From Apelles’ Line to Vermeer’s Window:on the Problem of Light in the Convention of Representational Paintings

Starting from the anecdote of the “Apelles’ Line” recorded in Pliny’s Natural History, Gombrich excavated a schema of light and shadow which serves to paint three-dimensional shapes, and analyzed the corrections made by Medieval and Renaissance masters to this schema. However, the history of traditional representational painting is not only an evolutionary history of naturalism, and the observation and analysis of painters are not necessarily just to shape the volume of objects to create realistic illusions. Light, as a painting effect with ambiguity, whose aesthetic value has been overlooked, plays a significant role in the perception even though it sometimes distracts artists from reality. Gombrich' s theoretical model to some extent avoided the value of the issue of light, prematurely limiting itself to the division of North and South painting in Western Europe in the 15th century, and failing to touch on the creative ideas of subsequent painters in light. How do we re-establish the applicability of Gombrich' s theory of light while still adhering to the basic premise of representational art? This article attempts to start from Wollheim' s aesthetic theory, combined with several theoretical texts on painting in the Renaissance and Daniel Arasse' research on Vermeer' s works, to understand another clue to the issue of light.