Light is both part of our experience of the real world and one of  the chief ways of creating mood in a painting.  Light effects vary depending on the source; the sun is the chief  source.  Its illumination changes depending on the time of day and the weather and implies physical sensation:  it can vary from colorless to deep orange, and can range from pale and so cool as to not cast shadows to intense and hot.  It is directional, but so distant from us that its intensity does not vary with the proximity of an object to it in the open air.  Inside, of course, the closer an object is to a window, the more brightly lit it will be.  Before electricity the only manmade source of light was fire; it is always yellow and suggests heat.  Like the sun, it is directional, but it is brighter the closer an object is to it and gets dimmer with distance.

Raphael's Lighting

   Raphael represents the School of Athens  in the open air of a midday, midsummer sun.  This is the customary lighting effect of Renaissance art and indicates "normality."  It does not draw the viewer's attention to the time of day (as dawn or twilight would), nor does it imply specific climatic conditions.  Since Renaissance artists were familiar with representing a variety of lighting conditions, choosing this effect is deliberate and thus it is ideal lighting, designed to suggest reality and to give ample illumination to the scene, but not to evoke any particular mood or state of mind in the viewer.

composition     space     figures     colors      light      Renaissance Style