As a bereft mother struggling to find a way to budge the boulder of anguish that has settled in her soul, Cynthia Nixon gently illuminated her character's suffering without succumbing to hand-wringing histrionics.

In Fra Angelico's painting, daylight, which appears to come from the actual window of the friary cell which this fresco adorns, gently illuminates the figures and defines the architecture.

Plasma physics describes the processes giving rise to the aurora that gently illuminates the far northern and southern nighttime skies.

Soft light gently illuminates two former lovers, eyes only for each other, as they stand on a balcony on a warm, starry night.

Light shining up through frosted glass set into the tabletop gently illuminates the room (and eliminates the need for a space-hogging table lamp).

Other candles in freestanding candelabra, placed at precise distances, gently illuminated the room.

Sir Peter gently illuminates the parallels among the self-defining philosophies and postures of the various adventurers in Arden as they butt against one another in contests of wit and attitude.

Soft off-white and ocher gently illuminate the architecture of centuries past on slivers of streets hemmed in by brooding medieval houses recently transformed into luxury town houses and co-op apartments.

The mournful corollary Mr. Friel's play gently illuminates: People are far more mortal than the words they use, and a changing civilization may leave them adrift and alone.