tenebrism

British

/ ˈtɛnəˌbrɪzəm /

noun

(sometimes capital) a school, style, or method of painting, adopted chiefly by 17th-century Spanish and Neapolitan painters, esp Caravaggio, characterized by large areas of dark colours, usually relieved with a shaft of light

"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

Other Word Forms

tenebrist noun

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Compare Wright to the Caravaggios in a nearby gallery, and we see Baroque tenebrism repurposed for this new world.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 14, 2026

Ripley’s fascination with Caravaggio allowed the Italian master’s famed tenebrism — intense darkness and pockets of equally intense light — to also become a guiding aesthetic for Elswit.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2024

He made a speciality of what Graham-Dixon calls "tenebrism", and fully nine-tenths of his Resurrection of Lazarus is as black as pitch or perdition.

From The Guardian • Jun. 26, 2010

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023