    chiaroscuro (; ; italian for light-dark) in art is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. it is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures.glossary of the national gallery, london  (accessed 23 october 2011) similar effects in cinema and photography also are called chiaroscuro. further related specialized uses of the term include chiaroscuro woodcut, for coloured woodcuts printed with different blocks, each using a different coloured ink; and chiaroscuro drawing for drawings on coloured paper with drawing in a dark medium and white highlighting. ==history== ===origin in the chiaroscuro drawing=== chiaroscuro originated during the renaissance as drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper's base tone toward light using white gouache, and toward dark using ink, bodycolour or watercolour.harvard art museum glossary (accessed 30 august 2007). see also metropolitan external linkexample from the metropolitan 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".some examples from tate britain chiaroscuro woodcuts began as imitations of this technique.david landau & peter parshall, the renaissance print, pp.180-84; yale, 1996, isbn 0-300-06883-2 - discusses these at length. also see metropolitan external link. when discussing italian art, the term sometimes is used to mean painted images in monochrome or two colours, more generally known in english by the french equivalent, grisaille. the term broadened in meaning early, to cover all strong contrasts in illumination between light and dark areas in art, which is now the primary meaning. ===chiar
Art_terminology Artistic_techniques Composition_in_visual_art Italian_words_and_phrases