Defining Shadows

Chiaroscuro or Clair-Obscur use darkness as an instrument to identify, imply, and insinuate space and objects within a picture.  Here are examples of how shadows build suggestive space and shapes. In Renaissance and Baroque Italian painting the core or dark area of the shadow, the shadow area nearest the its projecting source, was called the umbra ( you can see why umber is a dark color) and, the less dark area on the periphery of the shadow was called the penumbra. Here is an illustration from Da Vincishowing how a sphere can be conjured through shadow.  Notice the dark umbra and its flanking gradations of penumbra. The umbrella, by the way, is a little shadow maker; hence its name.  By the 18th century the study of perspective, its relationship to cast shadow and, the role of cast shadow in describing a picture’s topography (illusory surface) was well documented and illustrated.  ( see example of 1750 plate from Jeaurat’s “Treatise On Perspective For Use by Artists.”)You see how the cylinder and the inclined step are both revealed by the shape of the falling shadow as is the object casting the shadow. The shadow works into two directions. It describes the surface it lays upon as well as the shape of the object generating the shadow.  And while we are in the 1700s we can stop to see Canaletto’s capriccio landscape ( from the word caprice, meaning a semi-invented or compiled landscape). He uses shadows to describe the surface of the land, the presence of  walls,  the architecture and  the shapes of  sculpted lions. I have converted this small painting ( which can be seen in the Springfield  Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts) to black and white and, I outlined in green  the areas of defining shadow.      Now, you can see the painting as a chiaroscuro set of effects, just strong highlights and dark shadows.  The dark shadow propels  the highlighted areas out of the dark space. In my last example, I have a macro view of some small morning flowers.  I have situated you, the viewer in the grass about 8″ off the ground. Your perspective is that of a bee or grasshopper.   I created the volume in this painting through the application of dark shadow shapes.  First, the painting was entirely a field of green paint.  Next, I found the light areas of a couple of flowers and then finally, I applied dark painted shapes to suggest the dark background. I have outlined a few of these dark shapes with pink in the upper left hand area of the painting to better allow you to see the dark back ground as a set of independent shapes.  The applied dark shapes let the green areas assume their respective identities as leaves and stems. The darks created the space and means for recognizing the rest of the painting’s elements. If you are interested in more on this subject, the perspective of shadows or  “Sciography,” I recommend  Michael Baxandall’s  ” Shadows and Enlightenment” a study of the history of perspective through shadow.