Famous artists

Chiaroscuro is a term in art for a contrast between light and dark. It was used by all three of the artisits below. These artists are also all Baroque painters. Baroque is a style in which painters and sculptors rummaged emotion, movement and variety in their work. Chiaroscuro can be used in this style for dramatic effect.

Caravaggio

(1571-1610) Born in Milan on the 29th September 1571. He painted realism and used dramatic lighting to effect. He was also renowned as one of few artists whose lives were in some way depicted in their paintings. For example, after a terrible death in his family, Caravaggio began using darker colours to convey his sadness and despair. He used a variety of light, and forming of deep shadow. Carvaggio's main subjects were religous scenes, which he conveyed with courage. He was also the first to illustrtate people as ordinary looking. One film director influenced by the work of Caravaggio is Martin Scorsese.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn, was born in Leiden on July 15th, 1606. He was a portrait painter, and also famous for his religous subjects. Rembrandt's method of paint in touches of heavy-laden brushes is named impasto and creates a sculptural effect on his painting. He was influenced by the work of Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, an artist known fro his unorthodox use of lighting and the erotic manner he presented his subjects. The style of Rembrandt which sets him apart from other painters is that his background composition is usually dark, while his subject is illuminated, making the image appear almost three dimensional. His paintings also usually showed a narrative. Alexander Korda's Rembrandt is a film that emulates Rembrandt's etchings and chiaroscuro scenes with great effect.

Vermeer

Johan Vermeer, born on October 31, 1632, and died in 1975 was a Baroque painter who opened up interior spaces by representing long files of rooms, often with extended views through doors, windows or mirrors. Religous, poetical, musical and scientific scenes are subjects that can be found in his work. He specialised in scenes of ordinary people going about their everyday life. Many of his paintings use bright colours and strong chiaroscuro effects to illuminate an object which are reminiscent of Rembrandts style of painting. One of Vermeer's paintings, "Girl with a pearl earring", was adapted as a film, directed by Peter Webber. Little is known about the girl in the painting, the film attempts to recreate the mysterious girls life, a maid in the house of Johan Vermeer.