Abstract:
The subject of light in painting from Pilinius to Cubism covers a wide historical range. In this process, it is seen that the use of light in painting is one of the basic components of stylistic changes. In this broad framework, it is seen that light emerges as three basic qualities: metaphysical, physical and pictorial. Light, as a phenomenon, is an essential element of nature observation and its transfer to the painting surface. This is a physical use in the sense of portraying light as an entity bound by the law of physics. The meaning given to the representation value of color finds the expression of light within the limits of this value. Metaphysical usage is handled in a conceptual dimension in which the symbolic value of light is emphasized. This use can contain both the representation value and specific value of the color. The concept of pictorial light finds meaning within the framework of a pictorial reality determined by the unique rules of painting, far from the concept of natural light. However, it is inevitable for this triple series to present a reductive approach in order to characterize and classify the existence of light in painting. Because, the use of light in painting has never been evaluated outside the concept of pictorial light. Metaphysical light does not have a completely different historical process from the representation of physical or natural light. Therefore, the history of light in painting is not a linear history; On the other hand, it seems possible to say that the concepts are transitional with the pathways opening to each other within the practices of the art of painting.