sfumato

[sfoo-mah-toh]

noun Fine Arts.

the subtle and minute gradation of tone and color used to blur or veil the contours of a form in painting.

Origin of sfumato

1840–50; < Italian, past participle of sfumare to gradate tone or color, equivalent to s- < Latin ex- ex-¹ + fumare to smoke < Latin fumāre; see fume

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sfumato

Historical Examples of sfumato

The gods were everything and nothing; they got lost in a sfumato.
The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism
Franz Cumont
All the secrets of richness, softness, and morbidenza, all the mysteries of pastoso and sfumato were his.
Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning
Robert Browning
It is like a picture, or a succession of pictures, painted in what the Italians call the sfumato, or "smoky" manner.
The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Frank Preston Stearns

British Dictionary definitions for sfumato

sfumato

noun

(in painting) a gradual transition between areas of different colour, avoiding sharp outlines

Word Origin for sfumato

from Italian, from sfumato shaded off, from sfumare to shade off, from Latin ex- 1 + fūmāre to smoke

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sfumato

adj.

1847, from Italian sfumato, literally "smoked," from Latin fumus "smoke" (see fume (n.)).