Editing Chiaroscuro

{{short description|Use of strong contrasts between light and dark in art}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Other uses}}
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[[File:baglione.jpg|thumb|right|[[Giovanni Baglione]]. ''Divine Love Conquering Earthly Love'' (1602–1603), showing dramatic compositional chiaroscuro]]

In [[art]], '''chiaroscuro''' ({{IPAc-en|lang|k|i|ˌ|ɑːr|ə|ˈ|s|k|(|j|)|ʊər|oʊ}} {{respell|kee|AR|ə|SKOOR|oh|,_-|SKURE|-}}, {{IPA|it|ˌkjaroˈskuːro|lang}}; {{lit|light-dark}}) is the use of strong [[contrast (vision)|contrasts]] between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and [[art historian]]s for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures.<ref>Glossary of the National Gallery, London [https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/chiaroscuro] (accessed 23 October 2011)</ref> Similar effects in cinema, and black and white and [[low-key photography]], are also called chiaroscuro. Taken to its extreme, the use of shadow and contrast to focus strongly on the subject of a painting is called [[tenebrism]].

Further specialized uses of the term include [[chiaroscuro woodcut]] for colour woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink; and chiaroscuro for drawings on coloured paper in a dark medium with white highlighting.<ref>Iris Brahms (ed.): Gezeichnete Evidentia. Zeichnungen auf kolorierten Papieren in Süd und Nord von 1400 bis 1700, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2022, {{ISBN|978-3-11-063449-5}}</ref>

Chiaroscuro originated in the Renaissance period but is most notably associated with Baroque art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chiaroscuro in Art: What Is the Chiaroscuro Technique? |url=https://www.masterclass.com/articles/chiaroscuro-in-art}}</ref> Chiaroscuro is one of the [[canonical painting modes of the Renaissance]] (alongside [[cangiante]], [[sfumato]] and [[unione]]) (see also [[Renaissance art]]). Artists known for using the technique include [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Caravaggio]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.carredartistes.com/en-us/blog/caravaggio-between-shadows-and-light|title=Caravaggio, between shadows and light|website=www.carredartistes.com|language=en|access-date=2019-01-22}}</ref> [[Rembrandt]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Color and Technique in Renaissance Painting: Italy and the North|last=Hall|first=Marcia B.|date=1987|publisher=J.J. Augustin|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://emptyeasel.com/2007/07/20/chiaroscuro-in-painting-the-power-of-light-and-dark/|title=Chiaroscuro in Painting: The Power of Light and Dark|date=2007-07-20|website=EmptyEasel.com|access-date=2019-01-22}}</ref> [[Johannes Vermeer|Vermeer]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artble.com/artists/johannes_vermeer|title=Johannes Vermeer|website=Artble|language=en|access-date=2019-01-22}}</ref> [[Francisco Goya|Goya]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.enforex.com/culture/art-francisco-goya.html|title=Francisco Goya – Spanish Culture|website=www.enforex.com|access-date=2019-01-22}}</ref> and [[Georges de La Tour]].

==History==
===Origin in the chiaroscuro drawing===
[[File:Christ at Rest, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|left|''Christ at Rest'', by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], 1519, a chiaroscuro drawing using pen, ink, and brush, washes, white heightening, on ochre prepared paper]]
The term ''chiaroscuro'' originated during the [[Renaissance]] as drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper's base tone toward light using white [[gouache]], and toward dark using ink, [[bodycolour]] or [[watercolour]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080421003620/http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/fogg/drawingglossary.html#C#C Harvard Art Museum glossary] (accessed 30 August 2007). See also Metropolitan external link</ref><ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/recent_acquisitions/1998/co_rec_eur_1998_15.asp Example from the Metropolitan] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220055933/http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/recent_acquisitions/1998/co_rec_eur_1998_15.asp |date=December 20, 2008 }}</ref> These in turn drew on traditions in [[illuminated manuscript]]s going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on [[Purple parchment|purple-dyed vellum]]. Such works are called "'''chiaroscuro drawings'''", but may only be described in modern museum terminology by such formulae as "pen on prepared paper, heightened with white bodycolour".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/holbein/rooms/room8.htm|title=Holbein in England – Tate|work=tate.org.uk|access-date=2012-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217103201/http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/holbein/rooms/room8.htm|archive-date=2011-12-17}}</ref> Chiaroscuro woodcuts began as imitations of this technique.<ref>David Landau & Peter Parshall, ''The Renaissance Print'', pp.&nbsp;180–84; Yale, 1996, {{ISBN|0-300-06883-2}} – discusses these at length. Also see Metropolitan external link.</ref> When discussing Italian art, the term sometimes is used to mean painted images in monochrome or two colours, more generally known in English by the French equivalent, [[grisaille]]. The term broadened in meaning early on to cover all strong contrasts in [[Illumination (image)|illumination]] between light and dark areas in art, which is now the primary meaning.

===Chiaroscuro modelling===
[[File:Raffael 045 detail .jpg|thumb|right|Detail of ''[[La Fornarina]]'' (1518–19) by [[Raphael]], shows delicate modelling chiaroscuro in the body of the model, for example in the shoulder, breast, and arm on the right]]
The more technical use of the term chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in [[painting]], [[drawing]], or [[printmaking]], where three-dimensional volume is suggested by the value gradation of colour and the analytical division of light and shadow shapes—often called "[[shading]]". The invention of these effects in the West, [[Sciography|"''skiagraphia''"]] or "shadow-painting" to the Ancient Greeks, traditionally was ascribed to the famous Athenian painter of the fifth century BC, [[Apollodorus (painter)|Apollodoros]]. Although few Ancient Greek paintings survive, their understanding of the effect of light modelling still may be seen in the late-fourth-century BC mosaics of [[Pella]], Macedonia, in particular the ''[[Stag Hunt Mosaic]]'', in the House of the Abduction of Helen, inscribed ''gnosis epoesen'', or 'knowledge did it'.

The technique also survived in rather crude standardized form in [[Byzantine art]] and was refined again in the [[Middle Ages]] to become standard by the early fifteenth-century in painting and [[manuscript illumination]] in Italy and Flanders, and then spread to all Western art.

According to the theory of the art historian [[Marcia B. Hall]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Marcia B.|title=Color and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting|date=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York, N.Y.|isbn=978-0-521-45733-0}}</ref> which has gained considerable acceptance,<ref>{{cite web|title=Four Canonical Painting Modes by APA|url=http://artpaintingartist.org/the-four-canonical-painting-modes-of-the-renaissance/}}. Retrieved June 18, 2015.</ref> chiaroscuro is one of four modes of painting colours available to Italian [[High Renaissance]] painters, along with ''[[cangiante]]'', [[sfumato]] and ''[[unione]]''.<ref>Hall, Marcia B., ''Rome'' (series "Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance"), pp.&nbsp;148–150, 2005, Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-521-62445-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gt5gtrqoKOIC&pg=PA148 google books]</ref>

The Raphael painting illustrated, with light coming from the left, demonstrates both delicate modelling chiaroscuro to give volume to the body of the model, and strong chiaroscuro in the more common sense, in the contrast between the well-lit model and the very dark background of foliage. To further complicate matters, however, the compositional chiaroscuro of the contrast between model and background probably would not be described using this term, as the two elements are almost completely separated. The term is mostly used to describe compositions where at least some principal elements of the main composition show the transition between light and dark, as in the Baglioni and Geertgen tot Sint Jans paintings illustrated above and below.

Chiaroscuro modelling is now taken for granted, but it has had some opponents; namely: the English [[portrait miniaturist]] [[Nicholas Hilliard]] cautioned in his treatise on painting against all but the minimal use we see in his works, reflecting the views of his patron Queen [[Elizabeth I of England]]: "seeing that best to show oneself needeth no shadow of place but rather the open light... Her Majesty... chose her place to sit for that purpose in the open alley of a goodly garden, where no tree was near, nor any shadow at all..."<ref>Quotation from Hilliard's ''Art of Limming'', c. 1600, in ''Nicholas Hilliard'', [[Roy Strong]], 2002, p.&nbsp;24, Michael Joseph Ltd, London, {{ISBN|0-7181-1301-2}}</ref>

In drawings and prints, modelling chiaroscuro often is achieved by the use of [[hatching]], or shading by parallel lines. Washes, [[stipple]] or dotting effects, and "[[surface tone]]" in printmaking are other techniques.

===Chiaroscuro woodcuts===
[[File:Mary Coriolano2.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Chiaroscuro woodcut of the Virgin and Child by [[Bartolommeo Coriolano]], created between 1630 and 1655 (digitally restored)]]

Chiaroscuro woodcuts are [[old master print]]s in [[woodcut]] using two or more blocks printed in different colours; they do not necessarily feature strong contrasts of light and dark. They were first produced to achieve similar effects to chiaroscuro drawings. After some early experiments in book-printing, the true chiaroscuro woodcut conceived for two blocks was probably first invented by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] in Germany in 1508 or 1509, though he backdated some of his first prints and added tone blocks to some prints first produced for monochrome printing, swiftly followed by [[Hans Burgkmair the Elder]].<ref>Landau and Parshall, 179–192; ''Renaissance Impressions: Chiaroscuro Woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and the Albertina, Vienna'', [[Royal Academy]], London, March–June 2014, exhibition guide.</ref> The [[formschneider]] or block-cutter who worked in the press of [[Johannes Schott]] in [[Strasbourg]] is claimed to be the first one to achieve chiaroscuro woodcuts with three blocks.<!-- doubted by modern sources --><ref name=steiff>{{cite book |last=Steiff |chapter=Schott, Johannes|title=Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie |volume=32 |year=1891 |pages=402–404 |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd124577008.html#adbcontent  |access-date=11 August 2021 |language=de}}</ref> Despite [[Vasari]]'s claim for Italian precedence in [[Ugo da Carpi]], it is clear that his, the first Italian examples, date to around 1516<ref>Landau and Parshall, 150</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wdct/ho_17.50.1.htm |title=Ugo da Carpi after Parmigianino: Diogenes (17.50.1) &#124; Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History &#124; The Metropolitan Museum of Art |publisher=Metmuseum.org |date=2012-02-03 |access-date=2012-02-18}}</ref> But other sources suggest, the first chiaroscuro woodcut to be the ''Triumph of Julius Caesar'', which was created by [[Andrea Mantegna]], an Italian painter, between 1470 and 1500.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Italian Renaissance and Cultural Memory |last=Emison |first=Patricia A. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-00526-6 |location=New York |pages=105–107}}</ref> Another view states that: "Lucas Cranach backdated two of his works in an attempt to grab the glory" and that the technique was invented "in all probability" by Burgkmair "who was commissioned by the emperor Maximilian to find a cheap and effective way of getting the imperial image widely disseminated as he needed to drum up money and support for a crusade".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/11/revolutionary-chiaroscuro-woodcuts-british-exhibition | work=The Guardian | first=Mark | last=Brown | title=Revolutionary chiaroscuro woodcuts win first British exhibition | date=11 March 2014|access-date=11 March 2014}}</ref>

Other [[printmaker]]s who have used this technique include [[Hans Wechtlin]], [[Hans Baldung Grien]], and [[Parmigianino]]. In Germany, the technique achieved its greatest popularity around 1520, but it was used in Italy throughout the sixteenth century. Later artists such as [[Hendrick Goltzius|Goltzius]] sometimes made use of it. In most German two-block prints, the keyblock (or "line block") was printed in black and the tone block or blocks had flat areas of colour. In Italy, chiaroscuro woodcuts were produced without keyblocks to achieve a very different effect.<ref>David Landau & Peter Parshall, ''The Renaissance Print'', pp. 179–202; 273–81 & passim; Yale, 1996, {{ISBN|0-300-06883-2}}</ref>

===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.

===17th and 18th centuries===
[[File:Peter Paul Rubens - De kruisoprichting.JPG|thumb|right|upright|[[Peter Paul Rubens]]'s ''The Elevation of the Cross'' (1610–1611) is modelled with dynamic chiaroscuro.]]
Tenebrism was especially practiced in [[Spain]] and the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of [[Naples]], by [[Jusepe de Ribera]] and his followers. [[Adam Elsheimer]] (1578–1610), a German artist living in Rome, produced several night scenes lit mainly by fire, and sometimes moonlight. Unlike Caravaggio's, his dark areas contain very subtle detail and interest. The influences of Caravaggio and Elsheimer were strong on [[Peter Paul Rubens]], who exploited their respective approaches to tenebrosity for dramatic effect in paintings such as ''[[The Elevation of the Cross (Rubens)|The Raising of the Cross]]'' (1610–1611). [[Artemisia Gentileschi]] (1593–1656), a Baroque artist who was a follower of Caravaggio, was also an outstanding exponent of tenebrism and chiaroscuro.

A particular genre that developed was the nocturnal scene lit by candlelight, which looked back to earlier northern artists such as Geertgen tot Sint Jans and more immediately, to the innovations of Caravaggio and Elsheimer. This theme played out with many artists from the [[Low Countries]] in the first few decades of the seventeenth century, where it became associated with the [[Utrecht Caravaggisti]] such as [[Gerrit van Honthorst]] and [[Dirck van Baburen]], and with [[Flemish Baroque painter]]s such as [[Jacob Jordaens]]. [[Rembrandt van Rijn]]'s (1606–1669) early works from the 1620s also adopted the single-candle light source. The nocturnal candle-lit scene re-emerged in the [[Dutch Republic]] in the mid-seventeenth century on a smaller scale in the works of [[fijnschilder]]s such as [[Gerrit Dou]] and [[Gottfried Schalken]].

[[File:Gerrit van Honthorst - De koppelaarster.jpg|thumb|left|''The Matchmaker'' by [[Gerrit van Honthorst]], 1625]]
Rembrandt's own interest in effects of darkness shifted in his mature works. He relied less on the sharp contrasts of light and dark that marked the Italian influences of the earlier generation, a factor found in his mid-seventeenth-century etchings. In that medium he shared many similarities with his contemporary in Italy, [[Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione]], whose work in [[printmaking]] led him to invent the [[monotyping|monotype]].

Outside the Low Countries, artists such as [[Georges de La Tour]] and [[Trophime Bigot]] in France and [[Joseph Wright of Derby]] in England, carried on with such strong, but graduated, candlelight chiaroscuro. [[Watteau]] used a gentle chiaroscuro in the leafy backgrounds of his [[fêtes galantes]], and this was continued in paintings by many French artists, notably [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard|Fragonard]]. At the end of the century [[Fuseli]] and others used a heavier chiaroscuro for romantic effect, as did [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]] and others in the nineteenth century.

==Use of the term==
[[File:Wright of Derby, The Orrery.jpg|thumb|[[Joseph Wright of Derby]] painted several large groups with strong chiaroscuro, such as ''[[A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery]]'', 1766]]
The French use of the term, {{lang|fr|'''clair-obscur'''}}, was introduced by the seventeenth-century art-critic [[Roger de Piles]] in the course of a famous argument (''Débat sur le coloris''), on the relative merits of drawing and colour in painting (his ''Dialogues sur le coloris'', 1673,<ref>Le rubénisme en Europe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Volume 16 of Museums at the Crossroads, Michèle-Caroline Heck, University of Michigan, Brepols, 2005</ref> was a key contribution to the ''Débat'').

In English, the Italian term has been used{{mdash}}originally as {{lang|it|claro-obscuro}} and {{lang|it|chiaro-scuro}}<ref>{{citation |last= |first= |editor-last=Smellie |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Smellie |display-editors=0 |contribution=[[:s:Encyclopædia Britannica, First Edition/Chiaro-Scuro|Chiaro-Scuro]] |title=[[:s:EB1|Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |edition=1st |volume=II |date=1771 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=[[Colin Macfarquhar]] }}.</ref>{{mdash}}since at least the late seventeenth century. The term is less frequently used of art after the late nineteenth century, although the [[Expressionist]] and other modern movements make great use of the effect.

Especially since the strong twentieth-century rise in the reputation of Caravaggio, in non-specialist use the term is mainly used for strong chiaroscuro effects such as his, or Rembrandt's. As the [[Tate]] puts it: "Chiaroscuro is generally only remarked upon when it is a particularly prominent feature of the work, usually when the artist is using extreme contrasts of light and shade".<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/chiaroscuro Tate Glossary]. Retrieved 30 August 2007.</ref><ref>For the history of the term, see {{cite book|last=Verbraeken|first=René|title=Clair-obscur, histoire d'un mot|year=1979|publisher=J. Laget|location=Nogent-le-Roi|isbn=2-85497-021-7}}</ref>

==Cinema and photography==
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''Chiaroscuro'' is used in cinematography for extreme [[low key]] and high-contrast lighting to create distinct areas of light and darkness in films, especially in black and white films. Classic examples are ''[[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]]'' (1920), ''[[Nosferatu]]'' (1922), ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' (1927) ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' (1939), ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (film)|The Devil and Daniel Webster]]'' (1941), and the black and white scenes in [[Andrei Tarkovsky]]'s ''[[Stalker (1979 film)|Stalker]]'' (1979).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://perfectpicturelights.com/blog/chiaroscurro-in-german-expressionism|title=Chiaroscurro in German Expressionism}}</ref>

For example, in ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', chiaroscuro lighting creates contrast between light and dark [[mise-en-scene]] and figures. The effect highlights the differences between the capitalist elite and the workers.

In [[photography]], chiaroscuro can be achieved by using "[[Rembrandt lighting]]". In more highly developed photographic processes, the technique may be termed "ambient/natural lighting", although when done so for the effect, the look is artificial and not generally documentary in nature. In particular, [[Bill Henson]] along with others, such as [[W. Eugene Smith]], [[Josef Koudelka]], [[Lothar Wolleh]], [[Annie Leibovitz]], [[Floria Sigismondi]], and [[Ralph Gibson]] may be considered some of the modern masters of chiaroscuro in documentary photography.

[[File:Barry12.jpg|thumb|Still from [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s 1975 film ''[[Barry Lyndon]]'', some of which was shot using only candlelight]]

Perhaps the most direct use of chiaroscuro in filmmaking is [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s 1975 film ''[[Barry Lyndon]]''.<ref>"Victorian Studies Bulletin". Northeast Victorian Studies Association, v. 9–11, 1985. 1984</ref> When informed that no lens then had a sufficiently wide aperture to shoot a costume drama set in grand palaces using only candlelight, Kubrick bought and retrofitted a special lens for the purpose: a modified Mitchell BNC camera and a Zeiss lens manufactured for the rigors of [[space photography]], with a maximum aperture of [[f-stop|f/0.7]]. The natural, unaugmented lighting of the sets in the film exemplified low-key, natural lighting in filmwork at its most extreme, outside of the Eastern European/Soviet filmmaking tradition (itself exemplified by the harsh low-key lighting style employed by Soviet filmmaker [[Sergei Eisenstein]]).

[[Sven Nykvist]], the longtime collaborator of [[Ingmar Bergman]], also informed much of his photography with chiaroscuro realism, as did [[Gregg Toland]], who influenced such cinematographers as [[László Kovács (cinematographer)|László Kovács]], [[Vilmos Zsigmond]], and [[Vittorio Storaro]] with his use of deep and selective focus augmented with strong horizon-level key lighting penetrating through windows and doorways. Much of the celebrated [[film noir]] tradition relies on techniques related to chiaroscuro that Toland perfected in the early 1930s (though [[high-key lighting]], stage lighting, frontal lighting, and other film noir effects are interspersed in ways that diminish the chiaroscuro claim).

==Gallery==
Chiaroscuro in modelling; paintings
<gallery>
File:Fra Angelico 005.jpg|[[Fra Angelico]] c. 1450 uses chiaroscuro modelling in all elements of the painting
File:Sandro Botticelli 054.jpg|''[[Saint Sebastian]]'' by [[Botticelli]], 1474
File:Retrato de Juan Pareja, by Diego Velázquez.jpg|''[[Portrait of Juan de Pareja]]'', c. 1650 by [[Diego Velázquez]], uses subtle highlights and shading on the face and clothes
File:Johannes Vermeer - Het melkmeisje - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[The Milkmaid (Vermeer)|The Milkmaid]]'' c. 1658, by [[Johannes Vermeer]], whose use of light to model throughout his compositions is exceptionally complex and delicate
</gallery>

Chiaroscuro in modelling; prints and drawings
<gallery>
File:Meckenem.jpg|Delicate engraved lines of hatching and cross-hatching, not all distinguishable in reproduction, are used to model the faces and clothes in this late-fifteenth-century [[engraving]]
File:Herkules und Antäus (Mantegna).jpg|Another fifteenth-century engraving showing highlights and shading, all in lines in the original, used to depict volume
File:Study of Arms and Hands.jpg|Drawing by [[Leonardo da Vinci]]
File:Study for the Kneeling Leda.jpg|Another study by Leonardo, where the linear make-up of the shading is easily seen in reproduction
</gallery>

Chiaroscuro as a major element in composition: painting
<gallery widths="120px" heights="120px" perrow="4">
File:Domenico Beccafumi 070.jpg|''[[Annunciation]]'' by [[Domenico Beccafumi]], 1545–46
File:El Greco - Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Company of Ape and Fool (Fábula).JPG|''Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Company of Ape and Fool'' by [[El Greco]], 1589–1592
File:Caravaggio-Crucifixion of Peter.jpg|''[[Crucifixion of St. Peter (Caravaggio)|Crucifixion of St. Peter]]'' by [[Caravaggio]], 1600
File:Adam Elsheimer - Die Flucht nach Ägypten (Alte Pinakothek) 2.jpg|''The Flight to Egypt'' by [[Adam Elsheimer]], 1609
File:Rembrandt van Rijn "Petrus in de gevangenis" (St. Peter in prison).jpg|''St. Peter in prison'' by [[Rembrandt]], 1631
File:Judith Leyster The Proposition.jpg|''[[The Proposition (painting)|The Proposition]]'' by [[Judith Leyster]], 1631
File:Georges de La Tour 007.jpg|''[[Magdalene with the Smoking Flame]]'', by [[Georges de La Tour]], c. 1640
File:Bal26151-Jan-Both.jpg|Landscape chiaroscuro, [[Jan Both]], 1646
File:Gerard van Honthorst 002.jpg|''[[Adoration of the Shepherds (Stom)|Adoration of the Shepherds]]'' by [[Matthias Stom]], mid-17th century
File:Antoine Watteau - La Partie carrée.jpg|[[Antoine Watteau]] – ''La Partie carrée'', c. 1713
File:An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768.jpg|''[[An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump]]'' by [[Joseph Wright of Derby]], 1768
File:Jean-Honoré Fragonard 009.jpg|''[[The Bolt (Fragonard)|The Bolt]]'' by [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]], c. 1777
File:Goya Christ.jpg|''Christ on the Mount of Olives'' by [[Francisco Goya]], 1819
</gallery>

Chiaroscuro as a major element in composition: photography
<gallery widths="120" heights="120" perrow="4">
File:Golden Retriever Carlos im Wald (10580536693).jpg
File:Bembel With Care (167479007).jpeg
File:Woman (Imagicity 501).jpg
</gallery>

Chiaroscuro faces
<gallery>
File:José de Ribera 011.jpg|''Saint Jerome'' by [[José de Ribera]], 1652
File:Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - An Old Man in Red.JPG|''An Old Man in Red'', by [[Rembrandt]], 1652–1654
File:The Knitting Woman painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.jpg|''[[The Knitting Girl]]'' by [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]], 1869
File:Millais - Self-Portrait.jpg|''Self-Portrait'' by [[John Everett Millais]], 1881
</gallery>

Chiaroscuro drawings and woodcuts
<gallery>
File:Springinklee schmerzensmann.jpg|''[[Man of Sorrows]]'', chiaroscuro drawing on coloured paper, 1516, by [[Hans Springinklee]]
File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Study of a Seated Veiled Female Figure (19th Century).png|A nineteenth-century version of the original type of chiaroscuro drawing, with coloured paper, white gouache highlights, and pencil shading
File:5316 bassenge saturn.jpg|[[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]], anon. Italian, sixteenth-century?, Italian style chiaroscuro woodcut, with four blocks, but no real line block, and looking rather like a watercolour
File:5049 bassenge chiaroscuro.jpg|[[Ludolph Buesinck]], Aeneas carries his father, German style, with line block and brown tone block
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Light-and-shade watermark]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* David Landau & Peter Parshall, ''The Renaissance Print'', pp.&nbsp;179–202; 273–81 & passim; Yale, 1996, {{ISBN|0-300-06883-2}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wdct/hd_wdct.htm Chiaroscuro Woodcut from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070625130531/http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/collection/print/maps/zanmap.shtml Chiaroscuro woodcut] from Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas
* [http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/s-chiaro.html (Modelling) chiaroscuro from Evansville University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212214343/http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/s-chiaro.html |date=December 12, 2008 }}

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[[Category:Visual arts terminology]]
[[Category:Artistic techniques]]
[[Category:Italian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Composition in visual art]]
[[Category:Shadows]]