A Treatise on Painting, by Leonardo da Vinci
1721
Senex and Taylor, London
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These Bodies, of all others, do best discover their Natural Colour, whose Surfaces are the roughest and most uneaven; This may be seen in Cloth, Linnen, Leaves of Trees, and Herbs that are Furry, on which the Light cannot gather in any Quantity, and which, for that Reason, being unable to receive the Images of neighbouring Objects, send their Colours pure and unadulterated to the Eye: Hence, these Bodies are neither tinged with the blueness of the Ambient Air, nor discoloured with the Redness of the setting Sun, even when he paints the Clouds, and the whole Horizon with his Colour.