Chiaroscuro, Tenebrism, and Sfumato
Started: 1480
Summary of Chiaroscuro, Tenebrism, and Sfumato
The grandeur of the Renaissance was mirrored by its equally lush style of artwork, out from which evolutions in drama and depth were innovatively conveyed. The era's artists accomplished this through new techniques centered upon the manipulation of light and dark, the father of which was chiaroscuro. Combining two Italian words - chiaro, "light" or "clear," and scuro, "dark" or "obscure," it became an artistic method using gradations of light and shadow to create convincing three-dimensional scenes where figures and objects appeared as solid forms. Leonardo da Vinci was a chiaroscuro master who subsequently pioneered sfumato. Meaning "to vanish like smoke," it was a method that involved applying layers of thin glazes to inform a foggy, almost ethereal effect. Caravaggio would play a leading role as well with his creation of tenebrism, another style that focused on the intense contrast between dark and light elements of a painting. It would become a defining stylistic feature of the Baroque period and, as a result, in contemporary usage often identifies the era. Many offshoots born of these techniques remain today for painters involved in that long lineage of artists interested in illuminating visual narratives out from the shadows.
Key Ideas
Beginnings:
Trends leading to the development of chiaroscuro began in classical Greece where the artist Apollodoros was dubbed Apollodoros Skiagraphos, or "shadow painter." This was due to his invention of skiagraphia, or "shadow-painting," a technique that used cross hatching and gradations of tone. Unfortunately, as is the case with most classical Greek painting, his work has not survived, but the technique was widely adopted in Athens. Surviving in a more rudimentary form throughout the Byzantine era, skiagraphia was further developed by the use of incidendo and martizando, described by art historian Janis C. Bell as, "layerings of white, brown, or black in linear patterns over a uniform color," in the late Middle Ages in Europe. The technique was often employed in illuminated manuscripts.
The Most Important Art in Chiaroscuro, Tenebrism, and Sfumato | |
  | Diogenes (c. 1524-29)Artist: Ugo da Carpi Artwork description & Analysis: This woodcut shows the Greek philosopher Diogenes, a short stick in his right hand holding open the page of a book, as if marking a relevant text, with another open book in front of him. With his cloak swirling around him, conveying the sweeping energy of his thoughts, the figure is muscular and dynamic, torqued in contrapposto stance. On the right, a featherless rooster stands upon a ledge, its presence and extended legs evoking Plato's description of man as a featherless biped, which Diogenes replied to with, "Here is Plato's man" as he pointed to a plucked chicken. Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from four blocks in grey-green ink - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 | Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486)Artist: Leonardo da Vinci Artwork description & Analysis: This painting depicts the Virgin Mary with her right arm extended to embrace the child John the Baptist, while her left hand hovers in a gesture of blessing toward the Christ child, seated next to the archangel Gabriel. An effect of intimacy is conveyed, as the four seem to engage with the gestures and expressions of a lively sacra conversazione. The Madonna's mediating presence unifies the four, emphasized by the pyramidal but the subtle tonal transitions and blended outlines. Oil on wood transferred to canvas - Louvre, Paris |
 | The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600)Artist: Caravaggio Artwork description & Analysis: This painting dramatically depicts the moment when Christ, standing on the right, calls Matthew, then a tax collector, to become one of his disciples. In a contemporary tavern, five tax collectors, foppishly dressed and seated at a table, react to the summons, embodied in a ray of light that seems to stream from Christ's beckoning hand and which illuminates their faces, emphasizing their expressions. The tavern's deep shadows, dark walls, and shrouded window suggest the mundane gloominess of the material world, as the man at the end of the table slumps over his arms, perhaps having drunk too much, or morosely staring at the few coins he has collected scattered on the table before him. The scene is almost theatrical due to the compositional effect of the intense contrast of dark and light. Oil on canvas - Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome |
More Chiaroscuro, Tenebrism, and Sfumato Artwork and Analysis:
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Kimberly Nichols
" Definition Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Kimberly Nichols
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First published on 05 Nov 2019. Updated and modified regularly. 
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