Fun with Physics

An expert from Leonardo da Vinci: Notebooks (Oxford World's Classics)

ELEMENTS

da Vinci’s Notebooks

TOOLS

Oil | Canvas

Story Explanation & Shadow Guideline

When the intersection of two columns of shadow produces their
derived shadows by means of the two luminous ones, it must follow
that four derived shadows are produced, and these shadows are com-
posite, and they intersect at four places; and of these intersections there
are two that form simple shadow, and two are of composite shadow,
and these two simple shadows are produced where the two lights
cannot be seen, and the composite shadows are produced where one of
the two lights cannot illumine. But the intersections of the composite
shadows are produced always by a single luminous body, and of the
simple ones by two luminous bodies, and the right intersection of the
composite shadow is produced by the left light, and the left intersection
is produced by the right light; but the two intersections of the simple
shadows, both the upper and the lower, are produced by the two lumi-
nous bodies, that is the light on the right and the light on the left. 

c.a. 241 r. c 

The edges of a derived shadow will be most distinct where it is cast nearest to the original shadow. A shaded body will appear of less size when it is ...

Image Setup

This illustration is a painting of Leonardo doing an experiment described in his notebooks. The sphere that he is holding is from my imagination based off of his many writings on his study of light and shadow and the distance and magnitude of the lights and shadows and how they interplay with each other.

It was only tody, when I was searching this experiment to see if anyone else had illustrated it that I found an image drawn by Leonardo himself. It is surprising how similar my illustration was even though I only took inspiration from his verbal description and writings of the scene.

Reading Leonardo’s observations of light and shadow and reflection caused me to notice light everywhere, even though I have always been drawn to light and shadow, this sharpened my eyes. The play with light is also seen in the details of the bubbles in the ocean water.