CHAPTER 2
SHADOW AND LIGHT
THE NATURE OF LIGHT
Every artist has to consider light in creating paintings and sculpture, but Leonardo was interested in light from a scientific point of view as well. He realized that if he understood how shadows and reflections worked scientifically, he could make realistic use of them in his paintings.
Leonardo filled page after page of his notebooks with studies of the way light travels and reflects back at us. He knew that light travels from its source in straight lines and reflects back toward us at specific angles when it hits a surface. And because he was always looking for connections, Leonardo also discovered in his studies that the same laws that govern the reflection of light also govern the bouncing ...
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