Tenebrism

Tenebrism is a painting technique and style that pushes the light and dark contrast of chiaroscuro to an extreme, so that large areas of a composition are plunged into near or total darkness while a comparatively small illuminated area is thrown into vivid, spotlighted brightness. Where ordinary chiaroscuro uses graduated light and shadow mainly to model form and suggest three-dimensional volume, tenebrism treats the darkness itself as an expressive, dramatic element of the picture, isolating a figure or gesture against an almost blank black background rather than gently modeling it within a fully lit setting. The Italian painter Caravaggio is regarded as tenebrism's decisive master, and the technique's dramatic use of a single strong light source spread widely through European painting in the early seventeenth century, especially among his many followers known as the Caravaggisti.