Faldoni, parts 2528 - 2531

2528. That was not all, however. He also overheard their conversations about the paintings done in the “Dark Ages,” before the advent of the Renaissance, of which they were quite proud to be a part. Present day scholars like to say that the label, “The Dark Ages,” is a modern term, and that the ancients did not think of their time as particularly dark, but they are wrong.

2529. The artists of the early Renaissance thought of the earlier artists as having lived in the dark ages, because their paintings never depict any sources of light, unless you count halos, and an abundance of gilding as a source of light. 

2530. They also referred to the Medieval paintings as having been done in the “Dark Ages,” because of the preponderance of the art of stained glass, in which, undoubtedly, there is the effect of the sunlight shining through the glass, but the figures themselves are always outlined with black lines of lead, and all the faces, arms and legs are invariably depicted in single shades of one color. 

2531. Listening to these comments about the flatness of the paintings done in the dark ages, and the black outlines of the stained glass, Faldoni wondered to himself if his painting possessed any element of the depiction of sunlight, although he was not exactly sure how sunlight, which is not an object like a coat or a chair, could ever be represented.