Study Of Light In Seventeenth Century Oil Painting

This paper focuses on the role of light in seventeenth Century painting, light is an indispensable element in our life, it illuminates our world, and brings us light. From the beginning of the Renaissance, Da Vinci had applied the light to the oil painting and invented the "chiaroscuro". He used the light to describe objects, this way had greatly enhanced the sense of the volume of the object he described and the dimensional feeling of the picture. Since then, the light was becoming more and more obvious in the application of oil painting. The light was increasingly highlighted in the position of the oil painting to the Baroque period. Due to the oil painting especially paid attention to the use of the light at this time, so made the painting style full of movement and dramatic. Thus, the light played an important role in the seventeenth Century painting, and made the seventeenth Century painting produce modern aesthetic significance.In the seventeenth century, Europe social was unrest and feudal society thought change fierce, Europe was transitioned from feudal society to capitalist society during this period, and great changes had taken place in social structure. Meanwhile, the European art was entered into the baroque period, Baroque painting was noted for that it was good at using the light, the intense light and shadow and the dramatic effect of light and shade not only created an atmosphere of the scene, but also revealed the character’s inner world. Thus conveyed the artist’s thoughts and feelings. The light is object the painter performance, and the means of reproduce life. Artists have different understanding of light in the different periods, their assessment of oil painting art value is closely related to the using of the light. At the beginning of this paper I expound the concept of light simply, and introduce the relationship between the light and the oil painting. I discusses the importance role of the light in the painting mainly.Last I further illustrates the important role of the light in the painting through the analysis of typical painter works such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Latour, Vermeer and so on..