Artists have used light to create drama in their pieces for many generations. The source of this light and the parts of the painting that it illuminates often serve to highlight both the actions and the emotions of its subjects. The subject matter of each piece may vary but each artist has employed a deliberate light source to direct the viewer’s attention to a particular aspect of each painting. This paper will discuss this use of light in Luca Cambiaso’s Suicide of Lucretia (c. 1565), Claude Vignon’s David with the Head of Goliath (c. 1620-1623), Francesco Fontebasso’s The Adoration of the Magi (c. 1740) and Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808. While exploring the artist’s use of light, the drama that each features will play an important part of how they are viewed. In the Suicide of Lucretia, the artist has chosen a mythological scene where a woman is committing suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger. Her face, while a relatively vacant expression, shows a slight anguish maybe even pain. She is shown leaning on a raised bed with scant drapery around her body. The background is in shadow and without any major details. The viewer’s eyes are immediately drawn towards her action while other parts of the room are less detailed. All the light in…show more content… He is wearing a hat made of fur and plumage as well as a robe of reds and yellows that bunch up to appear as many different layers. Lucretia, on the other hand, is nude with only a veil around her waist. David’s apparel may represent his newly found place in society after killing the giant or the artist’s own contemporary thoughts on what a young man should wear. Lucretia’s nudeness may represent her purity before she was raped and that combined with her expression conveys how her self-image has changed and she feels as though she has fallen from
