Resumen de The Headless Cast Shadow: Cast Shadows in 15th Century Sienese Painting and the Case of Sassetta's "Stigmatization of St. Francis"
A study of cast shadows in 15th-century painting in Siena, Italy. Not before the mid 15th century did Sienese painters embrace the naturalistic method of cast shadow introduced by Masaccio in Florence during the mid 1420s; the few who did so consistently experimented with it on limited occasions only. There was no common coherent reason for depicting or omitting cast shadows; apparently, they just followed their customs and predilection. However, the Stigmatization of St. Francis (National Gallery, London), painted on the reverse side of the 1444 Sansepolcro Altarpiece by Stefano di Giovanni di Consalvo da Cortona, a.k.a. Sassetta, shows that the shadows were simply kept to remain faithful to the medieval traditions of the painters' patrons. In this scene, which would have been viewed almost exclusively by the Franciscan friars, the shadow of the saint's head is omitted in accordance with the ideas of preacher San Bernardino of Siena, who argued for the transparency and luminosity of saints. This kind of discussion about the nature of the saint's body must have been of crucial importance to Sassetta or his patrons.
