Chiaroscuro facts for kids
Chiaroscuro in art is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark.
This is usually done to make the composition a lot more dramatic. It is also a technical term used by art historians and artists for the contrast of light. It gives a sense of volume when modelling three-dimensional (or 3D) figures. Similar effects used in photography and cinematography are also called chiaroscuro.
Images for kids
-
Giovanni Baglione. Sacred and Profane Love. 1602–1603, showing dramatic compositional chiaroscuro
-
Christ at Rest, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1519, a chiaroscuro drawing using pen, ink, and brush, washes, white heightening, on ochre prepared paper
-
Chiaroscuro woodcut of the Virgin and Child by Bartolommeo Coriolano, created between 1630 and 1655 (digitally restored)
-
Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490, after a composition by Hugo van der Goes of c. 1470; sources of light are the infant Jesus, the shepherds' fire on the hill behind, and the angel who appears to them.
-
Peter Paul Rubens's The Elevation of the Cross (1610–1611) is modelled with dynamic chiaroscuro.
-
Joseph Wright of Derby painted several large groups with strong chiaroscuro, such as A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, 1766
-
Still from Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon, some of which was shot using only candlelight
