CHIAROSCURO ("light-dark")

The etymology of the word is the combination of the two Italian words chiaro, meaning light, and scuro, the word for dark.

In art, it is characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.

The more technical use of the term chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting, drawing or printmaking, where three-dimensional volume is suggested by the value gradation of colour and the analytical division of light and shadow shapes - often called “shading”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro

Look at how the volume of the hand is created only by shapes of light and dark.

Chiaroscuro in Drawing

A manner of drawing by which the usual drawing method of applying dark strokes over light colored paper is reversed.
(ADDITIVE)

Instead, the composition is defined by light values, such as white gouache, over a dark ground.(REDUCTIVE)

Information provided by: http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu

Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 1660

Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, 1601

The Entombment of Christ
1602
by Caravaggio

Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith Decapitating Holofernes 1618

Post Renaissance, another milestone was reached by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Baroque painter who became the first woman accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. She was the first female of the seventeenth century to gain success with the religious art that had been beyond the reach of even Anguissola. The violence in her ‘Judith and Holofernes’ garnered disbelief from critics that a woman had painted it. However, Gentileschi had had firsthand experience of violence herself. Her private tutor Agostino Tassi raped her and, during his subsequent trial, her testimony was examined under torture

This is a good example of chiaroscuro used in photography.

Chiaroscuro is also used in cinematography to indicate extreme low-key lighting to create distinct areas of light and darkness in films, especially in black and white films.

A light-dark chiaroscuro in color film cinematography can create a dark, other-worldly atmosphere when appropriate. Take note of where the single-light source is within the film still.

Who's that? What renaissance artist does the lighting design best reference?

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn July 15, 1606– October 4, 1669), Dutch painter and etcher.

Odd Nerdrum (born April 8, 1944, Sweden), Norwegian figurative painter.

Sidney Goodman
American Contemporary Realist Painter, born in 1936

Jerome Witkin

(September 13, 1939) is an American figurative artist whose paintings often deal with political and cultural themes.

Jim Dine: born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1935