Chiaroscuro Quotes

• He [the artist] ought to have 'these powerful organs of expression' - colour and chiaroscuro - entirely at his command, that he may use them in every possible form, as well as that he may do with the most perfect freedom; therefore, whether he wishes to make the subject of a joyous, solemn, or meditative character, by flinging over it the cheerful aspect which the sun bestows, by a proper disposition of shade, or by the appearances that beautify its arising or its setting, a true "General Effect" should never be lost sight of.

  John Constable

  Powerful, Character, Artist

  72 Copy quote

• In each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We’re each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We’ve got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there is a lot of grey to work with. No one can live in the light all the time.

  Libba Bray

  Art, Pain, Regret

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.249, Simon and Schuster

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• Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Creativity, Sadness, Artist

  Andrew Forbes, David Henley, Okakura Kakuzo “The Illustrated Book of Tea”

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• The importance of colour is as nothing compared with that of form, chiaroscuro and arrangement. They are the true and enduring bases of pictorial art.

  Walter J. Phillips

  Art, Form, Importance

  21 Copy quote

• The amount of chiaroscuro an idea harbors is the only index of its profundity.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Ideas, Harbors, Profundity

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

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• No one can live in the light all the time.

  Libba Bray

  Light

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.249, Simon and Schuster

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• In each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice... No one can live in the light all the time.

  Libba Bray

  Art, Pain, Regret

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.249, Simon and Schuster

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• A modeled form is less striking than one which is not. Modeling prevents shock and limits movement to the visual depth. Without modeling or chiaroscuro depth is limitless: movement can stretch to infinity.

  Joan Miro

  Depth, Movement, Limits

  8 Copy quote

• Grandeur of effect is produced by two different ways which seem entirely opposed to each other. One is by reducing the colors to little more than chiaroscuro... and the other, by making the colors very distinct and forcible... but still, the presiding principle of both those manners is simplicity.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Color, Two, Simplicity

  9 Copy quote

• I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."-A Great and Terrible Beauty

  Libba Bray

  Light, Forgiving, Awful

  10 Copy quote

• The music began, passages of immense technical complexity fluidly bridging Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro with Renoir’s impressionism. The gloom and shadows of claustrophobic chambers contrasting with the vibrant radiance of a wide-open landscape. The realism of humanity down to its dirty nails and rotten wounds combined with the fleeting sanguinity of the moment.

  Ella Leya

  Dirty, Humanity, Shadow

  Ella Leya (2015). “Orphan Sky”, p.131, Sourcebooks, Inc.

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• All painting worth its name, unless one is talking about black and white, must include the idea of color as one of its necessary supports, in the same way that it includes chiaroscuro, proportion, and perspective.

  Eugene Delacroix

  Black And White, Color, Talking

  10 Copy quote

• The passionate reactions of people to a painting, the exclamation, 'Oh, this is wonderful,' may, even if meant in a positive way, entirely destroy the chiaroscuro, the mystical hidden weaving of fantasy which the artist needs.

  Marie-Louise von Franz

  Artist, People, May

  Marie-Louise von Franz (2017). “The Interpretation of Fairy Tales: Revised Edition”, p.106, Shambhala Publications

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• There are hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Heart, Broken, Together

  Kate DiCamillo (2009). “The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread”, p.116, Candlewick Press

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• Although the noise of the chattering clientele is much more significant than the topics of their chatter, it does finally constitute that type of social and indistinct expression that we refer to as rhubarb. The very particular volume in which people tell each other their news seems to generate all by itself that acoustic chiaroscuro, a sounding murk, in which every communication seems to lose its edges, truth projects the shadow of a lie, and a statement seems to resemble its opposite.

  Joseph Roth

  Lying, Communication, Expression

  Joseph Roth (2002). “What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920-1933”, p.141, W. W. Norton & Company

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• There are those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman. Such was the fate of Chiaroscuro. His heart was broken. Picking up the spoon and placing it on his head, speaking of revenge, these things helped him to put his heart together again. But it was, alas, put together wrong.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Revenge, Heart, Fate

  Kate DiCamillo (2009). “The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread”, p.116, Candlewick Press

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