A Treatise on Painting/Chapter 235
Chap. CCXXXV.—How any Colour without Gloss, is more beautiful in the Lights than in the Shades.
All objects which have no gloss, shew their colours better in the light than in the shadow, because the light vivifies and gives a true knowledge of the nature of the colour, while the shadows lower, and destroy its beauty, preventing the discovery of its nature. If, on the contrary, black be more beautiful in the shadows, it is because black is not a colour.