Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

The Play of Light

Everything that we see with our eyes is the play of light reflected off of objects, faces, horses running by and mountains.  On the other hand, when we look at a realistic looking painting, perhaps a portrait of someone, we are looking at how the artist saw the play of light and translated it to canvas. Or, and this is often the case, it is how something or some scene might have been if the artist could have seen it. Leonardo da Vinci certainly wasn’t at the Last Supper but he was able to imagine how the play of light might have been, often with the help of models.

Not all works by artists are as realistic looking as those of Leonardo. For instance, look at the pictures in the Hungarian Pray Manuscript. There is no shading. There is no geometric perspective. Leonardo and Andrea del Verrocchio were early pioneers  these methods we have come to expect in paintings. Nevertheless, with angles and placement alone, the ancient Hungarian pictures still provides a sense of depth.