Genre
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro — Italian for light-dark — models form through the contest of the two. At its extreme, tenebrism, figures seem carved from blackness, the contrast carrying meaning beyond depth: life and death, sin and salvation.
Key artists
Works
The Love Letter
The Musician
The Card Players
Nuns at Work
Attributes of Music
The Lute Player
A Footman Sleeping
The Lute Player
Charity
Study Head of a Woman
Dramatic Scene with Monks in a Crypt
The Young Eastern Woman
The Night Watch
The Lacemaker
Trompe l'Oeil of an Etching by Ferdinand Bol
Young Woman and Man
Fernando VI rey de España
Prince Don Carlos and the Duke of Alba
Head of a Woman
David: "Oh, that I had wings like a Dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest." Psalm 55:6
Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master
Return to Nazareth
Young Woman with a Turban
Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, Raphael
The Company of Captain Dirck Jacobsz Rosecrans and Lieutenant Pauw
Neptune with a seahorse
Le Corps de Garde
Evening. Death and the Old Woman
Sts Peter and Paul
The Lute Player
Nathaniel Byfield
Head of a Bearded Man Looking to Lower Left (Nicodemus)
Head of an Old Woman Looking to Lower Right (Saint Elizabeth)
Roman Charity
La prisión de Lanuza
El papa San León I Magno
Et tatarisk gesandtskab på besøg i København
A Young Woman Contemplating a Skull
A Girl with a Chicken
The Picture Merchant
Democritus
Un evangelista
Cisneros y los Grandes
Lot embriagado por sus hijas
The Duke of Pastrana
Fulvia y Marco Antonio o La venganza de Fulvia
The directors of the Amsterdam civic guard of St. George in 1656
Heraclitus
Ulysses and Circe
Death of Cato of Utica
The Smiling Girl
The Alchemist
Interior view at Houffalize
Cato the Younger's Death
Homer Dictating to Scribes
Prometheus an den Felsen geschmiedet
Musicerend paar
Fruela II of Asturias (king of Asturias from 910 to 925)
Lady with Gold Chains
La duquesa de Alençon presentada a su hermano el rey de Francia Francisco I por el emperador Carlos V
Bird Seller
The Infanta María Antonia Fernanda, Daughter of Philip V
Vieja con una sonaja
An Apostle
Vieja bebedora
The Death of Masaccio
Head of a Young Girl
The Four Seasons
Caritas Romana
Pippo Spano from the cycle Famous People
Sleeping Putto
Three Camaldolese Monks in Meditative Prayer
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Two Monks with a Prostrate Man
The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra
A Gentleman and a Lady in Conversation
An Old Man Counting his Money
Tvende fruentimmere i samtale
Allegori på alderdommen. Tiden og den lærde.
The Astronomer
Rubens' sønner
Bedtime at the Shelter
Stairway to Heaven
A Boy with a Basket of Fruit
A Fancy-Dress Ball
En olding med baret
A Roman Cook´s Boy Sharpening a Knife
Reading Hermit
Musical Company
Dronning Semiramis som sværger ikke at ville rede sit hår før hun har underkuet et oprør
The Ascent to Calvary. The Bearing of the Cross
En kurtisane
Guard-Room
Monk
The Roman Dwarf Francesco Ravai, called Bajocco
Clytia
A Violin Player
Archimedes
Bildnis einer Dame mit Knaben
The Operation (feeling)
Der hl. Franziskus von Assisi
Reiherbeize
Bauerngenre
Maria mit dem Kinde und dem hl. Joseph
Hl. Karl Borromäus
Bildnis eines Mannes
Die Berufung des Matthäus
Weibliche Halbfigur (Kopie nach)
Zacharias gibt Johannes den Namen
Joseph als Traumdeuter
Wachtstube
Darstellung im Tempel
Triptych: King Balthasar
Diogenes
Der Henker mit dem Haupte Johannes des Täufers (Nachahmer)
The Cynical Philosopher
Martyrium des hl. Erasmus (zugeschrieben)
Bildnis Gräfin Polignac
Felsenlandschaft
Bildnis eines Bauern
The Loving
Homely Scene
Croesus showing off his richess to Solon
Studie für den heiligen Philipp von Neri
Hunting prey guarded by dogs
Das Trio
Die Berufung des hl. Matthäus
The old woman with a wine bottle
Bildnis eines Mädchens
Marodeure
Maximilien-Emmanuel, Chevalier de Bavière
The Music Party
Der Marktschreier
Der rasende Herkules
Pferd und Knecht (zugeschrieben)
Das Gleichnis vom Zinsgroschen
Gruppe von Pharisäern
Kaffeegesellschaft
Familienbildnis
Johannesknabe
Häusliche Toilette
Bildnis eines Mannes
Der weinende Philosoph (Heraklit) (Schule)
Bauer mit Krug
Standartenträger und beutetragende Krieger
Der lachende Philosoph (Demokrit) (Schule)
Der Friede
Hecube blinds Polymestor
Milagro de san Francisco de Regis
St Agatha in her cell
La cocinera
A Priest sacrificing for a Roman Emperor
La muerte de Lucrecia
Mensaje de Carlos I al cardenal Cisneros (1517)
The Death of Seneca
Estigmatización de San Francisco
La poetisa
Decisión del pleito entre religiosos y caballeros
Don Álvaro de Luna condestable y favorito del rey D. Juan II de Castilla decapitado públicamente en la Plaza Mayor de Valladolid el 2 de junio de 1453 es enterrado de limosna en el cementerio de los ajusticiados extramuros de dicha ciudad
Miracles of the Doctor Saints Cosmas and Damian
Old Lady with a crutch
Meeting of Isaac and Rebeca
Favila
Saint Peter freed by an Angel
The Birth of John the Baptist announced to Zacharias
Muerte del conde de Villamediana
The Blind Hurdy-Gurdy Player
St Cajetan offered to the Virgin by his mother
The Virgin with Saints
San Hermenegildo en la prisión
San Gil abad
Imposición de la casulla a San Ildefonso
Moor
Miguel de Cervantes imaginando El Quijote
Cardinal Borja
Aprobación de la regla franciscana por el papa Inocencio III
Group of Smokers
Jesús en el pretorio
Don Rodrigo Calderón en el tormento
Últimos momentos de Felipe II
San Nicolás de Tolentino
Dos luchadores
A fisher boy
Charity withThree Children
Petrus und Johannes heilen den Lahmgeborenen im Tempel
Fortune Telling
Jesus in Emmaus
Tod Senecas
Roman Charity
Actors of the Comedie-Francaise
Mathematiker des Altertums (Archimedes)
Death of Saint Joseph
Servant with a Tray
Alboin   and  Rosamunde
Flautist
Dirne (Hochmut)
Triumph of St Norbert
Der Propheten Jesaias
Vision of St. Teresa of Avila
Vision of St Clare
Frequently asked questions
What is Chiaroscuro?
Chiaroscuro — Italian for light-dark — models form through the contest of the two.
How many Chiaroscuro works does Artifact World Gallery have?
Artifact World Gallery holds 1,422 public-domain Chiaroscuro works, all free to view and download.
Who are the key Chiaroscuro artists?
Key Chiaroscuro artists in the collection include Georges de La Tour, Jacques-Louis David and François Boucher.