Light is the body in painting of the first magnitude and | Reflection the medium or in other words the half light while | shade is the deprivation of light only but with the | deprivation of Reflection likewise it becomes Darkness | There is nothing new in this position but the last | or difference between shade and darkness. The | former has been accomplished by the greatest masters | from Titian’s bunch of grapes where each grape | was considered as a ball just the central or | focus of light was concentrated | upon a point then | half light or Reflections intervening between the two | and shade if shade it can be called that admits | of so large a portion of surrounding light and | ½ tint. We therefore refer to the Portrait of | Vandyke of the Dutchess [continued on folio 16] of Cleveland (dark Green) as the most instructive | for the advancement of Study. to the greatest | part of the Globe on which | the figure leans in the | character of St Agnes partook partly of | half light a central | speck opposite to the | sapphire ray of light and the reflection opposite | the shadowd part ... between from | which is resting upon a base from which | the light strikes it the ball receives a | reflected light another but lower in line | opposing it so that when I [? have] to define the | light and shade it would be right to admit a reflecting and reflective light. [continued on folio 17] Refracted lights are those received by all | bodies, but most so by polished ones from all | surrounding objects both of light and shade | and of course where refraction is concerned | shade must become more circumscribed | Refracted lights give clearness and by their | help objects can be more defined. by a | judicious introduction but they destroy | force. Rembrandt is a strong instance | of caution as to reflected light and | Correggio to refracted light. Two instances | of the strongest class may be found in the | celebrated pictures of the Mill and La Notte. [continued on folio 19] The Mill has but one light, that is to say upon | the Mill, for the sky, altho a greater body of | mass is reduced to black and white, yet is not | perceptible of receiving [the] ray by any indication of |form, but rather a glow of approaching light | . But the sails of the mill are touched with the | incalculable ray, while all below is lost in in | estimable gloom without the value of reflected | light, which even the sky demands, and the | ray upon the Mill insists upon, while the | ½ gleam upon the water admits the reflection of the | sky. Evanescent twilight is all reflection but | in Rembrandt it is all darkness and gleam of light | reactive of reflection. Refractions [are] occasioned | aerially. [continued on folio 20] The Notte is all light and shade in Darkness. | But as a solitary instance from a great master | may appear contrived, and caution of allowing | his knowledge in light and shade, let me draw | another instance of that knowledge in another | picture the Cradle, here, where Reflections &c | become only powerful in a concentrated | ray; and Refraction [and almost Reflection inserted] ceases except in bodies that | admit the first light. He becomes the master of | artificial light and shade, let me suppose it | be understood as those lights that are artificial | and not those beams that give light vigour | and animation to the uneventful. Their effect | in an abstracted sense is as distinct as this [continued on folio 28] appearance. Nature it would be wrong to say | as we can but know but one: the rays of the | sun strike parallel, while the candle | angular. One destroys shade, while the other | increases it; and as reflection and refraction | are increased by the influx of light, so are | they concentrated by an excess of shadow |, produced by the light becoming a focus |. The art of the Picture therefore is only and | properly light and shade; the greatest | shade opposed to the greatest light, as | ... the Mill is otherwise than the opposition of the light depicted
David Blayney Brown
December 2009
