What is Chiaroscuro? Definition, Art Origins & Film Examples

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Published: June 2, 2024 | Last Updated: June 12, 2025

What is Chiaroscuro? Definition & Meaning

Chiaroscuro is the technique of using strong contrasts between light and dark to create volume, depth, and drama. It began in Renaissance and Baroque art and is now widely used in cinematography to shape mood, isolate subjects, and emphasize emotion.

Origins of Chiaroscuro in Art

Chiaroscuro was first developed during the Italian Renaissance, where artists like Leonardo da Vinci used it to give their paintings realistic depth. But it was Baroque painter Caravaggio who took the idea further, casting dramatic shadows across his figures to heighten emotional tension.

A group of men sit in darkness as a beam of light cuts across the scene from a window
Caravaggio uses one hard beam of light to break through the darkness. It hits the faces at just the right angle to guide your eye, first to Jesus, then to Matthew. Everything else fades into shadow. This is classic chiaroscuro: sharp, simple, and full of tension.

Chiaroscuro in Film

Filmmakers later adopted chiaroscuro to heighten the atmosphere and shape the audience’s emotional response. It’s especially common in black-and-white films and film noir, where light carves figures out of the darkness, and shadows become part of the character’s psychology.

Two silhouetted men walk down a striped staircase in Citizen Kane
In Citizen Kane (1941, RKO), silhouettes of Thompson and Kane’s butler descend Xanadu’s staircase, swallowed by alternating bars of shadow and light. Welles stages the space like a memory palace, fragmented, obscured, haunted by what’s unsaid. Image Credit: RKO Pictures.

Modern Uses and Style

Later films used chiaroscuro not just for style, but for psychological weight. In The Godfather (1972, Paramount), faces sink into shadow to show silence, power, or disconnection. In Se7en (1995, New Line), darkness seems to close in on characters as guilt and violence mount.

Close-up of Batman’s face with one side lit and the other in darkness
In The Batman (2022, Warner Bros), the lighting cuts across Batman’s face so only part of it shows. It’s a simple, focused use of chiaroscuro that keeps the scene tense and tight. Image Credit: Warner Bros. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

In The Batman (2022, Warner Bros.), chiaroscuro defines the city itself, crime and morality blur in the shadows, and many scenes are lit using low-key chiaroscuro lighting.

Chiaroscuro vs. Related Lighting Techniques

Rembrandt lighting is a specific lighting setup using a triangle of light under the eye. Low-key lighting creates a dark overall scene with minimal fill light. Chiaroscuro is broader, it’s a visual style that embraces contrast and drama, no matter the method used to achieve it.

Summing Up

Chiaroscuro uses high contrast to shape light, shadow, and emotion. From Renaissance painting to noir thrillers and modern dramas, it remains a key visual language for creating depth and tension on screen.

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By Jan Sørup

Jan Sørup is a indie filmmaker, videographer and photographer from Denmark. He owns filmdaft.com and the Danish company Apertura, which produces video content for big companies in Denmark and Scandinavia. Jan has a background in music, has drawn webcomics, and is a former lecturer at the University of Copenhagen.