Shadows and Enlightenment
by Michael Baxandall
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"Shadows are holes in light. We see them all the time, and sometimes we notice them, but their part in our visual experience of the world is mysterious. In this book, an eminent art historian draws on contemporary cognitive science, eighteenth-century theories of visual perception, and art history to discuss shadows and the visual knowledge they can offer. Michael Baxandall begins by describing the physical constitution and different varieties of shadows. He then sketches the show more eighteenth-century empirical/nativist debate on the role of shadows in the perception of shape. Next he surveys modern research by cognitive scientists and machine vision workers, explaining how research is divided on the issue of how far and by what means shadows help or hinder perception of shape. Baxandall continues his exploration by recounting a neglected episode of shadow theory, the observations of a group of mid-eighteenth-century French scientists and artists on shadows as related to light and space. Finally he sets these various shadow universes into relation with each other, addressing the special problem of painting shadows, and analyzes Chardin's painting The Young Draughtsman, in which shadow painting is both medium and theme. The book includes an appendix that situates and summarizes the shadow system of Leonardo da Vinci, which has had a strong though partly underground influence on thinking about shadows for five hundred years"--Publisher's description. show lessTags
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15 Works 1,449 Members
Art historian Michael Baxandall was born in Cardiff, England. He studied at Downing College at Cambridge; the University of Pavia in Italy; and the Institute of Art History at Munich. He taught at numerous universities throughout his lifetime including Oxford University, the University of London, Cornell University, and the University of show more California at Berkeley. His books include Giotto and the Orators; Painting and Experience in 15th-Century Italy; The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany; and Shadows and Enlightenment. He died of pneumonia associated with Parkinson's disease on August 12, 2008 at the age of 74. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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