Artists adopted an effect called chiaroscuro, where figures appear out of near darkness through a series of gradually decreasing shadows. During the century, oil painting became the dominant medium and canvas started to replace the wooden panel. Mannerist painters depicted the human form in precise anatomical detail with great emotion expressed in both the face and the body. There was increasing use of the nude figure and chiaroscuro effects were minimised. The light in their paintings often gives the effect of a spotlight.
Many pictures are highly dramatic with sombre haunting scenes.
Classicists adopted the high renaissance practice of planning the whole composition but they looked to classical sculpture for their inspiration. Works of this movement often are of glowing monumental figures. The High Baroque period is characterised by exuberant paintings often of large crowded scenes that convey a feeling of movement. The Rococo style was fashionable in the first half of the the eighteenth century. Rococo is associated with the reign of Louis XV in France.