The analysis of the lighting and shading configuration in an urban landscape depicted by Caspar David Friedrich

Abstract. This study analyses how Caspar David Friedrich depicted natural illumination in an urban space in his 1818 watercolour, Greifswalder Marktplatz mit der Familie Friedrich. Developing a workflow that uses digital methods such as 3D modelling and image editing of raster and vector images, the study analyses how the Greifswald painter interpreted the shading of the market square scene in his hometown. Having modelled the Greifswald square in the period when Friedrich is presumed to have painted his watercolour, the study conceives natural lighting scenarios in the 3D Blender software environment. These scenarios are then used to compare the shading in Friedrich's work with the shadow pass of the square model, which was created from heterogeneous sources. These scenarios are developed by selecting dates relating to 1818, based on bibliographical information about the artist. Once the shadows have been rendered from modelling the square, they are individually compared with the shadows in Friedrich's painting to understand how closely the digitally created lighting scenario matches the painter's representation. The study aims not only to identify the timespan in which the painter could have depicted the watercolour, but also to analyse Friedrich's methods of representing natural light in detail, considering any patterns, peculiarities and, above all, inconsistencies.