Light in Painting

Diego Velázquez

Juan de Pareja

1650

Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 69.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Compare the edges: crisp at the white collar, soft where the face and beard turn into the hair and where the dark coat meets the dark background.

• The white collar is the lightest value in the picture and sets off the face.

Concepts

• Hard, Soft and Lost Edges

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Public Domain (Met Open Access)