Tenebrism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A painting technique that relies on intense contrasts between deep shadow and bright light to create a dramatic mood
2. An artistic style in which strong chiaroscuro dominates the composition, with most of the canvas plunged into darkness
3. The manner of painting marked by stark light-and-dark contrast, often used to heighten emotion and focus attention

Etymology: Tenebrism is a painting term, and its history begins with an Italian word for darkness. The Latin "tenebrosus" meant "dark" or "gloomy," and Italian turned it into "tenebroso," an adjective for something shadowy or murky. Adding the Italian suffix "-ismo," which forms names of movements, styles and doctrines, produced "tenebrismo," a label for a manner of painting rather than a description of a room or a mood. The word then passed into English. The style it names, in which a painting is lit by a sharp beam against an otherwise near-black background, is most closely associated with Italian and Spanish painters of the seventeenth century, so the term reads as a critical name given to a manner after the fact. In English it stays a technical word of art history, used when discussing those dramatic chiaroscuro effects.

Synonyms: chiaroscuro