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Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Applying Hyperspectral Reflectance Imaging to Investigate the Palettes and the Techniques of Painters
Published on: June 18, 2021
Painting coloured shadows: An introduction
1Department of History of Art, University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
One aspect of natural colour which fascinated artists and scientists was the appearance of blue and green coloured shadows for a few minutes around dawn and dusk, and (more rarely) of blue shadows in broad daylight. The question of how artists saw and depicted such shadows is inseparable from the theories they held of their causes, which do not correspond with how we understand them today. How painters perceived these effects is also bound up with the viewing strategies they employed to render them more apparent. In addition, the belief that coloured shadows were 'beautiful' is central to the fascination they held for artists and physicists alike.
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