From the Italian tenebroso — meaning dark, gloomy, mysterious — tenebrism describes a compositional technique in which some areas of an image are kept completely black, allowing other areas to be strongly illuminated, usually from a single source of light. It is distinct from chiaroscuro because there is no attempt to include forms in the darkness. Chiaroscuro is commonly employed to enhance the modelling of human figures, not to focus the viewer's attention or blacken whole areas of the canvas for dramatic effect. Thus it is not uncommon for both tenebrism and chiaroscuro to be used in the same canvas.
