The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (27 page)

You see that the eye
c
sees nothing of the tree
d
but shadow,
while the same eye
c
sees th� tree
b
half in light and half in
shade.

When a tree is seen from below, the eye sees the top of it as placed
within the circle made by its boughs[23].

Remember, O Painter! that the variety of depth of shade in any one
particular species of tree is in proportion to the rarity or density
of their branches.

[Footnote: The two lower sketches on the left of Pl XXVIII, No. 3,
refer to lines 21-23. The upper sketch has apparently been effaced
by Leonardo himself.]

The distribution of light and shade with reference to the position
of the spectator (441-443).

441.

The shadows of trees placed in a landscape do not display themselves
in the same position in the trees on the right hand and those on the
left; still more so if the sun is to the right or left. As is proved
by the 4th which says: Opaque bodies placed between the light and
the eye display themselves entirely in shadow; and by the 5th: The
eye when placed between the opaque body and the light sees the
opaque body entirely illuminated. And by the 6th: When the eye and
the opaque body are placed between darkness and light, it will be
seen half in shadow and half in light.

[Footnote: See the figure on the right hand side of Pl. XXVIII, No.
3. The first five lines of the text are written below the diagram
and above it are the last eight lines of the text, given as No.
461.]

442.

Of the plants which take a shadow from the plants which spring among
them, those which are on this side [in front] of the shadow have the
stems lighted up on a background of shadow, and the plants on which
the shadows fall have their stems dark on a light background; that
is on the background beyond the shadow.

Of the trees which are between the eye and the light the part in
front will be light; but this light will be broken by the
ramifications of transparent leaves—being seen from the under
side—and lustrous leaves—being seen from the upper side; and the
background below and behind will be dark green, being in shadow from
the front portion of the said tree. This occurs in trees placed
above the eye.

443.

Landscapes should be represented so that the trees may be half in
light and half in shadow; but it is better to do them when the sun
is covered with clouds, for then the trees are lighted by the
general light of the sky, and the general darkness of the earth. And
then they are darkest in certain parts in proportion as those parts
are nearest to the middle of the tree and to the earth.

The effects of morning light (444-448).

444.

When the sun is in the east the trees to the South and to the North
have almost as much light as shadow. But a greater share of light in
proportion as they lie to the West and a greater share of shadow in
proportion as they lie to the East.

If the sun is in the East the verdure of the meadows and of other
small plants is of a most beautiful green from being transparent to
the sun; this does not occur in the meadows to the West, and in
those to the South and North the grass is of a moderately brilliant
green.

445.

When the sun is in the East all the portions of plants lighted by it
are of a most lively verdure, and this happens because the leaves
lighted by the sun within the half of the horizon that is the
Eastern half, are transparent; and within the Western semicircle the
verdure is of a dull hue and the moist air is turbid and of the
colour of grey ashes, not being transparent like that in the East,
which is quite clear and all the more so in proportion as it is
moister.

The shadows of the trees to the East cover a large portion of them
and are darker in proportion as the foliage of the trees is thicker.

446.

When the sun is in the East the trees seen towards the East will
have the light which surrounds them all round their shadows,
excepting on the side towards the earth; unless the tree has been
pruned [below] in the past year. And the trees to the South and
North will be half in shade and half in light, and more or less in
shade or in light in proportion as they are more or less to the East
or to the West.

The [position of] the eye above or below varies the shadows and
lights in trees, inasmuch as the eye placed above sees the tree with
the little shadow, and the eye placed below with a great deal of
shadow.

The colour of the green in plants varies as much as their species.

447.

The sun being in the East [to the right], the trees to the West [or
left] of the eye will show in small relief and almost imperceptible
gradations, because the atmosphere which lies between the eye and
those trees is very dense [Footnote 7:
per la 7a di questo
. This
possibly referred to something written on the seventh page of this
note book marked
G
. Unfortunately it has been cut out and lost.],
see the 7th of this—and they have no shade; for though a shadow
exists in every detail of the ramification, it results that the
images of the shade and light that reach the eye are confused and
mingled together and cannot be perceived on account of their
minuteness. And the principal lights are in the middle of the trees,
and the shadows to wards the edges; and their separation is shown by
the shadows of the intervals between the trees; but when the forests
are thick with trees the thin edges are but little seen.

448.

When the sun is in the East the trees are darker towards the middle
while their edges are light.

The effects of midday light.

449.

To represent a landscape choose that the sun shall be at noon and
look towards the West or East and then draw. And if you turn towards
the North, every object placed on that side will have no shadow,
particularly those which are nearest to the [direction of the]
shadow of your head. And if you turn towards the South every object
on that side will be wholly in shadow. All the trees which are
towards the sun and have the atmosphere for their background are
dark, and the other trees which lie against that darkness will be
black [very dark] in the middle and lighter towards the edges.

The appearance of trees in the distance (450. 451).

450.

The spaces between the parts in the mass of trees, and the spaces
between the trees in the air, are, at great distances, invisible to
the eye; for, where it is an effort [even] to see the whole it is
most difficult to discern the parts.—But a confused mixture is the
result, partaking chiefly of the [hue] which predominates. The
spaces between the leaves consist of particles of illuminated air
which are very much smaller than the tree and are lost sight of
sooner than the tree; but it does not therefore follow that they are
not there. Hence, necessarily, a compounded [effect] is produced of
the sky and of the shadows of the tree in shade, which both together
strike the eye which sees them.

That part of a tree will show the fewest spaces, behind which a
large number of trees are standing between the tree and the air
[sky]; thus in the tree
a
the spaces are not concealed nor in
b
,
as there is no tree behind. But in
c
only half shows the spaces
filled up by the tree
d
, and part of the tree
d
is filled up by
the tree
e
and a little farther on all the spaces in the mass of
the trees are lost, and only that at the side remains.

451.

What outlines are seen in trees at a distance against the sky which
serves as their background?

The outlines of the ramification of trees, where they lie against
the illuminated sky, display a form which more nearly approaches the
spherical on proportion as they are remote, and the nearer they are
the less they appear in this spherical form; as in the first tree
a
which, being near to the eye, displays the true form of its
ramification; but this shows less in
b
and is altogether lost in
c
, where not merely the branches of the tree cannot be seen but
the whole tree is distinguished with difficulty. Every object in
shadow, of whatever form it may be, at a great distance appears to
be spherical. And this occurs because, if it is a square body, at a
very short distance it loses its angles, and a little farther off it
loses still more of its smaller sides which remain. And thus before
the whole is lost [to sight] the parts are lost, being smaller than
the whole; as a man, who in such a distant position loses his legs,
arms and head before [the mass of] his body, then the outlines of
length are lost before those of breadth, and where they have become
equal it would be a square if the angles remained; but as they are
lost it is round.

[Footnote: The sketch No. 4, Pl. XXVIII, belongs to this passage.]

The cast shadow of trees (452. 453).

452.

The image of the shadow of any object of uniform breadth can never
be [exactly] the same as that of the body which casts it.

[Footnote: See Pl. XXVIII, No. 5.]

Light and shade on groups of trees (453-457).

453.

All trees seen against the sun are dark towards the middle and this
shadow will be of the shape of the tree when apart from others.

The shadows cast by trees on which the sun shines are as dark as
those of the middle of the tree.

The shadow cast by a tree is never less than the mass of the tree
but becomes taller in proportion as the spot on which it falls,
slopes towards the centre of the world.

The shadow will be densest in the middle of the tree when the tree
has the fewest branches.

[Footnote: The three diagrams which accompany this text are placed,
in the original, before lines 7-11. At the spots marked
B
Leonardo
wrote
Albero
(tree). At
A
is the word
Sole
(sun), at
C Monte
(mountain) at
D piano
(plain) and at
E cima
(summit).]

Every branch participates of the central shadow of every other
branch and consequently [of that] of the whole tree.

The form of any shadow from a branch or tree is circumscribed by the
light which falls from the side whence the light comes; and this
illumination gives the shape of the shadow, and this may be of the
distance of a mile from the side where the sun is.

If it happens that a cloud should anywhere overshadow some part of a
hill the [shadow of the] trees there will change less than in the
plains; for these trees on the hills have their branches thicker,
because they grow less high each year than in the plains. Therefore
as these branches are dark by nature and being so full of shade, the
shadow of the clouds cannot darken them any more; but the open
spaces between the trees, which have no strong shadow change very
much in tone and particularly those which vary from green; that is
ploughed lands or fallen mountains or barren lands or rocks. Where
the trees are against the atmosphere they appear all the same
colour—if indeed they are not very close together or very thickly
covered with leaves like the fir and similar trees. When you see the
trees from the side from which the sun lights them, you will see
them almost all of the same tone, and the shadows in them will be
hidden by the leaves in the light, which come between your eye and
those shadows.

[Footnote 29: The heading
alberi vicini
(trees at a short
distance) is in the original manuscript written in the margin.] When
the trees are situated between the sun and the eye, beyond the
shadow which spreads from their centre, the green of their leaves
will be seen transparent; but this transparency will be broken in
many places by the leaves and boughs in shadow which will come
between you and them, or, in their upper portions, they will be
accompanied by many lights reflected from the leaves.

454.

The trees of the landscape stand out but little from each other;
because their illuminated portions come against the illuminated
portions of those beyond and differ little from them in light and
shade.

455.

Of trees seen from below and against the light, one beyond the other
and near together. The topmost part of the first will be in great
part transparent and light, and will stand out against the dark
portion of the second tree. And thus it will be with all in
succession that are placed under the same conditions.

Let
s
be the light, and
r
the eye,
c d n
the first tree,
a b
c
the second. Then I say that
r
, the eye, will see the portion
c
f
in great part transparent and lighted by the light
s
which
falls upon it from the opposite side, and it will see it, on a dark
ground
b c
because that is the dark part and shadow of the tree
a
b c
.

But if the eye is placed at
t
it will see
o p
dark on the light
background
n g
.

Of the transparent and shadowy parts of trees, that which is nearest
to you is the darkest.

456.