Detail of the Virgin's face and shoulders against a rocky grotto; her features turn into shadow with no visible outline.

Concept · Light in Painting

Sfumato

Sfumato, from the Italian for "to turn to smoke", blends light into shadow with no visible line.

Cross quoted Leonardo's advice that lights and shadows should meet "as smoke loses itself in the air". In a 2019 lecture Caroline Campbell, then of the National Gallery, London, stressed that his lighting is a set of deliberate choices, not a copy of nature.

  • Cross added that even Leonardo's advice should be tested against nature, not taken literally.

See

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

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