tenebrism

noun

ten·​e·​brism ˈte-nə-ˌbri-zəm 

often capitalized

: a style of painting especially associated with the Italian painter Caravaggio and his followers in which most of the figures are engulfed in shadow but some are dramatically illuminated by a beam of light usually from an identifiable source

tenebrist

ˈte-nə-brist 

noun or adjective often capitalized

Examples of tenebrism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Combining tenebrism with real-life models, heightened naturalism and tight, tumultuous spaces, Caravaggio brought pictorial storytelling to an unprecedented pitch of intensity. —Washington Post, 4 Nov. 2020

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from Italian tenebrismo, from tenebroso tenebrous + -ism -ism

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined above