Shading and shadowing on Canaletto's Piazza San Marco

Wijntjes, Maarten; Ridder, Huib de

doi:10.1117/12.2047854

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Naturally, the use of the probe in paintings has certain limitations, for instance we do not know the exact geometry of the scene and the materials of objects. Furthermore, we cannot conclude without doubt, whether the ambiguity of the settings occurred due to observers confusion or due to an artist representation of a light field, as it was demonstrated by Wijntjes in Canaletto paintings 4 . Canaletto drew the shadows parallel to the projection screen and used different shading than the parallel light direction would predict.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…This drove our attention to lighting in paintings: faithful at first glance, is it accurate and consistent in details? Wijntjes and de Ridder 4 has already approached the topic with his study of objects' shadows and shading in Canaletto paintings, in which he points out that the artist probably rendered the shading inconsistently with the shadowing. In our research we shift the focus from object lighting to a comparison between local and global light structure in paintings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The visual light field in paintings of Museum Prinsenhof: comparing settings in empty space and on objects

et al. 2015

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The aim of this study was to investigate whether inferences of light in the empty space of a painting and on objects in that painting are congruent with each other. We conducted an experiment in which we tested the perception of light qualities (direction, intensity of directed and ambient components) for two conditions: a) for a position in empty space in a painting and b) on the convex object that was replaced by the probe in the first condition. We found that the consistency of directional settings both between conditions and within paintings is highly dependent on painting content, specifically on the number of qualitatively different light zones [1] in a scene. For uniform lighting observers are very consistent, but when there are two or more light zones present in a painting the individual differences become prominent. We discuss several possible explanations of such results, the most plausible of which is that human observers are blind to complex features of a light field 2 .

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The visual light field in paintings of Museum Prinsenhof: comparing settings in empty space and on objects

et al. 2015

Self Cite

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“…Shadows are another interesting aspect of the paintings. A recent study showed that Canaletto had considerable difficulty with shadows in depth (Wijntjes and de Ridder, 2014). A common trick to avoid shadow perspective problems is to paint the shadows parallel to the canvas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective on Canaletto’s Paintings of Piazza San Marco in Venice

Erkelens

2020

Art Percept.

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Perspective plays an important role in the creation and appreciation of depth on paper and canvas. Paintings of extant scenes are interesting objects for studying perspective, because such paintings provide insight into how painters apply different aspects of perspective in creating highly admired paintings. In this regard the paintings of the Piazza San Marco in Venice by Canaletto in the eighteenth century are of particular interest because of the Piazza’s extraordinary geometry, and the fact that Canaletto produced a number of paintings from similar but not identical viewing positions throughout his career. Canaletto is generally regarded as a great master of linear perspective. Analysis of nine paintings shows that Canaletto almost perfectly constructed perspective lines and vanishing points in his paintings. Accurate reconstruction is virtually impossible from observation alone because of the irregular quadrilateral shape of the Piazza. Use of constructive tools is discussed. The geometry of Piazza San Marco is misjudged in three paintings, questioning their authenticity. Sizes of buildings and human figures deviate from the rules of linear perspective in many of the analysed paintings. Shadows are stereotypical in all and even impossible in two of the analysed paintings. The precise perspective lines and vanishing points in combination with the variety of sizes for buildings and human figures may provide insight in the employed production method and the perceptual experience of a given scene.

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“…An interesting trick to avoid making perspective mistakes is to organize sunrays parallel to the projection plane. In that case, the cast shadows will also be parallel and do not need to converge, a convention that is often used by Canaletto (Wijntjes & de Ridder, 2014;Wijntjes, 2020).…”

Section: Color and Lightmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework connecting vision and depiction

Wijntjes,

van Middelkoop

2023

Preprint

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We present a framework that connects ideas from the visual arts and visual perception. It adapts two existing frameworks for the analysis of form and content so that it can be used in an education context for teaching perception through visual arts. The basis is the formal analysis of texture, color, light, space and material. This analysis can be conducted both on the medium and the motif, which adds a second level in addition to the formal level. Third, a conte(n/x)t level is discussed which combines a basic notion of semiotics and iconography. We share our experience of implementing pictorial analysis in design and perception education and discuss how the framework is used both in a quantitative and qualitative fashion. Next to education, the framework provides a basis for further pictorial research.

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Shading and shadowing on Canaletto's Piazza San Marco

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

The visual light field in paintings of Museum Prinsenhof: comparing settings in empty space and on objects

The visual light field in paintings of Museum Prinsenhof: comparing settings in empty space and on objects

Perspective on Canaletto’s Paintings of Piazza San Marco in Venice

A framework connecting vision and depiction

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