The Art Fundamental That Shapes Every Masterpiece

How light can be symbolic, metaphorical, meditative and more

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c.1601–1602) by Caravaggio. Oil on canvas. 107 × 146 cm. Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany. Image source

Light in art is both rich and complex.

In art it isn’t just about what is illuminated, but how illumination itself becomes a subject of interest.

Here I take a tour through some of the most light-suffused paintings ever created, exploring the fundamentals of light to create different layers of depth and meaning…

Light as a symbol

Rays of light passing through a window in ‘The Annunciation’ from the Saint Columba Altarpiece (c. 1455) by Rogier van der Weyden. Oil on panel. 138 × 70 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. Image source

If we reach back to the 15th century, we find that light in art tended to carry more symbolic weight than expressive value. One fascinating iconographical tradition that developed in early Netherlandish art was to show a ray of divine light entering the scene through a window.

We can see this in Rogier van der Weyden’s The Annunciation (c.1455): rays of light pass through a window and enter the chamber of the Virgin Mary, where an angel tells her she will become a mother.

The metaphor served to illustrate the conceptually tricky idea of Mary’s miraculous conception, when God entered her virgin chamber. Her…