Page:A Treatise on Painting.djvu/249

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
LIGHT and SHADOW.
101

Chap. CXCVII.Of the Termination of Bodies upon each other.

When a body, of a cylindrical or convex surface, terminates upon another body of the same colour, it will appear darker on the edge, than the body upon which it terminates. And any flat body, adjacent to a white surface, will appear very dark; but upon a dark ground it will appear lighter than any other part, though the lights be equal.

Chap. CXCVIII.Of the Back-grounds of painted Objects.

The ground which surrounds the figures in any painting, ought to be darker than the light part of those figures, and lighter than the shadowed part.

Chap. CXCIX.How to detach and bring forward Figures out of their Back-ground.

If your figure be dark, place it on a light ground; if it be light, upon a dark ground; and if it be partly light and partly dark, as is generally the case, contrive that the dark part of the figure be upon the light part of the ground, and the light side of it against the dark[1].

Chap. CC.Of proper Back-grounds.

It is of the greatest importance to consider well the nature of back-grounds, upon which any opake

  1. See chapters cc. and ccix.
H3
body