According to the theory of the art historian

Marcia B. Hall Marcia Hall, who usually publishes as Marcia B. Hall, is an American art historian, who is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Renaissance Art at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University in Philadelphia. Hall's scholarship has ...

, which has gained considerable acceptance, ''cangiante'' is one of the

canonical painting modes of the Renaissance Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political stat ...

; i.e. one of the four modes of painting colours available to Italian

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

painters, along with sfumato,

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

and

unione According to the theory of the art historian Marcia B. Hall, which has gained considerable acceptance, ''unione'' () is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance; that is, one of four modes of painting colours available to Italian H ...

. The word itself derives from the Italian ''cangiare'' ("to change"). ''Cangiante'' is characterized by a change in color necessitated by an original color's darkness or lightness limitation. For example, when painting shadows on a yellow object, the artist may use a red color simply because the yellow paint cannot be made dark enough. There are other methods of rendering shadows or highlights (for example, mixing the original hue with black or brown), but these can render the shadow color dull and impure. During the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

, the variety and availability of paint colors were severely limited. Giotto ArenaChapel Lamentation

The greatest practitioner of the ''cangiante'' technique was Michelangelo,Hall, Marcia B., ''Rome'' (series "Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance"), pp.148-150, 2005, Cambridge University Press, 2005, , 9780521624459
google books
/ref> especially in many parts of the

Sistine Chapel ceiling The Sistine Chapel ceiling ( it, Soffitto della Cappella Sistina), painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built within the Vatican ...

. For example, in the image of the prophet Daniel, a transition from green to yellow is evident in the subject's robes. After Michelangelo's time, the technique found widespread acceptance and is now a standard painting technique.

References

Artistic techniques Painting techniques {{art-technique-stub

See also

References