A Treatise on Painting
by Leonardo da Vinci, translated by John Francis Rigaud
What Surfaces shew most of their true and genuine Colour
4011004A Treatise on Painting — What Surfaces shew most of their true and genuine ColourJohn Francis RigaudLeonardo da Vinci

Chap. CCXXV.What Surfaces shew most of their true and genuine Colour.

Those objects that are the least smooth and polished shew their natural colours best; as we see in cloth, and in the leaves of such grass or trees as are of a woolly nature; which, having no lustre, are exhibited to the eye in their true natural colour; unless that colour happen to be confused by that of another body casting on them reflexions of an opposite colour, such as the redness of the setting sun, when all the clouds are tinged with its colour.