European Renaissance: Chiaroscuro
Many Renaissance paintings have the appearance of figures of brilliant light and color emerging from a very dark, often near-black background.
This technique is called chiaroscuro.
The effect is quite striking. Most would be familiar with this style as it was used later, where most famously used by Rembrandt.
And although this style is beautiful in itself, what does it communicate? It seems as clear as its surface level, but is as deep as its intentions: light from darkness. Truth from lie. Life from Death.
Even though we look at this period as a time of great progress and intellectual investigation, in a world where the last century had seen over 30% of its population perish due to the plague, maybe those who survived had an appreciation for life that few of us can comprehend. Life would have been bleak, dark, difficult to understand.
And maybe for those who didn’t perish, or at least knew stories about the disease and its ravishing destruction, it had appeared as if they had emerged from the darkness of their surroundings.
They could identify with the light as it propelled itself from the bleakness of the background and drew itself out as the focus, the subject, the form.
Comments
JBL,
great post.
the link was value added
and the interpretation,
connected to historical events
not well known today
was helpful indeed.
the interpretation gives depth to the understanding,
like the phenomenon you're discussing.
good work.
JEG
Posted by: Jay Gillette | November 25, 2006 10:06 AM