ABSTRACT
Coloritto — or the Harmony of Colouring represents naturally the same flesh or the colour of any object in all degrees of painted light and shade in the true or pure light. Painting can represent all visible objects, with three colours, yellow, red, and blue; for all other colours can be composed of these three primitives. In Nature, the general Reflex-Colour is Yellow; but all the accidental Reflexions, caused by an opposite Body or Object, partake of the Colour of the opposite Body that caused them. When a Painter says that the Artists make a good Coloritto, he means that they represent truly and naturally the Nude or the naked human Flesh; supposing they can paint all other visible Objects well, and without Difficulty. In order to learn to paint a good Nude, or any other colour’d Object, one must first learn to represent a white Object.
