Casati Robert author Columbia University. Italian Academy contributor originator text Working papers New York Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University 2010 English The depiction of cast shadows is an interesting laboratory for solutions to representational problems, and in this they provide interesting material for the study of visual cognition. For instance, shadows in paintings have been alleged as examples of perceptual double dissociations: some perceptually acceptable shadows are physically impossible, and conversely some physically correct shadows are perceptually impossible. Here I discuss a larger set of cases that involve more topical inferences: shadows of invisible objects, of objects that should not cast shadows, of objects whose presence is only implied and not shown in the painting, cast by lights that are not visible. Interestingly, some shadows can be used to ascertain the original properties of a painting. In all these cases the viewer is moving from some visible features of pictorial content to features that are not displayed in the picture. Fine arts http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9798 NNC NNC 2011-01-13 15:48:37 -0500 2011-08-09 22:44:54 -0400 2337 eng