Detail of knight on horseback

The way Van Eyck portrays a knight on horseback here is masterly. The light shimmers on his armour and you can even distinguish the folds in the horse’s coat: delicately painted with rapid and extremely confident brushstrokes.
Modern designers also experiment with lighting, reflection, and the rendering of colour. Among others, the Big Round Mirror by Marcelis & Van Nerven and the Column V-lamp by Studio Truly Truly attest to this. You can also see an eye for detail in the work of Lizan Freijsen. She observes fungi in all forms and colours and manages to depict them in great detail in her tapestries.
In the 15th century, painters used various pigments for shades of brown and reddish brown: ochre, iron oxides and raw sienna, a transparent pigment based on a type of clay found in the vicinity of the Italian city Siena.