With great interest in optics, depicting shade and shadows advanced in the 17th century, in paintings by van Honthorst, Judith Leyster, and above all Rembrandt, whose promoter was the father of Christiaan Huygens.
van Honthorst
Chiaroscuro paintings by Lavinia Fontana, Adam Elsheimer, Jusepe de Ribera, Artemisia Gentileschi, Gerard can Honthorst, and Georges de La Tour.
From the start of the Eighty Years’ War with Habsburg Spain, through the Union of Utrecht, foundation of the East India Company, tulip mania, and abundant Rembrandts.
How Dutch painters studying in Italy came to be influenced by Caravaggio, and took his style back to Utrecht, where they became known as Utrecht Caravaggists.
An early Rembrandt, chiaroscuro lighting, one of Adam Elsheimer’s oil on copper paintings, above Frederick the Great, and adorning Goya’s painting hat.
Evoking music from a painting is a serious challenge, yet many artists have tried it. See if any of these work for you. From Lavinia Fontana to Degas.
Should chiaroscuro paintings show much in the way of colour, given that in the dark only the rods in our retinas function, giving us monochrome vision?
What’s the difference between a lute and a mandolin? Was Napoleon responsible for the early loss of popularity of mandolins?
If composers and performers can evoke visual images in music, why can’t painters return the complement? Lavinia Fontana, Vermeer, Menzel, Corot and others try.
A whirlwind trip through the history of compositional chiaroscuro, from the Renaissance, through Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi, to Rembrandt.
The Eclectic Light Company 