the fall of shadows
In addition to the main topic (perspective), Paul Heineken addresses and discusses in detail the fall of shadows outside and within enclosed spaces. You can see that in his texts but also especially in his drawings. Already after the first few pages I noticed that the individual sculptures all cast a precise shadow. The book contains many pages, where Paul Heineken shows whole theories and studies on the casting of shadows. There he also broach the issue of the effect of candlelight by day as well as night. A good example is this drawing from him.
You can see a cube with an octagonal star on it. Striking is the candlestick and the candle on the top left. He also drew the three lines that define the room. Paul Heineken also drew the reference lines in order to later draw the shadow. The lines are extremely precise and the hatching of the shadow is drawn extremely precisely and in great detail. He knows exactly where the shadow is, be it on the ground or the shadow of the octagonal star on the cube.
Another drawing shows again a clearly defined light source. In this case it is a person who is holding a candle and is behind a human-sized spherical body. The lines that define the space can be seen again. The reference lines can also be recognized again. This time he has drawn the profile of the sphere on the left surface. He also uses letters and numbers, which will probably help him to draw the shadows. Everything is again extremely detailed and the hatching of the shadow is drawn like the other drawings very carefully. In addition, this time he has already drawn some of the surroundings for it.
On the last page I have selected it is again about the same principle, only this time the drawing by Paul Heineken has many more objects and also a whole landscape in it. There is again a light source in the form of a candle that a person holds up. Everything is done again very precisely and in detail. This time the guidelines are barely recognizable and the picture already has a realistic character, since the perspective and the shadow appear correct.
Emphasis on the contrast between light and shadow in architecture, painting and sculpture against uniform illumination was a central point of the Baroque, which is reflected in this drawings.
Light – Contrast – Details