The story of Dibutades who painted the outline of her boyfriend’s shadow, leading to early struggles with the optics of cast shadows, their use as cues to depth and shape, and appearance in landscapes. Paintings of shadow play.
Zeissig
From Dürer’s groundbreaking hare to the fable of the hare and the tortoise, a hidden hare in a well-known Turner and a white rabbit for the first of the month?
the personification of vigilance, Mary Magdalen, in shadowplay, held by Florence Nightingale ‘the lady of the lamp’, and associated with overwork and tiredness.
Using shadows to tell or add detail to a visual story. Examples by Robert Campin, Gérôme. William Holman Hunt, Lovis Corinth and others.
From the shadowed silhouette painted by the legendary Dibutades to paintings of families involved in shadow play.
Was painting ‘invented’ by the maid of Corinth? What is ‘shadow play’, and how have painters extended it to religious works? A short history of shadows in painting.
The Eclectic Light Company 