Part 10, Sections 54-56 Summary and Analysis

Part 10: Conjuring With Time and Space begins with a quotation about how shadows are the deepest where the light is brightest by Wolfgang Goethe in 1771. Section 54: The Painted Moment describes how the power of light produced the most modern art forms by requiring the artist to shift their focus from enduring shapes to evanescent moments. Monet (1840-1926) was encouraged to preserve his first impression, and he developed into a bold Impressionist. His paintings had no subject and were only the momentary impression on his unique self; "his achievement was not in the durable but in the elusive moment" (p. 524).

In Section 55: The Power of Light: "The Pencil of Nature", light did the artist's job by capturing a specific moment in photography. Daguerre developed daguerreotypes in the 1820s, William Henry Fox Talbot discovered the concept of using silver...