More Light Effects

Almost a standard light effect was to illuminate the hero from the back. With the sun behind he appeared with an aureola, illuminated by the divine light.
Although this pose was proved in thousands of religious paintings it pretended now to be natural.

Here the French battle painter Horace Emile Jean Vernet (1789-1863) shows Napoleon as the victor of Friedland (1807) with a divine aureola.


Totally different (in its intentions not its methods) is this painting from the German Adolf Northen (1828-76): Napoleon's retreat from Moscow (1851)
The light comes from the upper right illuminates Napoleon from the back, passes and focuses on the dead soldier on the ground. The light effect is further intensified by the fact that Napoleons's horse and the dead soldier are white.

Napoleon is leading his troops into death. He's the rider on the pale horse from the Apocalypse whose name was Death.

All these effects are well planned and arranged. Even though the paintings are realistic in many details they are pure constructions as a whole.

God's own light show

One of the most important tricks with which history painters dramatized their art was the use of light effects. If you look at these paintings you should always think a little about illumination. Where does the light come from? Could it be real? Or is there somewhere a big floodlight hidden?

This painting is by Karl Pavlovich Briullov (1799-1852) the most important Russian romantic painter. Its from 1843 and shows "The Siege of Pskov" by the Polish king Stefan Batory.
The Poles are driven away by a heroic sortie.
The light doesn't even come from somewhere in the sky. Its source lies in the group of white priests an their holy relics.

This painting from the same year ist by the Polish painter January Suchodolski (1797-1875) and shows that God wasn't only on the Russian side.
Suchodolski painted the heroic defense of a monastery in Czestochowa where the famous Black Madonna was guarded. The light came from inside - it seems the white priest switched it on - and is nearly blinding the Swedes and their German mercenaries.

But before you smile about these cheap 19th century tricks, have a look at this:

Here they learned from history painting. Its Hollywood where the tradition now is kept alive.