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See art in a fresh way. |
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Innovation Series--Advancements
in the Art of Painting: Light, Part I |
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Light in painting is easy to see, yet
its history is anything but a continuous development. It has been the glory of some of the world's greatest artists. For that reason it is worthwhile to get a glimpse of some of the innovative artworks that advanced light in painting. |
 Deliverance of Saint Peter, Raphael, 1514
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Light in a painting is tied primarily
to the form of the objects. Also, it has a yin/yang
relationship to shadow. No shadow, no light. An artist
will use light and shadow to mold forms. These horses' heads from the Chauvet Caves in France are a great example of forming with light and shadow. I am awed that this artist had this knowledge 30,000 years ago.
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 Horses' Heads, Chauvet Caves, 30,000 b.c.
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In contrast to the Horses' Heads this
flat image of a Minoan fisherman is without
light. It is a fresco painting from Santorini, 1650-1500 b.c. The
images are recognizable by their blocked-out silhouettes (like a
cardboard cut-out).
I really like the colors and the balanced silhouettes of this image, but it lacks the substance of light and form.
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 Akrotiri-Santorini 1650-1500 b.c.
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There are few examples of ancient
Greek painting. Here is one faded example from the tomb site of
Alexander the Great's immediate family. The addition of light complicates visual imagery. It catapults a flat image into a 3D universe. It imbues the image with more weight and realism--closer to how we see real objects. Here we can make out shadows molding the mouths, eyes, chins, and undersides of their arms. |
 Rape of Persephone by Hades, Nikomakos, 350 b.c. Ancient Aigai. The only complete example of an ancient Greek painting that has yet been found.
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In these Pompeii frescos in Italy we
get some idea of what might have been classical Greek painting.
The environment is bathed in light. Notice the hierarchy, a key component in creating light, from the bright light behind the two woman and the more muted light between the bull's legs. Also, notice the light's sweep up the half-naked woman's torso.
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 Europa and the Bull, 1st C. AD, Pompeii
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This is a great example of the artist
using light to bring out the form of anatomy. Notice the flicks
of highlight along the man's arm. And the flow of light along
the woman's torso.
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  Lovers, 1st C. AD, Pompeii
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The Northern Renaissance artists' works
are noted for attention to extravagant details. This painting is a tour de force of exquisite details. The painting is very neatly broken down to each object's color group: brown for the fur of the coat and dog; pale flesh tone for the people; red, green, and purple for the cloths. Light here takes a subservient role. It is used to simply set off all the details of the objects. Light is coming from behind our left shoulder. But there is also light coming in from the left far window, behind the couple. This can set up objects competing with each other for our attention. |
 The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck, 1434
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| In this da Vinci we have one light source, unlike the van Eyck work above. |
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| Here is an important, though subtle difference in developing light in painting. Notice the women's shoulders. Van Eyck used just enough light to give shape to the green cloth and white scarf. In contrast to that, da Vinci cloaked a sheen of light over both her flesh and cloth of her shoulder. |
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Raphael makes a great breakthrough here
with the light. He takes the idea of the halo, yet he wants to
make it feel real. Behind the angel is glowing light, as if the
light was coming from the end of a tunnel.
An interesting phenomenon is the transparency of the angel and it's wing tips. Often I have shown students a fact of how translucency works. You need to have a bright window in a room full of shadow. Then you hold up your finger: half of it against the light and the other half against the shadow. Then you squint looking at your finger. You will see a very delicate border dividing your finger, making it literally transparent--exactly like the angel's wings here. |
Deliverance of Saint Peter, Raphael, 1514
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| The flatness of this symbolic halo is a good contrast to realism of the Raphael. Actually, there is some effect of light on his forehead, collar, and hand, but the light is by no means consistent. |
 St. Nicholas, early 14th century
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Caravaggio went after light with a
vengeance. He dramatically contrasted light adjacent to dark.
Notice the boy's eye with its startling brilliant highlight and
almost black shadow. In exploring these high contrasts, Caravaggio ran into some spatial difficulties--Goliath's head doesn't feel like it is a yard in front of David. Rather, it rests on the same plane. Contrast with the Rembrandt below. |
 David with the Head of Goliath, Caravaggio,1610
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On the other side of Europe, Rembrandt
was taking light further than any previous artist. Rembrandt
spotlighted the people and things in his paintings. He used
light to highlight the things he wanted us to focus on. But he
also solved the difficult problem of spatial relationships. It
is quite simple for us to track the spatial relationships of all
the people in his painting. Contrast that with the David
above. It is interesting that The Night Watch setup is similar to the van Eyck couple portrait. In both paintings there are two light sources, one from behind us left, and from further back left. |
 Rembrandt, The Night Watch, 1642
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| The key difference between the two paintings is Van Eyck used light to heighten all the details, while Rembrandt stylized the light, making everything else subservient. |
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It is impossible to talk about light in
painting and not include Vermeer. Radically different than
Rembrandt in style, Vermeer pushed the envelope of how far one
could realistically perceive light. I could spend volumes in comparing nuances of light effects here. Let me just point out one for now. |
The Milkmaid, Vermeer, 1658-61 |
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Just above her head there is an
extremely subtle pink tint, somewhat in the shape of rectangle.
It is probably the cast light formed by the shape of the window.
Lower right, behind her body, are several, increasing subtle
shifts of cooler colors than the pink tint above.
Vermeer's eye probably sees more nuanced light shifts than any other artist, before or since. This is part 1 in the innovation series on light. In part 2 I will show how artists developed light based on complimentary colors. |
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I hope you enjoyed seeing light in a new
way. Michael Newberry |
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