Artibus et Historiae no. 13 (VII)

1986, ISSN 0391-9064

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MARIA RZEPIŃSKA - Tenebrism in Baroque Painting and Its Ideological Background

In the compositional structure of baroque art, one of the basic, most characteristic, means of expression is the way light and shade are used. In the paintings of quite a number of the artists from around 1600 the darkness deepens, dimming the outlines of the figures and objects, sometimes even predominating over the lit up parts. This tendency of style later called the maniera tenebrosa finds no correspondence in baroque art theory and was attacked by critics of the time.

However, in practice tenebrism was an extremely widespread current in painting. Darkness as opposed to light and at the same time complementary to it is an iconographic and psychological factor of significant importance in this new language of art. This cannot be solely explained by the influence of Caravaggio as is usually done. Caravaggio merely gave eloquent expression to this tendency which was born of a general background in the spirit of the time. This study is an introductory attempt at tracing what ideas and opinions went to contribute to the phenomenon of tenebrism and at the same time are a commentary on it. The answer to this question we do not really find in the art criticism of the time. An exception is Lomazzo's Treatise which introduced the extremely important idea of "sacred light". But there was a current of thought considering darkness as a value, as opposition but at the same time necessary complement to light. It may be found in texts dealing with other fields of intellectual life. In this regard is mentioned the theology of darkness in St. John of the Cross as well as fragments of the works of Kepler, Giordano Bruno and Galileo. There is also pointed out the frequency with which manuals deal with the projecting of shadows. The bulk of source material is supplied by the cabalistic and alchemistic doctrines with lengthy excerpts quoted from the works of Robert Fludd, Blaise Vigenere and especially Athanasius Kircher. The question of light and darkness is the most deep-rooted characteristic of baroque culture. This was also perhaps the only period in history when this question called forth so much speculation and achieved such great prestige, unheard of before then or ever since.