chiaroscuro

     

Chiaroscuro (Italian for clear-ark) is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. The term is usually applied to bold contrasts affecting a whole composition, but is also more technically used by artists and art historians for the use of effects representing contrasts of light, not necessarily strong, to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human body. Further specialised uses of the term are "chiaroscuro woodcut", used for coloured woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink, and "chiaroscuro drawing" used for drawings on coloured paper with drawing in a dark medium and white highlighting. The term is now also used in describing similar effects in the lighting of cinema and photography.

Trivia about chiaroscuro

  • This Italian term meaning the balance of light & shade is often used of Rembrandt's paintings
  • Here we see mastery of this technique from the Italian for "bright and dark", used to create a 3-D effect

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