Artworks based on Xuan paper or silk and painted by organic or inorganic pigments are highly responsive to light due to their materials and manufacturing technologies. They belong to the highest level of light responsive exhibits stipulated by International Commission on Illumination (CIE) and are vulnerable to fading and discoloration caused by radiation from light sources. The choice of light sources is the key of protection for artworks. It is indispensible and urgent to choose the lowest damage light sources according to the material characteristics of artworks. In this article, long-term irradiation of typical light sources on various substrates and pigments was used as experimental method, and CIE DE2000 color difference formula was used as the evaluation index. The laws of the influence of different light sources on the color change of various materials were obtained, and the relative damage coefficients of light sources were calculated. Finally, eight kinds of light sources suitable for illuminating responsive artworks with typical material combinations were proposed. However, there are some limitations in the study, because the ancient Chinese Xuan paper and silk used as experimental objects in the experiment are yellowish. Thus, the models derived in this article are not suitable for choosing reasonable display light sources for other works of art. However, suitable light sources for different materials could be obtained by the calculation method used in this article.