Sfumato ( , ; , i.e. 'blurred') is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the

canonical painting modes of the Renaissance Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political sta ...

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

was the most prominent practitioner of sfumato, based on his research in optics and human vision, and his experimentation with the

camera obscura A camera obscura (; ) is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a aperture, small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) ...

. He introduced it and implemented it in many of his works, including the ''

Virgin of the Rocks The ''Virgin of the Rocks'' (), sometimes the ''Madonna of the Rocks'', is the name of two paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, with a composition which is identical except for several significant de ...

'' and in his famous painting of the ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

''. He described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke". According to the theory of the art historian Marcia B. Hall, which has gained considerable acceptance, ''sfumato'' is one of four modes of painting colours available to Italian

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

painters, along with

cangiante Cangiante () is a painting technique where, when using relatively pure colors, one changes to a different, darker color to show shading, instead of dulling the original color by darkening it with black or a darker related hue. According to the th ...

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

, and

unione According to the theory of the art historian Marcia B. Hall, which has gained considerable acceptance, ''unione'' () is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance; that is, one of four modes of painting colours available to Italia ...

Technique

The technique is a fine shading meant to produce a soft transition between colours and tones, in order to achieve a more believable image. It is most often used by making subtle gradations that do not include lines or borders, from areas of light to areas of dark. The technique was used not only to give an elusive and illusionistic rendering of the human face, but also to create rich atmospheric effects.

described the technique as blending colours, without the use of lines or borders "in the manner of smoke". Raphael_-_Madonna_in_the_Meadow_-_Google_Art_Project

Raphael_-_Madonna_in_the_Meadow_-_Google_Art_Project

Practitioners

Besides Leonardo and his followers, the

Leonardeschi The Leonardeschi were the large group of artists who worked in the studio of, or under the influence of, Leonardo da Vinci. They were artists of Italian Renaissance painting, although his influence extended to many countries within Europe. As a t ...

, who often used it heavily, other prominent practitioners of sfumato included

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

, and

Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...

. Raphael's '' Madonna of the Meadow'' is a famous example, particularly around Mary's face. The Leonardeschi include Bernardino Luini and Funisi. Giorgione's The Three Philosophers is said to use sfumato. Dobrzynski, Judith H.br>"'Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini' Review: A Renaissance Reunion"
''The Wall Street Journal'', December 27, 2023.

References

External links

''Leonardo da Vinci, master draftsman''
exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on this technique (see index) Visual arts terminology Italian words and phrases Painting techniques {{art-technique-stub