatest
distance, that are most dissimilar to black.
The green therefore of the fields will change sooner into blue than
yellow, or white, which will preserve their natural colour at a greater
distance than that, or even red.
/Chap. CCXCVII./--_How it happens that Colours do not change, though
placed in different Qualities of Air._
/The/ colour will not be subject to any alteration when the distance
and the quality of air have a reciprocal proportion. What it loses by
the distance it regains by the purity of the air, viz. if we suppose
the first or lowest air to have four degrees of thickness, and the
colour to be at one degree from the eye, and the second air above to
have three degrees. The air having lost one degree of thickness, the
colour will acquire one degree upon the distance. And when the air
still higher shall have lost two degrees of thickness, the colour will
acquire as many upon the distance; and in that case the colour will be
the same at three degrees as at one. But to be brief, if the colour be
raised so high as to enter that quality of air which has lost three
degrees of thickness, and acquired three degrees of distance, then you
may be certain that that colour which is high and remote, has lost
no more than the colour which is below and nearer; because in rising
it has acquired those three degrees which it was losing by the same
distance from the eye; and this is what was meant to be proved.
/Chap. CCXCVIII./--_Why Colours experience no apparent Change, though
placed in different Qualities of Air._
[Illustration]