Feb 16, 2023 20:00:00

Artists have been wrong about the depiction of shadows in paintings for centuries.

From the ancient Roman era until

the Renaissance , there were almost no shadows in paintings. Also, shadows are rarely depicted outside of Western art. The MIT Press Reader points out a mistake that existed in the expression method of ``shadow'', which is a rare presence in the history of painting.

The Art of the Shadow: How Painters Have Gotten It Wrong for Centuries | The MIT Press Reader
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-art-of-the-shadow-how-painters-have-gotten-it-wrong-for-centuries/

It seems that the expression of shadows often looks correct to the human eye, even if it is physically incorrect. The following is a fresco called ' Tribute Money ' created in the 1420s in the Bunrakacci Chapel in Florence, Italy. The shadows of several characters appear to be accurately depicted in this fresco.

However, if the building and people are actually arranged like in ``Tribute Money'' and the light is shining so that the shadow extends to the left, the shadow will not look like a painting. If you look at the 3D model that reproduces the ``Tribute Money'' object created by Meeko Kuwahara, it is obvious that the shadow of the building should overlap greatly with the shadow of the person.

Furthermore, unnatural shadows are also drawn in the religious painting '

Saint Madeleine and Saint Catherine ' painted around 1440. Two women are depicted in the painting below, and the shadow of the pillar extends from the right front of the woman on the right, but the moment it overlaps with the woman, the shadow disappears. Furthermore, you can see that what appears to be the shadow of a pillar appears behind the woman again, and any shadows related to the woman are ignored.

'

Polittico di Sant'Antonio ', painted around 1460 to 1470, is also said to have unnatural shadows. The shadows of several characters stretch across the floor, but the shadows disappear unnaturally after hitting the wall.

Der Sterbende, Epitaph des Heinrich Schmitburg , painted between 1472 and 1553, depicts two men standing in front of a large box. The shadow of the man on the right extends accurately from the ground to the box, but for some reason the shadow of the man on the left only extends to the ground and does not cover the box.

However, there are some works, such as

Vittore Carpaccio 's Presentazione della Vergine al Tempio , painted between 1502 and 1508, that correctly depict the zigzag shadows on the stairs.

In '

Scenes from the Story of the Argonauts ', the shadow of a man is not on the ground, but is depicted on the side of the stairs in a strange way.

Konrad Witz, a German painter who was active in the 1400s, expressed shadows on corners in several paintings. The following is ' Adoration of the Magi ' drawn by Vitz.

In '

The Deliverance of Saint Peter ,' the shadow of a halberd hangs over a corner of the wall.

Witz's depiction of shadows is not completely accurate, but it is a level of detail that sets him apart from other artists' depictions of shadows.

Triangular shadows were commonly used to express human shadows. Below is a triangular shadow drawn in '

Saint Catherine of Siena Exorcising a Possessed Woman '.

On the other hand, there are some that express shadows as inverted triangles. It seems that the method of ``representing shadows using triangles'' as mentioned above was distorted at some point, and shadows were now drawn using inverted triangles.

There are also shadows that extend from the left and right legs and connect like a horseshoe. Below is 'Amor, Anteros and Amor Lethaeus' on the left, and 'Magellius mosaic' painted around the 3rd century on the right. In both paintings, you should be able to see that the shadows extending from the left and right legs of the figure merge in the middle.

Another example of

Fra Carnebel 's painting `` Birth of the Virgin and the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple '' is that the shadows of the people in the foreground are dark, but the shadows of the people in the background are quite light. The MIT Press Reader points out that the lighting is inconsistent.