ART APPRECIATION LESSON 3: World Artist and History
You will see how an artist uses light to illuminate color and integrate the idea into your own work of art in this art appreciation lesson.
Henry Ossawa Tanner, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, 1907.
This painting shows how light illuminates color. We know that color is seen in relation to how much light shines on the surface of an object. In the dark den, we see nothing at full light. Tanner clues viewers in to the fact that it is evening or a moonlit night by showing two small windows in the upper portion of the painting. As light hits the face of a lion, we see more of the yellow coat. As light hits the lower part of the man, we see his white robe take on blue tones; as it hits the walls and floor, we see a stone interior takes on blue-green tones. Look at how Tanner uses light around the two lion figures that are in shadow, on the lower right. They would disappear if it weren’t for the patches of light placed around them, helping to outline the lion forms. The painting tells a story of a man who was fed to the lions, but was delivered from his fate. Some lions seem disinterested, while the lion nearest the figure shows curiosity, but does not view him as prey.
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