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Page Summary:

The text discusses how artists have studied and imitated the effects of chiaroscuro to understand light and shadow in art. It warns against too exact imitations as they differ from natural vision, using the concept of a camera obscura as an example. Additionally, it suggests that painters should capture nature truthfully rather than with exaggerated effects.

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English Translation of this page:

DRAWING

have studied and imitated, in their paintings, the effect it presents, and the way it reveals nature; many people have therefore believed it to be capable of giving excellent lessons for understanding light, which is called chiaroscuro. It cannot be denied that one can indeed draw general lessons from it, regarding the opposition of large masses of shadows and lights against each other; however, too exact an imitation would be flawed, since the way we see objects in nature in the camera obscura is different from the way we see them naturally.

This glass interposed between the objects and the representation that is made of them on paper intercepts the reflected light rays that make the shadows visible and a pleasant color; thus the shadows are darker than they would be naturally. The local colors of objects, being confined to a smaller space and losing little of their strength, appear stronger and more vivid in color. The effect is indeed more striking, but it is false; such are the paintings of Wouvermans. A painter should remind viewers of the nature as they ordinarily see it, and not in a striking effect which few people understand.

FIRST ARTICLE

Definitions & Principles.

1. The term "camera obscura" refers to any place deprived of light, in which objects from the outside exposed to daylight are represented on paper or some other white surface.

Translation Notes

Chiaroscuro: An art technique using strong contrasts between light and dark to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects and figures.

Camera Obscura: An early device in the history of photography, consisting of a box or room with a hole through which light from an external scene is projected onto a surface.