Page:A Treatise on Painting.djvu/281

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LIGHT AND SHADOW.
133

or more remote from the mass of shadows; and also in proportion to its distance from, or proximity to the mass of light.

Chap. CCLII.Of the Shadows of White.

To any white body receiving the light from the sun, or the air, the shadows should be of a blueish cast; because white is no colour, but a receiver of all colours; and as by the fourth proposition[1] we learn, that the surface of any object participates of the colours of other objects near it, it is evident that a white surface will participate of the colour of the air by which it is surrounded.

Chap. CCLIII.Which of the Colours will produce the darkest Shade.

That shade will be the darkest which is produced by the whitest surface; this also will have a greater propensity to variety than any other surface; because white is not properly a colour, but a receiver of colours, and its surface will participate strongly of the colour of surrounding objects, but principally of black or any other dark colour, which being the most opposite to its nature, produces the most sensible difference between the shadows and the lights.

Chap. CCLIV.How to manage, when a White terminates upon another White.

When one white body terminates on another of the same colour, the white of these two bodies will

  1. See chap. cclxxiv.
K3
be