Sfumato

DEFINITION

From the Italian word for ???smoke???, a technique of painting in thin glazes to achieve a hazy, cloudy atmosphere, often to represent objects or landscape meant to be perceived as distant from the picture plane.<br><br>Italian for "shaded off". Gradual, almost imperceptible transitions of color from light to dark.<br><br> Italian term meaning smoke, describing a very delicate gradation of light and shade in the modeling of figures; often ascribed to da Vinci&#39;s work (also called blending). Da Vinci wrote that &#39;light and shade should blend without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke&#39;, in his Notes on Painting.<br><br>In painting, the technique of blurring or softening sharp outlines by subtle and gradual blending (feathering) of one tone into another. The smokelike haziness of this effect slightly lessens the perception that a still image is entirely still, instead lending a vague sense of movement. It is best known in the paintings of the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Correggio (Antonio Allegri) (Italian, 1489-1534).