The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (28 page)

That part of a tree which has shadow for background, is all of one
tone, and wherever the trees or branches are thickest they will be
darkest, because there are no little intervals of air. But where the
boughs lie against a background of other boughs, the brighter parts
are seen lightest and the leaves lustrous from the sunlight falling
on them.

457.

In the composition of leafy trees be careful not to repeat too often
the same colour of one tree against the same colour of another
[behind it]; but vary it with a lighter, or a darker, or a stronger
green.

On the treatment of light for landscapes (458-464).

458.

The landscape has a finer azure [tone] when, in fine weather the sun
is at noon than at any other time of the day, because the air is
purified of moisture; and looking at it under that aspect you will
see the trees of a beautiful green at the outside and the shadows
dark towards the middle; and in the remoter distance the atmosphere
which comes between you and them looks more beautiful when there is
something dark beyond. And still the azure is most beautiful. The
objects seen from the side on which the sun shines will not show you
their shadows. But, if you are lower than the sun, you can see what
is not seen by the sun and that will be all in shade. The leaves of
the trees, which come between you and the sun are of two principal
colours which are a splendid lustre of green, and the reflection of
the atmosphere which lights up the objects which cannot be seen by
the sun, and the shaded portions which only face the earth, and the
darkest which are surrounded by something that is not dark. The
trees in the landscape which are between you and the sun are far
more beautiful than those you see when you are between the sun and
them; and this is so because those which face the sun show their
leaves as transparent towards the ends of their branches, and those
that are not transparent—that is at the ends—reflect the light;
and the shadows are dark because they are not concealed by any
thing.

The trees, when you place yourself between them and the sun, will
only display to you their light and natural colour, which, in
itself, is not very strong, and besides this some reflected lights
which, being against a background which does not differ very much
from themselves in tone, are not conspicuous; and if you are lower
down than they are situated, they may also show those portions on
which the light of the sun does not fall and these will be dark.

In the Wind.

But, if you are on the side whence the wind blows, you will see the
trees look very much lighter than on the other sides, and this
happens because the wind turns up the under side of the leaves,
which, in all trees, is much whiter than the upper sides; and, more
especially, will they be very light indeed if the wind blows from
the quarter where the sun is, and if you have your back turned to
it.

[Footnote: At
S
, in the original is the word
Sole
(sun) and at
N parte di nuvolo
(the side of the clouds).]

459.

When the sun is covered by clouds, objects are less conspicuous,
because there is little difference between the light and shade of
the trees and of the buildings being illuminated by the brightness
of the atmosphere which surrounds the objects in such a way that the
shadows are few, and these few fade away so that their outline is
lost in haze.

460.

The best method of practice in representing country scenes, or I
should say landscapes with their trees, is to choose them so that
the sun is covered with clouds so that the landscape receives an
universal light and not the direct light of the sun, which makes the
shadows sharp and too strongly different from the lights.

461.

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.

If the slope of a hill comes between the eye and the horizon,
sloping towards the eye, while the eye is opposite the middle of the
height of this slope, then that hill will increase in darkness
throughout its length. This is proved by the 7th of this which says
that a tree looks darkest when it is seen from below; the
proposition is verified, since this hill will, on its upper half
show all its trees as much from the side which is lighted by the
light of the sky, as from that which is in shade from the darkness
of the earth; whence it must result that these trees are of a medium
darkness. And from this [middle] spot towards the base of the hill,
these trees will be lighter by degrees by the converse of the 7th
and by the said 7th: For trees so placed, the nearer they are to the
summit of the hill the darker they necessarily become. But this
darkness is not in proportion to the distance, by the 8th of this
which says: That object shows darkest which is [seen] in the
clearest atmosphere; and by the 10th: That shows darkest which
stands out against a lighter background.

[Footnote: The quotation in this passage again cannot be verified.]

463.

The colours of the shadows in mountains at a great distance take a
most lovely blue, much purer than their illuminated portions. And
from this it follows that when the rock of a mountain is reddish the
illuminated portions are violet (?) and the more they are lighted
the more they display their proper colour.

464.

A place is most luminous when it is most remote from mountains.

On the treatment of light for views of towns (465-469).

465.

When the sun is in the East and the eye is above the centre of a
town, the eye will see the Southern part of the town with its roofs
half in shade and half in light, and the same towards the North; the
Eastern side will be all in shadow and the Western will be all in
light.

466.

Of the houses of a town, in which the divisions between the houses
may be distinguished by the light which fall on the mist at the
bottom. If the eye is above the houses the light seen in the space
that is between one house and the next sinks by degrees into thicker
mist; and yet, being less transparent, it appears whiter; and if the
houses are some higher than the others, since the true [colour] is
always more discernible through the thinner atmosphere, the houses
will look darker in proportion as they are higher up. Let
n o p q
represent the various density of the atmosphere thick with moisture,
a
being the eye, the house
b c
will look lightest at the bottom,
because it is in a thicker atmosphere; the lines
c d f
will appear
equally light, for although
f
is more distant than
c
, it is
raised into a thinner atmosphere, if the houses
b e
are of the
same height, because they cross a brightness which is varied by
mist, but this is only because the line of the eye which starts from
above ends by piercing a lower and denser atmosphere at
d
than at
b
. Thus the line a
f
is lower at
f
than at
c
; and the house
f
will be seen darker at
e
from the line
e k
as far as
m
,
than the tops of the houses standing in front of it.

467.

Of buildings seen at a great distance in the evening or the morning,
as in mist or dense atmosphere, only those portions are seen in
brightness which are lighted up by the sun which is near the
horizon; and those portions which are not lighted up by the sun
remain almost of the same colour and medium tone as the mist.

Of objects standing in a mist or other dense atmosphere, whether
from vapour or smoke or distance, those will be most visible which
are the highest. And among objects of equal height that will be the
darkest [strongest] which has for background the deepest mist. Thus
the eye
h
looking at
a b c
, towers of equal height, one with
another, sees
c
the top of the first tower at
r
, at two degrees
of depth in the mist; and sees the height of the middle tower
b
through one single degree of mist. Therefore the top of the tower
c
appears stronger than the top of the tower
b
, &c.

468.

Smoke is seen better and more distinctly on the Eastern side than on
the Western when the sun is in the East; and this arises from two
causes; the first is that the sun, with its rays, shines through the
particles of the smoke and lights them up and makes them visible.
The second is that the roofs of the houses seen in the East at this
time are in shadow, because their obliquity does not allow of their
being illuminated by the sun. And the same thing occurs with dust;
and both one and the other look the lighter in proportion as they
are denser, and they are densest towards the middle.

469.

If the sun is in the East the smoke of cities will not be visible in
the West, because on that side it is not seen penetrated by the
solar rays, nor on a dark background; since the roofs of the houses
turn the same side to the eye as they turn towards the sun, and on
this light background the smoke is not very visible.

But dust, under the same aspect, will look darker than smoke being
of denser material than smoke which is moist.

The effect of wind on trees (470-473).

470.

In representing wind, besides the bending of the boughs and the
reversing of their leaves towards the quarter whence the wind comes,
you should also represent them amid clouds of fine dust mingled with
the troubled air.

471.

Describe landscapes with the wind, and the water, and the setting
and rising of the sun.

All the leaves which hung towards the earth by the bending of the
shoots with their branches, are turned up side down by the gusts of
wind, and here their perspective is reversed; for, if the tree is
between you and the quarter of the wind, the leaves which are
towards you remain in their natural aspect, while those on the
opposite side which ought to have their points in a contrary
direction have, by being turned over, their points turned towards
you.

472.

Trees struck by the force of the wind bend to the side towards which
the wind is blowing; and the wind being past they bend in the
contrary direction, that is in reverse motion.

473.

That portion of a tree which is farthest from the force which
strikes it is the most injured by the blow because it bears most
strain; thus nature has foreseen this case by thickening them in
that part where they can be most hurt; and most in such trees as
grow to great heights, as pines and the like. [Footnote: Compare the
sketch drawn with a pen and washed with Indian ink on Pl. XL, No. 1.
In the Vatican copy we find, under a section entitled '
del fumo
',
the following remark: _Era sotto di questo capitulo un rompimento di
montagna, per dentro delle quali roture scherzaua fiame di fuoco,
disegnate di penna et ombrate d'acquarella, da uedere cosa mirabile
et uiua (Ed. MANZI, p. 235. Ed. LUDWIG, Vol. I, 460). This appears
to refer to the left hand portion of the drawing here given from the
Windsor collection, and from this it must be inferred, that the leaf
as it now exists in the library of the Queen of England, was already
separated from the original MS. at the time when the Vatican copy
was made.]

Light and shade on clouds (474-477).

474.

Describe how the clouds are formed and how they dissolve, and what
cause raises vapour.

475.

The shadows in clouds are lighter in proportion as they are nearer
to the horizon.

[Footnote: The drawing belonging to this was in black chalk and is
totally effaced.]

476.

When clouds come between the sun and the eye all the upper edges of
their round forms are light, and towards the middle they are dark,
and this happens because towards the top these edges have the sun
above them while you are below them; and the same thing happens with
the position of the branches of trees; and again the clouds, like
the trees, being somewhat transparent, are lighted up in part, and
at the edges they show thinner.