Do you mean omni-directional lighting?
I've spent years now trying to find the "optimal" lighting situation, but all possible combinations and permutations have some drawback or other. However, a lot of really great paintings have been made with less than "perfect" lighting, so our minds seem capable of dealing with it, as long as it's somewhere in the neighbourhood of a neutral colour temperature and a broad spectrum.
I often think of how terribly short days can be here in Toronto as we go through the winter, let alone the constant variability of natural light throughout the whole of the year. But then I realise that I am at the same latitude as Florence, Italy. This means that every major art centre in Europe -- from Venice, to Belgium, to Moscow -- is at a higher latitude and therefore has even less available daylight! How they (the old masters) did so well, and did so much, without the benefits of modern lighting is a wonder to me.
Juan
