Giovanni Baglione. Sacred and Profane Love. 1602–1603, showing dramatic compositional chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro (English pronunciation: /kiˌɑːrəˈskjʊəroʊ/, Italian: [kjarosˈkuːro] "light-dark") in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted".^[1]

Further specialized uses include chiaroscuro woodcut, for colored woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink; and chiaroscuro drawing for drawings on colored paper with drawing in a dark medium and white highlighting. Similar effects in the lighting of cinema and photography are also chiaroscuro.

History[link]

Origin in the chiaroscuro drawing[link]

Chiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance as drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper's base tone towards light using white gouache, and towards dark using ink, bodycolour or watercolour.^[2][3] These in turn drew on traditions in illuminated manuscripts, going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on purple-dyed vellum. Such works used to be called "chiaroscuro drawings", but are more often described in modern museum terminology by such formulae as "pen on prepared paper, heightened with white bodycolour".^[4] Chiaroscuro woodcuts began as imitations of this technique.^[5] When discussing Italian art, the term is sometimes used to mean painted images in monochrome or two colours, more generally known in English by the French equivalent, grisaille. The term early broadened in meaning to cover all strong contrasts in illumination between light and dark areas in art, which is now the primary meaning.

Chiaroscuro modelling[link]

"La Fornarina" by Raphael, shows delicate modelling chiaroscuro in the body of the model, for example in the shoulder, breast, and arm on the right.

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". The invention of these effects in the West, "skiagraphia" or "shadow-painting" to the Ancient Greeks, was traditionally ascribed to the famous Athenian painter of the 5th century BC, Apollodoros. Although virtually no Ancient Greek painting survives, their understanding of the effect of light modelling can still be seen in the late 4th century BC mosaics of Pella, Macedonia, in particular the Deer Hunt, in the House of the Abduction of Helen, inscribed gnosis epoesen, or 'knowledge did it'.

They also survived in rather crude standardized form in Byzantine art and were refined again in the Middle Ages to become standard by the early fifteenth-century in painting and manuscript illumination in Italy and Flanders, and then spread to all Western art. The Raphael painting illustrated, with light coming from the left, demonstrates both delicate modelling chiaroscuro to give volume to the body of the model, and also strong chiaroscuro in the more common sense in the contrast between the well-lit model and the very dark background of foliage. However, to further complicate matters, the compositional chiaroscuro of the contrast between model and background would probably not be described using this term, as the two elements are almost completely separated. The term is mostly used to describe compositions where at least some principal elements of the main composition show the transition between light and dark, as in the Baglioni and Geertgen tot Sint Jans paintings illustrated above and below.

Chiaroscuro modelling is now taken for granted, but had some opponents; the English portrait miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard cautioned in his treatise on painting against all but the minimal use we see in his works, reflecting the views of his patron Queen Elizabeth I of England:"seeing that best to show oneself needeth no shadow of place but rather the open light...Her Majesty..chose her place to sit for that purpose in the open alley of a goodly garden, where no tree was near, nor any shadow at all..."^[6]

In drawings and prints hatching, or shading by parallel lines, is often used to achieve modelling chiaroscuro. Washes, stipple or dotting effects, and "surface tone" in printmaking are other techniques.

Chiaroscuro woodcuts[link]

Chiaroscuro woodcut of the Virgin and Child by Bartolommeo Coriolano, created between 1630 and 1655. Digitally restored.

Chiaroscuro woodcuts do not necessarily feature strong contrasts of light and dark, but are old master prints in woodcut using two or more blocks printed in different colours. According to the one definition of the term, they were first invented by Lucas Cranach in Germany in 1507, and first made in Italy by Ugo da Carpi a=before 1516.^[7] Other printmakers to use the technique include Cranach, Hans Wechtlin, Hans Baldung Grien and Parmigianino. In Germany the technique peaked around 1520, but it was used in Italy throughout the sixteenth century. Later artists like Goltzius sometimes made use of it. In some German two-block prints, the keyblock (or "line block") was printed in black and the tone block or blocks had flat areas of colour. In Italy, chiaroscuri were produced without keyblocks to achieve a very different effect. They resembled the style of wash drawings also known as chiaroscuro.^[8]

Compositional chiaroscuro to Caravaggio[link]

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.

Manuscript illumination was, as in many areas, especially experimental in attempting ambitious lighting effects, as the results were not for public display. The development of compositional chiaroscuro received a considerable impetus in Northern Europe from the vision of the Nativity of Jesus of Saint Bridget of Sweden, a very popular mystic. She described the infant Jesus as emitting light himself; depictions increasingly reduced other light sources in the scene to emphasize this effect, and the Nativity remained very commonly treated with chiaroscuro through to the Baroque. Hugo van der Goes and his followers painted many scenes lit only by candle, or the divine light from the infant Christ. As with some later painters, in their hands the effect was of stillness and calm rather than the drama of the Baroque.

Strong chiaroscuro became a popular effect during the sixteenth century, in Mannerism and in Baroque art. Divine light continued to illuminate, often rather inadequately, the compositions of Tintoretto, Veronese and their many followers. Dark subjects dramatically lit by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source was a compositional device developed by Ugo da Carpi (c. 1455-c. 1523), Giovanni Baglione (1566–1643) and Caravaggio (1573–1610), the last of whom was crucial in developing the style of tenebrism, where dramatic chiaroscuro becomes a dominant stylistic device.

17th and 18th centuries[link]

The central panel of Peter Paul Rubens's The Elevation of the Cross (1610-1611)is modelled with dynamic chiaroscuro.

Tenebrism was especially practised in Spain and the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples, by Jusepe de Ribera and his followers. Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610), a German artist living in Rome, produced several night scenes lit mainly by fire, and sometimes moonlight. Unlike Caravaggio, his dark areas contain very subtle detail and interest. The influences of Caravaggio and Elsheimer were strong on Peter Paul Rubens, who exploited their respective approaches to tenebrosity for dramatic effect in paintings such as The Raising of the Cross (1610–1611).

A particular genre that developed was the nocturnal scene lit by candlelight, which looked back to earlier northern artists like Geertgen tot Sint Jans and more immediately to the innovations of Caravaggio and Elsheimer. This theme played out with many artists from the Low Countries in the first few decades of the 17th century, where it became associated with the Utrecht Caravaggisti like Gerrit van Honthorst and Dirck van Baburen, and with Flemish Baroque painters such as Jacob Jordaens. Rembrandt's early works from the 1620s also adopted the single-candle light source. The nocturnal candle-lit scene re-emerged in the Dutch Republic in the mid 17th century on a smaller scale in the works of fijnschilders such as Gerrit Dou and Gottfried Schalken.

The Matchmaker by Gerrit van Honthorst.

Rembrandt's own interest in effects of darkness shifted in his mature works. He relied less on the sharp contrasts of light and dark that marked the Italian influences of the earlier generation, a factor found in his mid-17th century etchings. In that medium he shared many similarities with his contemporary in Italy, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, whose work in printmaking led him to invent the monotype.

Outside the Low Countries, artists such as Georges de La Tour and Trophime Bigot in France and Joseph Wright of Derby in England, carried on with such strong, but graduated, candlelight chiaroscuro. Watteau used a gentle chiaroscuro in the leafy backgrounds of his fêtes galantes, and this was continued in pictures by many French artists, notably Fragonard. At the end of the century Fuseli and others used a heavier chiaroscuro for romantic effect, as did Delacroix and others in the nineteenth century.

Usage of the term[link]

Joseph Wright of Derby painted several large groups with strong chiaroscuro, like The Orrery

The French use of the term, clair-obscur, was introduced by the seventeenth century art-critic Roger de Piles in the course of a famous argument (Débat sur le coloris) on the relative merits of drawing and colour in painting (his Dialogues sur le coloris, 1673^[9] was a key contribution to the Débat). In English, the Italian term has been used since at least the late 17th century. The term is less often used of art after the late nineteenth century, although the Expressionist and other modern movements make great use of the effect. Especially since the strong 20th century rise in the reputation of Caravaggio, in non-specialist use the term is mainly used for strong chiaroscuro effects such as his, or Rembrandt's. As the Tate puts it: "Chiaroscuro is generally only remarked upon when it is a particularly prominent feature of the work, usually when the artist is using extreme contrasts of light and shade".^[10] Photography and cinema have also adopted the term. For the history of the term, see René Verbraeken, Clair-obscur, histoire d’un mot (Nogent-le-Roi, 1979).^[11]

Classical voice instructors describe the optimal balance of clearness and darkness in the singing voice tone as chiaroscuro: a combination of brightness and "ping" (brilliance and resonance) with warmth and depth i.e. the 'dark' colours (natural or manufactured) of the individual timbre. This technique is one of the main arsenals of dramatic singers especially useful in verismo operas e.g. Tosca, Pagliacci, and Cavalleria rusticana, where it can be used to great effect in recitatives and declamatory passages; it also allows more lyric voices to safely survive the strain of bread-and-butter lyrico-spinto roles such as Mario (Tosca). Famous examples include Zinka Milanov, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Franco Corelli, and Renata Scotto.

Cinema and photography[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Chiaroscuro is also used in cinematography to indicate extreme low-key lighting to create distinct areas of light and darkness in films, especially in black and white films. Classic examples are The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari(1920), Nosferatu(1922), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) and the black and white scenes in Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979).

In photography, chiaroscuro is often effected with the use of "Rembrandt lighting". In more highly-developed photographic processes, this technique may also be termed "ambient/natural lighting", although when done so for the effect, the look is artificial and not generally documentary in nature. W. Eugene Smith, Josef Koudelka, Garry Winogrand, Lothar Wolleh, Annie Leibovitz, Floria Sigismondi and Ralph Gibson may be considered some of the modern masters of chiaroscuro in documentary photography.

Perhaps the most direct personification of the intent of chiaroscuro in filmmaking, though, would be Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon,.^[12] When informed that no lens currently had a wide enough aperture to shoot a costume drama set in grand palaces using only candlelight, Kubrick bought and retrofitted a special lens for these purposes: a modified Mitchell BNC camera and a Zeiss lens manufactured for the rigors of space photography, with a maximum aperture of f/.7. The naturally unaugmented lighting situations in the film exemplified low-key, natural lighting in filmwork at its most extreme outside of the Eastern European/Soviet filmmaking tradition (itself exemplified by the harsh low-key lighting style employed by Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein).

Sven Nykvist, the longtime collaborator of Ingmar Bergman, also informed much of his photography with chiaroscuro realism, as well as Gregg Toland, who influenced such cinematographers as László Kovács, Vilmos Zsigmond, and Vittorio Storaro with his use of deep and selective focus augmented with strong horizon-level key lighting penetrating through windows and doorways. Much of the celebrated film noir tradition relies on techniques Toland perfected in the early thirties that are related to chiaroscuro (though high-key lighting, stage lighting, frontal lighting, and other effects are interspersed in ways that diminish the chiaroscuro claim).

Nature[link]

For a few hours leading up to the first quarter, lunar craters near the line separating lit from unlit areas of the moon form a X figure from the dark craters and their lit rims.^[13]

Gallery[link]

Chiaroscuro in modelling; Paintings

• 

  Fra Angelico in about 1450 already uses chiaroscuro modelling in all elements of the painting.

• 

  Saint Sebastian by Botticelli, 1474.

• 

  Velázquez uses subtle highlights and shading on the face and clothes.

• 

  The Milkmaid, Vermeer's use of light to model throughout his compositions is exceptionally complex and delicate.

Chiaroscuro in modelling; Prints and drawings

• 

  Delicate engraved lines of hatching and cross-hatching, not all distinguishable in reproduction, are used to model the faces and clothes in this late 15th century engraving

• 

  Another 15th-century engraving showing highlights and shading, all in lines in the original, used to depict volume.

• 

  Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

• 

  Another study by Leonardo, where the linear make-up of the shading is easily seen in reproduction.

Chiaroscuro as a major element in composition: painting

• 

  Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Company of Ape and Fool by El Greco

• 

  Annunciation by Domenico Beccafumi

• 

  Crucifixion of St. Peter by Caravaggio

• 

  The Flight to Egypt by Adam Elsheimer

• 

  Landscape chiaroscuro, Jan Both

• 

  Nativity by Gerard van Honthorst

• 

  Mary Magdalene, by Georges de La Tour

• 

  St. Peter in prison by Rembrandt

• 

  The Proposition by Judith Leyster

• 

  Antoine Watteau - La Partie carrée

• 

  Fragonard, The Lock, 1780

• 

  Goya, Christ on the Mount of Olives

Chiaroscuro as a major element in composition: photography

• 

  Portrait

• 

  Female nude study

• 

  figurenude study, monochrome

• 

  Hijab doll in shadow

• 

  Male nude light and shadow

Chiaroscuro faces

• 

  Saint Jerome by José de Ribera

• 

  An Old Man in Red by Rembrandt

• 

  Self-Portrait by John Everett Millais

• 

  The Knitting Girl by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Chiaroscuro drawings and woodcuts

• 

  Man of Sorrows, chiaroscuro drawing on coloured paper, 1516, by Hans Springinklee

• 

  A 19th-century version of the original type of chiaroscuro drawing, with coloured paper, white gouache highlights, and pencil shading.

• 

  Saturn, anon Italian, 16th? century. Italian style chiaroscuro woodcut, with four blocks, but no real line block, and looking rather like a watercolour.

• 

  Ludolph Buesinck, Aeneas carries his father. German style, with line block and brown tone block

See also[link]

• Ablaq
• Cangiante
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Sfumato
• Tenebrism

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chiaroscuro

Look up chiaroscuro in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Chiaroscuro Woodcut from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History
• Chiaroscuro woodcut from Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas
• (Modelling) chiaroscuro from Evansville University
• Tate, London glossary
• Suzanne Buchan article Animated Chiaroscuro, mostly on photograhic and cinematic chiaroscuro

Arve Henriksen
Arve Henriksen at Moers Festival, June 2006, Germany
Background information
Born	(1968-03-22) 22 March 1968 (age 44)
Origin	Stranda, Norway
Instruments	Trumpet
Labels	ECM, Rune Grammofon

Arve Henriksen, mœrs festival 2010

Arve Henriksen (born 22 March 1968, Stranda) is a Norwegian trumpet player, renowned for his distinctive, flute-like sound on the trumpet, inspired by the sound of the Japanese shakuhachi flute. He also sings; his unique wordless vocalising was central to Chiaroscuro, where he often sings in a soprano's range. The control over his head voice is such that in "Opening Image" he could quite easily be mistaken for a woman.

He has played among others with Misha Alperin, Jon Balkes Magnetic North Orchestra, Nils Petter Molvær, Audun Kleive, Trygve Seim, Terje Isungset, Christian Wallumrød and recently with Iain Ballamy's Food for Quartet and Supersilent, both bands signed on Rune Grammofon. He has also contributed to David Sylvian's Nine Horses project and his latest work, When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima.^[1]

Discography[link]

• Sakuteiki (2001), Rune Grammofon
• Chiaroscuro (2004), Rune Grammofon
• Strjon (2007), Rune Grammofon
• Cartography (2008), ECM Records

References[link]

External links[link]

• Arve Henriksen - official website of the trumpeter.
• AllAboutJazz - the musician's profile on AllAboutJazz.
• Bungey, John (2007) "Arve Henriksen: Strjon" (review), The Times, May 26, 2007
• Bungey, John (2009) "Arve Henriksen: Cartography" (review), The Times, January 10, 2009

This article about a jazz trumpeter is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a Norwegian musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jacob Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1950 he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood and later continued his studies at the École Normale de Musique in Paris (1954–55). He worked extensively with electronic music, in addition to a number of works for orchestra or for small ensembles. In 1972 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his first large orchestral work Windows.^[1] He was composer-in-residence of the New York Philharmonic from 1982-1985. Druckman taught at Juilliard, The Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Brooklyn College, Bard College, and Yale University, among other appointments. He is Connecticut's state Composer laureate.^[2]

Druckman died of lung cancer at age 67. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. He is the father of percussionist Daniel Druckman.

Notable musicians who have recorded his works include David Zinman, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Dawn Upshaw, Jan DeGaetani, and the American Brass Quintet.

Notable students[link]

• Daniel Asia
• Robert Beaser
• Mark Birnbaum
• Sidney Corbett
• Robert Cucinotta
• Conrad Cummings
• Michael Daugherty
• Anthony Gatto
• Melissa Hui
• Daniel Kellogg
• Aaron Jay Kernis
• Douglas Knehans
• Graeme Koehne
• David Lang
• Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
• Peter Scott Lewis
• Scott Lindroth
• Jing Jing Luo
• Cindy McTee
• Marc Mellits
• Kevin Puts
• Arlene Sierra
• Sheila Silver
• Laurie Spiegel
• Pathorn Srikaranonda
• Jan Swafford^[3]
• Christopher Theofanidis
• Augusta Read Thomas
• Joseph Waters
• Amnon Wolman
• Donald Fagen

Major works[link]

• Windows, (1972) for orchestra
• Brangle, (1988–89) for orchestra
• Aureole, (1979) for orchestra
• String Quartet No. 2 (1966)
• String Quartet No. 3 (1981)
• Lamia, (1975) for soprano and orchestra. Based on the poem by John Keats
• Prism, (1980) for orchestra
• The Seven Deadly Sins, for piano
• Animus I, (1966–67) for trombone and electronic tape
• Animus II, (1967–68) for mezzo-soprano, percussion and electronic tape
• Animus III, (1968) for clarinet and electronic tape
• Incenters, (1968) for 13 Instruments
• Antiphonies, for two choruses. Setting of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Dark Upon the Harp, (1961–62) for mezzo-soprano, brass, and percussion. Psalms
• Vox Humana, (1983) chorus and orchestra
• Counterpoise, (1994) for soprano and orchestra
• Synapse, (1971) for tape
• Valentine, (1969) for solo double bass
• Reflections on the Nature of Water, (1986) for solo marimba

References[link]

1. ^ Keller, James M. "Thomas / Druckman / Harte". Liner note essay. New World Records.
2. ^ STATE OF CONNECTICUT, Sites º Seals º Symbols; Connecticut State Register & Manual; retrieved on January 4, 2007
3. ^ “The Scott Chamber Players”, playing works by Jan Swafford and Glen Gass.

External links[link]

• The Jacob Druckman Papers, the composer's personal papers and manuscripts, are housed in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• Art of the States: Jacob Druckman
• Biography at Boosey and Hawkes Publisher
• Jacob Druckman at the Avant Garde Project has FLAC files made from high-quality LP transcriptions of out-of-print vocal, instrumental, and electroacoustic works by Druckman available for free download.