Francesco Podesti occupies the comfortable middle of the value scale, avoiding both extremes to hold the eye in a sustained middle grey. The palette achieves thermal balance - reds and blues, ochres and greens, each holding the other in check. Every colour is desaturated; the palette proceeds through near-neutrals and gently-coloured greys. The most saturated colour, #BEA583, is reserved to 7.1% of the surface, where it acts as a focal punctuation. The full value range is 59 units: broad enough to build convincing three-dimensional form. Francesco Podesti arrived at this balance through long practice; the palette carries the weight of that experience.