These in turn drew on traditions in illuminated manuscripts going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on purple-dyed vellum. 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. Artists known for using the technique include Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio Rembrandt, Vermeer and Goya, and Georges de la Tour.Ĭhrist at Rest, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1519, a chiaroscuro drawing using pen, ink, and brush, washes, white heightening, on ochre prepared paper Similar effects in cinema, and black and white and low-key photography, are also called chiaroscuro.įurther specialized uses of the term include chiaroscuro woodcut for coloured woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink and chiaroscuro drawing for drawings on coloured paper in a dark medium with white highlighting.Ĭhiaroscuro is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance (alongside cangiante, sfumato and unione) (see also Renaissance art). It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures. 1602–1603, showing dramatic compositional chiaroscuroĬhiaroscuro ( English: / k i ˌ ɑːr ə ˈ s k( j) ʊər oʊ/ kee- AR-ə- SKOOR-oh, -⁠ SKURE-, Italian: Italian for 'light-dark'), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.

Art of illusion x marks the spot