A Short History of the Shadow

Review
"Stoichita is an art historian with a tremendous range, and has brewed together optics and metaphysics, phantasmagoria and propaganda, Plato and Warhol to conjure meaning out of shadows in his engagingly original study." -- Marina Warner ― Times Literary Supplement, "International Books of the Year"
“Ambitious and a pleasure to read. . . . A thoroughly worthwhile book.” ― Times Higher Education
“[Stoichita] shows how shadows are deftly used, among other purposes, to suggest the ambiguity of the human psyche.” -- Lee Adair Lawrence ― Washington Times
“Discriminating, inspired interrogation. . . . Dazzling analysis.” ― Tate Magazine
In this investigative tour de force, Victor I. Stoichita untangles the history of one of the most enduring technical and symbolic challenges to confront Western artists: the depiction and meaning of shadows. Stoichita’s compelling and expansive account draws on texts by Renaissance artist-authors such as Vasari and Cennini, folk and fairy tales, and classical myths; works by van Eyck, Poussin, Malevich, De Chirico, and Picasso, among other masters; as well as German Expressionist cinema, photography, and child psychology. It is a wholly original investigation of a subject that for centuries has challenged the very meaning of art as representation.