With great interest in optics, depicting shade and shadows advanced in the 17th century, in paintings by van Honthorst, Judith Leyster, and above all Rembrandt, whose promoter was the father of Christiaan Huygens.
Leyster
A dentist draws a tooth outside a church, a man reckons he holds the winning card, and the five most humorous interpretations of the senses.
How Dutch painters studying in Italy came to be influenced by Caravaggio, and took his style back to Utrecht, where they became known as Utrecht Caravaggists.
Judith Leyster, Elisabette Sirani, Maria Sibylla Merian, Rosalba Carriera, Angelica Kauffmann, Mary Moser, Anne Vallayer-Coster and Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – pioneers every one.
When it was first used as a pigment, this vegetable dye proved reliable and lightfast. Later technique, though, resulting in it fading. Why?
The Eclectic Light Company 