Painting, science, and the perception of coloured shadows : 'the most beautiful blue' / Paul Smith.

New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.

©2021

xiv, 176 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.

"Many artists and scientists - including Buffon, Goethe, and Philipp Otto Runge - who observed the vivid coloured shadows that appear outdoors around dawn and dusk, or indoors when a candle burns under waning daylight, chose to describe their colours as 'beautiful'. Paul Smith explains what makes these ephemeral effects worthy of such appreciation - or how depictions of coloured shadows have genuine aesthetic and epistemological significance. This multi-disciplinary book synthesises methodologies drawn from art history (close pictorial analysis), psychology and neuroscience (theories of colour constancy), history of science (the changing paradigms used to explain coloured shadows), and philosophy (theories of perception and aesthetic value drawn from Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty). This title will be of interest to scholars in art history, art theory, and the history of science and technology"-- Provided by publisher.

Online version: Smith, Paul, 1956- Painting, science, and the perception of coloured shadows New York : Routledge, 2021

English

June 09, 2021

Includes bibliographical references and index.