Chiaroscuro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other use of the term, see Chiaroscuro (disambiguation).
An element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a bold contrast between light and dark (see illumination).
The French use of the term, clair-obscur, was introduced by the seventeenth century art-critic Roger de Piles in the course of a famous argument on the relative merits of drawing and color in painting. ("Débat sur le coloris")
A certain amount of chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting, where three-dimensional volume is suggested by highlights and shadow, effects fully developed in fifteenth-century painting in Italy and Flanders. But true chiaroscuro was developed during the sixteenth century, in Mannerism and in Baroque art. 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 (1573-1610), the last of whom was essential in developing the slightly different style of tenebrism.
Chiaroscuro woodcuts do not necessarily feature strong contrasts of light and dark, but are old master prints in woodcut using two or more blocks printed in different colours. They were first invented by Hans Burgkmair in Germany in 1508, and first made in Italy by Ugo da Carpi a few years later.[1] Other printmakers to use the technique include Cranach , Hans Baldung Grien and Parmigianino. In Germany the technique was only in use for a few years, but Italians continued to use it throughout the sixteenth century, and later artists like Goltzius sometimes made use of it. In the German style, one block usually had only lines and is called the "line block", whilst the other block or blocks had flat areas of colour and are called "tone blocks". The Italians usually used only tone blocks, for a very different effect.
Chiaroscuro is also used in cinematography to indicate extreme low-key lighting to create distinct areas of light and darkness in films.
Frank Miller's Sin City is an example of this style in both the graphic novel and the subsequent film, as is the David Lloyd/Alan Moore book V for Vendetta and Mike Mignola's Hellboy.
In the novelization of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, "Chiaroscuro" is the name of the chapter in which Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Emperor and Yoda, battle in separate lightsaber duels.
In Photography, chiaroscuro is often effected with the use of "Rembrandt lighting".
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[edit] Examples
Chiaroscuro faces
 The Knitting Woman by William-Adolphe Bouguereau |
 Saint Jerome by José de Ribera |
 An Old Man in Red by Rembrandt |
 Self-Portrait by John Everett Millais |
Chiaroscuro scenes
 Crucifixion of Peter by Caravaggio |
 detail of "Birth of the Virgin" by Domenico Beccafumi |
 Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Company of Ape and Fool by El Greco |
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 The Matchmaker by Gerrit van Honthorst |
 The Proposition by Judith Leyster |
 St. Peter in prison by Rembrandt |
 Mary Magdalene, by Georges de La Tour |
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