Movement · 1600–1720

Baroque

Tenebrism: figures carved out of dark grounds by a single raking light. Earth pigments and deep shadow dominate.

Across 28 works, the colors are mostly brown (47%), black (37%) and gray (6%). On average the canvases are dark, muted and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: bistre, soot, dark taupe, dark brown and dark reddish brown.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 219 bistre 15.2% of canvas
• MG 223 soot 11.7% of canvas
• MG 177 dark taupe 8.8% of canvas
• MG 222 charcoal 8.7% of canvas
• MG 220 warm black 4.2% of canvas
• MG 169 dark brown 3.7% of canvas
• MG 221 blue black 3.6% of canvas
• MG 156 dark reddish brown 3.5% of canvas
• MG 176 taupe 3.0% of canvas
• MG 224 black 2.7% of canvas
• MG 186 dark umber 2.6% of canvas
• MG 168 dark amber brown 2.3% of canvas
• MG 185 dark golden umber 2.1% of canvas
• MG 218 graphite 1.9% of canvas
• MG 155 dark reddish brown 1.8% of canvas
• MG 184 umber 1.7% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.37

Contrast

0.49

Vividness

0.029

Warmth

+0.86

Complexity

154 cells

Hue range

0.36

Focus

0.15

Composition

Averaged over 28 works: 51% of the visual weight in the left half, 51% in the lower half; symmetry 0.28; 37% calm space; half of the detail in 26% of the canvas. Measured from each image, not a rule the painters followed.

Artists

• Caravaggio 1571–1610
• Peter Paul Rubens 1577–1640
• Artemisia Gentileschi 1593–1653
• Georges de La Tour 1593–1652
• Nicolas Poussin 1594–1665
• Francisco de Zurbarán 1598–1664
• Diego Velázquez 1599–1660

Works

• Self-Portrait as Bacchus, 1595
• Medusa, 1597
• Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1599
• Supper at Emmaus, 1601
• The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, 1608
• Samson and Delilah, c. 1609
• The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1609
• The Elevation of the Cross, 1609
• Susanna and the Elders, 1610
• Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1613
• Judith and Her Maidservant, 1618
• The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, 1618
• Massacre of the Innocents, 1620s
• Hercules Fighting the Nemean Lion, 1634
• Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla, 1634
• The Adoration of the Golden Calf, 1634
• Agnus Dei, 1635
• The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds, 1635
• The Surrender of Brea, 1635
• The Three Graces, 1630s
• Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638
• Joseph the Carpenter, 1642
• Magdalene with the Smoking Flame, c. 1642
• Rokeby Venus, 1644
• Las Hilanderas, 17th century
• Portrait of Innocent X, 17th century
• Las Meninas, 1656
• The Flight into Egypt, 1658