Characteristics

Tenebrism was another technique used by several Baroque painters, popularized and believed to have started by Caravaggio. It mainly focuses on the darker areas of a painting. The term originates from the Italian word, tenebroso, which in turn originates from the Latin, tenebra, meaning “darkness”. Other words related to this terms are gloomy and mysterious. It sought to create what is referred to as the “spotlight” effect, also called “dramatic illumination”.

It’s different from Chiaroscuro4 , an Italian term that means “light-dark”. It focuses on defining contrasts in painting. This technique started in the Renaissance period, but it was the way Caravaggio utilized it that it became a popular characteristic of the Baroque period. With the strong emphasis on dark and light within his compositions, the viewer almost becomes a part of the event portrayed in the painting. Like the image on the left, the contrast of the shadows to the light source is very intense.

Another element to note is the usage of fruit and flowers, which is reminiscent of a vanitas5 painting. Vanitas is the Latin for vanity, in the sense of emptiness or a worthless action. It alludes to the morality preached by the Baroque era, which cautions against vanity as beauty is only fleeting. It was a common theme during this period of time in paintings. Caravaggio is a well-known painter that had various vanitas painting or the reference to.

In the image on the right, the figure wears a somber expression, with light shining on the right, illuminating half of her face. It almost immediately guides the viewer to the details of her face and clothing. Using this beaming light sort of technique was often used as well in paintings. An example would be the one below titled "The Calling of

Saint Matthew". The beam of light, which enters the picture from the direction of a real window, expresses in the blink of an eye the conversion of St. Matthew. Jesus is pointing towards him with the use of the light. This technique makes up for the lack of angel and clouds usually depicted in religious paintings like these. For this example, the artist uses chiaroscuro and not tenebrism despite how dark the image is. This is because an image isn't truly tenebrism if we have some sort of background and sense of environment. As stated in previous pages, tenebrism is achieved through a more intense, "spotlight" effect.

One of the ways in which artists enticed the eye was through the use of subtle diagonals. This creates a feeling of movement and complexity that is more interesting to the eye than straight lines. For this reason, many paintings of the Baroque period are either composed on diagonals or with figures forming triangular shapes. One of the most distinctive features of Baroque paintings is that they were often painted on dark surfaces. As many appeared as decorations in churches they would often be painted directly onto dark wood. However, even those not created for churches were typically executed on black canvases As a result, colors were more muted than those painted on white backgrounds. These muted colors gave the paintings an ambiance of mystery and emotion. . Due to the fact that most Baroque artists painted upon dark surfaces, many made use of a technique called scumbling 6 . Scumbling is when a thin layer of light-colored paint is applied over a dark background, like the painting above.This creates a blended gradient, which is particularly useful for creating shadows. Scumbling also gives depth to a painting because the paint of the highlights is thicker, which gives a three-dimensional effect.