How did shadows influence the Renaissance art period?

Or was the Renaissance art period that exchanged the way shadows were used in painting?

Both these questions make sense, as the Renaissance new way of seeing the world introduced a revolutionary interpretation of the reality, making the painting more real by introducing the notion of perspective, obtained by using shadows.

Saying in other words, it was the use of shadows that brought the third dimension to the paintings.

It was during the 15^th century, known as the Quattrocento period, that shadows were used for the first time in painting. There was an empirical approach of the shadow, which appeared naturally in the discovery of the 3D effect

Although the first shadows in art date from the 4^th century B.C. – related to the theatrical scenes and to the shadows in objects with relief – the projected shadow makes its most important and significant appearance in the last sub-period of the Renaissance, during the 16^th century: the Cinquecento.

The shadow, as the result of the interposition of a solid and opaque body between a light source and a projection surface, was the object of study and experiment by several artists such as Gentikle da Fabriano, Giovanni di Paolo, Pier Maria Pennacchi, Lorenzo Lotto and the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen.

It can also be observed the positive symbolic connotation acquired by the shadow when it appears linked to the theme of the Annunciation. In the masterpieces of Jan van Eyck, Lorenzo di Credi and Ludovico Carracci, the opaque reflex of the Angel or the Virgin Mary alludes to “the shadow of the All Mighty”, under which power it is produced the miracle of the Incarnation.