This document discusses chiaroscuro, an Italian term meaning light and dark. During the Renaissance, artists began using shading techniques to add volume to drawings and paintings. Specifically, chiaroscuro refers to using value gradation of color and dividing light and shadow shapes to suggest three-dimensional volume. Strong chiaroscuro became popular during the 16th century and was used by artists like Caravaggio, who developed tenebrism using dramatic contrasts between light and dark. Tenebrism was particularly practiced in Spain and Naples.

1. ART 3º ESO Bilingual Section
UNIT 3 “LIGHT & SHADOWS”
Chiaroscuro /kiˌɑːrəˈskjʊəroʊ/
This term comes from Italian Renaissance, and means light and dark.
During Renaissance, artists begun to use shading to increase the sense of volume in drawings and
paintings.
Chiaroscuro modelling
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".
Strong chiaroscuro became a popular effect 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 used by Caravaggio (1573–1610), who was crucial in
developing the style of tenebrism, which is a dramatic, strong chiaroscuro style.
Tenebrism was especially practiced in Spain and the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples, by Jusepe
de Ribera and his followers.
Chiaroscuro
Tenebrism
Renaissance
Printmaking
Suggested website: http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/s-chiaro.html
A shaft of light