Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro ( Italian for " light-dark " ), chiaroscuro painting, also French: chiaroscuro, called a developed in the late Renaissance and Baroque design elements of graphic design and painting, which was characterized by strong light-dark contrasts and both of the increase of the spatial and of the expression used.

  • 3.1 chiaroscuro (painting)
  • 3.2 chiaroscuro (woodcut)

Term

Chiaroscuro is the Germanization of the artistic style concept of chiaroscuro; meant are the times and ways of seeing the painting in particular of the Baroque, as they can be identified, for example, in Caravaggio and Rembrandt van Rijn. In contrast to the soft sfumato of Leonardo went to the painters of the 16th and 17th centuries, especially by the dramatic expression that could be achieved in the oil painting by the light gerückte subjects against a dark background.

Uses and effects

The artist uses the effect of light and shadow to model the body and forms clearer and to emphasize in their space in order to increase dramatic effect or to create an expressive mood. The nuances in the gradation of brightness values ​​range from gehöhten games up to highlights and shadows.

Painting

One of the first artists who intensely grappled with the relationship between light source to the subject It is lit and the conditions of light and shade, Leonardo da Vinci was. He distinguished between luce ( light) technology for spotlighting and lumen ( light body ) for the outgoing light from Lit, as well as natural and artificial light. About the effects of chiaroscuro Leonardo lifted out the bare body like the face, while a smoky, misty veil soft light began for the transparent atmosphere and reached through this sfumato shades of the background up to the resolution of the contours.

A particularly dramatic form - called Tenebrismo - Caravaggio developed shortly before 1600, who used hard, directional light to differentiate the characters from the environment and its internal tensions increased to express. Rembrandt van Rijn used chiaroscuro effects in many of his prints and paintings, in particular to reflect emotional sensibilities. Georges de la Tour, Peter Paul Rubens, Francisco de Zurbaran and Diego Velazquez were also masters of this technique.

Graphics and Drawing

Chiaroscuro drawing on colored paper are those with a dark color and white highlights that make the objects appear three-dimensional. With woodcuts is denoted by chiaroscuro method, shadow effects and thus to generate plasticity in that different dark areas are printed by different wood blocks.

The chiaroscuro woodcut (light-dark - section) is a variant of woodcut technique, which achieves a picturesque effect, as is sought in the drawing. Aim of the process is there a chiaroscuro effect that can be achieved by brush or pen drawing technique on a colored background. Such drawings are characterized in that shadow areas are inked and by means of opaque white lights are placed, such as in so-called gehöhten drawings.

The printing is done by means of two to three different cut sticks. The first reflects the schwarzlinige drawing, the second one ( brightness ) tone. The third pressure floor can add a darker variant of the clay, which lies between the first and second printing block. The light effect is produced by the corresponding lit spaces are left blank on all printing plates by cutting. At these points, then the white of the paper color can be seen.

The Dutch Holzschneider Jost de Negker is considered the inventor of this method, which he applied for the first time in 1507.

Film and photography

The term chiaroscuro effect is also used to describe similar effects in film and photography. For the film noir of the " chiaroscuro " effect of great importance and is regarded as a characteristic feature of this style. As a creative tool for single shots, this effect is used in the low-key photograph with grazing light and deep shadows and achieved through a targeted underexposure.

Music

The chiaroscuro effect is a gradation effect in music. If tutti and solo passages (played in the concerto grosso by: Ripieno and Concertino ) alternate, then the volume changes only by the population differences.

Significant representatives

Chiaroscuro (painting)

  • Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
  • Antonio da Correggio (1489-1534)
  • Titian (c. 1490-1576 )
  • Caravaggio (1571-1610)
  • Simon Vouet (1590-1649)
  • Georges de la Tour (1593-1652)
  • Trophime Bigot (1597-1650)
  • Rembrandt (1606-1669)
  • Jan Vermeer van Delft (1632-1675)
  • Funds ( pupil of Rembrandt ) ( 1645-1727 )
  • Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797)

Clair- obscur (woodcut)

Pictures of Chiaroscuro

182629
de