Tenebrism

File:JOSÉ DE RIBERA - Martirio de San Andrés (Museo de Bellas Artes de Budapest, 1628. Óleo sobre lienzo, 209 x 183 cm).jpg

Martyrdom of St Andrew by Jusepe de Ribera, 1628

Tenebrism, from the Italian, tenebroso (murky), also called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. The technique was developed to add drama to an image through a spotlight effect, and was popular during the Baroque period of painting.

Origins

John the Baptist (John in the Wilderness), by Caravaggio, 1604, in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

The artist Caravaggio is generally credited with the invention of the style, although this technique was used much earlier by various artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, Tintoretto, and El Greco. The term is usually applied to artists from the seventeenth century onward. Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the few women artists of the Baroque and a follower of Caravaggio, was an outstanding exponent of tenebrism.

El Greco painted three versions of a composition with a boy, a man, and a monkey grouped in darkness around a single flame. Among the most well-known tenebrist artists are: Italian and Dutch followers (the Utrecht School) of Caravaggio, Francisco Ribalta, Jusepe de Ribera, and their Spanish followers.

17th Century

File:Adam de Coster - A Man Singing by Candlelight.jpg

A Man Singing by Candlelight, by Adam de Coster. 1625-1635

Tenebrism is most often applied to seventeenth-century Spanish painters. It is sometimes applied to other seventeenth-century painters including Georges de La Tour, who painted many images lit by a single candle, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Rembrandt. In Flanders Adam de Coster was recognized as a leading tenebrist who excelled in scenes in which a single candle has its light blocked by an object.

The term is not often used of Adam Elsheimer, although he was an important innovator in painting night-scenes with a few lighted areas. His dark areas are always full of detail and interest.

Later development

Later, similar compositions were painted by Joseph Wright of Derby and other artists of the Romantic Movement, but the term is rarely used to characterize their work in general.

External links

• More details (below introduction)
• Art Lexicon
• Jusepe de Ribera, 1591-1652, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Ribera and Tenebrism