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Romanticism

In the Age of Enlightenment, a new approach to the shadow was taken by Johann Caspar Lavater through the Physiognomic Fragments (1775–78) with which he set out to lay the foundations for a study of the human personality based on the projection of facial profi les on a screen. However, the 18th century also gave rise to the aesthetic concept of the ‘sublime’ and the shadow became highly regarded as a tool to convey negative narrative connotations, ultimately leading to an aesthetics of the sinister. In this respect there are outstanding examples in the work of Goya, Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Joseph Wright of Derby, Adolph von Menzel, Jean-François Millet, William Holman Hunt, Jean-Paul Laurens, Gioacchino Toma and Émile Friant.