Editing Chiaroscuro (section)

===Compositional chiaroscuro to Caravaggio===
[[File:Geertgen tot Sint Jans, The Nativity at Night, c 1490.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Nativity at Night (Geertgen tot Sint Jans)|Nativity at Night]]'' by [[Geertgen tot Sint Jans]], c. 1490, after a composition by [[Hugo van der Goes]] of c. 1470; sources of light are the infant Jesus, the shepherds' fire on the hill behind, and the angel who appears to them.]]
Manuscript illumination was, as in many areas, especially experimental in attempting ambitious lighting effects since the results were not for public display. The development of compositional chiaroscuro received a considerable impetus in northern Europe from the vision of the [[Nativity of Jesus]] of Saint [[Bridget of Sweden]], a very popular mystic. She described the infant Jesus as emitting light; depictions increasingly reduced other light sources in the scene to emphasize this effect, and the Nativity remained very commonly treated with chiaroscuro through to the Baroque. [[Hugo van der Goes]] and his followers painted many scenes lit only by candle or the divine light from the infant Christ. As with some later painters, in their hands the effect was of stillness and calm rather than the drama with which it would be used during the Baroque.

Strong chiaroscuro became a popular effect during the sixteenth century in [[Mannerism]] and [[Baroque]] art. Divine light continued to illuminate, often rather inadequately, the compositions of [[Tintoretto]], [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]], and their many followers. The use of dark subjects dramatically lit by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source, was a compositional device developed by [[Ugo da Carpi]] (c. 1455 – c. 1523), [[Giovanni Baglione]] (1566–1643), and [[Caravaggio]] (1571–1610), the last of whom was crucial in developing the style of [[tenebrism]], where dramatic chiaroscuro becomes a dominant stylistic device.