DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2086#0068
LIGHT AXD SHADE, OR CHIAROSCURO.
57
" SECTION IV.-LlOHf *'
The word Chiaroscuro (clear-obscure), which is represented in our language by
the term " Light and Shade," is borrowed from the Italian School of Painting ; and
being now universally adopted by all artists, amateurs, and writers, it is necessary to
give the student, in as simple a manner as possible, an explanation of its meaning.
This term is very comprehensive, for it not only includes the simple and natural
light and shade belonging to every object when illuminated by the sun, with
the shadows projected from it, but likewise the arrangement of the various masses
of lights and shadows, whether belonging to the different bodies represented in the
picture, or to others which, though not visible, are supposed, by their intervention,
to influence its general effect. It should be well understood that objects with the
light and shade appertaining to them, taken singly, will not form pictures. In order
to possess any pictorial effect, they must be accompanied either by other forms or
by accidental lights and shades. Now, as in art, we make but a selection from
nature, according to the degree of taste and ability possessed by the artist, it is of
the first importance that he should early attain the power of examining natural
scenes, with the view of representing those lights and shades calculated to express
the sentiment he wishes to convey; and, as in his previous attempts in the choice
or arrangement of lines or forms, he has doubtless found the advantage of adopting
some well digested system of stud}', embracing the experience of ages, so, in the
further prosecution of his labours, will he find that a like system tending to direct
him in a judicious selection of the lights and shades of nature, will greatly facilitate
i
57
" SECTION IV.-LlOHf *'
The word Chiaroscuro (clear-obscure), which is represented in our language by
the term " Light and Shade," is borrowed from the Italian School of Painting ; and
being now universally adopted by all artists, amateurs, and writers, it is necessary to
give the student, in as simple a manner as possible, an explanation of its meaning.
This term is very comprehensive, for it not only includes the simple and natural
light and shade belonging to every object when illuminated by the sun, with
the shadows projected from it, but likewise the arrangement of the various masses
of lights and shadows, whether belonging to the different bodies represented in the
picture, or to others which, though not visible, are supposed, by their intervention,
to influence its general effect. It should be well understood that objects with the
light and shade appertaining to them, taken singly, will not form pictures. In order
to possess any pictorial effect, they must be accompanied either by other forms or
by accidental lights and shades. Now, as in art, we make but a selection from
nature, according to the degree of taste and ability possessed by the artist, it is of
the first importance that he should early attain the power of examining natural
scenes, with the view of representing those lights and shades calculated to express
the sentiment he wishes to convey; and, as in his previous attempts in the choice
or arrangement of lines or forms, he has doubtless found the advantage of adopting
some well digested system of stud}', embracing the experience of ages, so, in the
further prosecution of his labours, will he find that a like system tending to direct
him in a judicious selection of the lights and shades of nature, will greatly facilitate
i