Painting a portrait in the sfumato style. Leonardo da Vinci's technique revealed
Great Italian Renaissance painter - Leonardo da Vinci. How many great discoveries were made by this outstanding man! And not only in painting. But we are primarily interested in his visual innovation. Sfumato- one of them. What is it? Why does this technique still attract the attention of fascinated spectators? How to master it? Our article is about all this.
Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)", 1500s, "Saint John the Baptist", 1513.
What is sfumato
The Italian word we use for this technique literally means “disappearing like smoke” or “shaded” in a modern interpretation. Since the word is Italian, it means that the homeland of sfumato is sunny Italy. It was there that the great Leonardo lived and worked.
When you look at his famous Mona Lisa, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking that there is a secret hidden here that you really want to understand. How did Leonardo da Vinci manage to convey the amazing mystery of her smile? He was helped by sfumato - a painting technique that the great artist invented, and then actively used and developed.
Giorgione "Boy with an Arrow", 1505, "Laura", 1506.
This smoothing technique, blurring color transitions and contours creates the illusion of airiness and mystery. In the work of the Renaissance master, she found true perfection. Thanks to sfumato, Leonardo created amazing masterpieces that to this day enchant with their magical sense of flight and fabulous virtuosity.
Later, other masters began to actively use sfumato in their work, adding their own twists to this technique. So, Michelangelo created his own version. He combined high-contrast writing with da Vinci-style blur. This approach gave the paintings an airy depth, allowing them to convey volume and perspective well.
To this day, varieties of sfumato continue to be actively used in. Artists use both the classic version of this technique and modern modernized varieties. The popularity of Leonardo’s invention only benefits from this, continuing to enchant viewers with its fabulous originality.
Antonio Correggio "Portrait of a Young Man", "Madonna with John the Baptist", 1516.
Painting using the sfumato technique
If your mouth is already watering and you can’t wait to try this technique in action, then get your brushes, paints and easel ready. So, sfumato is the smoothing of contours, as well as transitions of colors and light and shade. Thanks to her, the impression of airiness and mystery is created. How to achieve this?
First, let's look at the different painting techniques used in sfumato. Here are the main ones:
- Dry brush. Having applied the paint to the canvas, rub it with a hard brush to an even layer. Essentially, paint is rubbed into the surface of the canvas. They also make a transition from one color or tone to another.
- Thin glaze. Applying thin layers of clear paint on top of each other. The invisibility of transitions is achieved by layering different shades.
- Mashing. At times, fingers often replace the brush for many painters. In this technique, this is a particularly popular tool when it is necessary to smooth out sharp transitions. Rags or special stacks are also used for this purpose.
Raphael Santi "Madonna with a Goldfinch", 1506, "Lady with a Unicorn", 1506.
- Cleaning. When you paint with oil paints, after drying there are often tubercles that create additional lighting effects. To remove them, some artists use special cleaning of such tubercles after drying. Then several thin layers of glaze paint are applied to a flat surface. As a result, sfumato appears in all its glory.
- Pastel. These colors themselves are already predisposed to vagueness and uncertainty. Therefore, da Vinci’s invention goes well with such paints.
- Imprint. Another interesting way to create amazing paintings. The blank for them is made in oil on a wooden base, then prints are made several times on clean boards and the final print is made on canvas. The result of such manipulations is very vague works.
These are not all types of sfumato creation. After experimenting with classic options, you can try to come up with something of your own. And who knows, maybe you too will become a great maestro, whose work will be studied by our descendants.
*Paintings by famous artists are taken from free access on the Internet and are used on the site for educational purposes.
Oil painting technique is one of the most accessible. Even a beginning artist can master it. However, it is difficult to overestimate the role of this technique in the history of world art. Thanks to her, masterpieces were created and new directions in art emerged. The use of oil paint contributed to a real revolution in painting.
The variety of techniques and expressive possibilities of oil painting in the hands of masters contributed to the emergence of the most amazing and mysterious phenomena in world culture.
1. Sfumato - the secret of painting by Leonardo da Vinci
For several centuries, humanity has been haunted by the mystery of the portrait of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Researchers have not offered any hypotheses about who is depicted on it: from a self-portrait of da Vinci himself or a portrait of his mother - to the image of the famous adventuress and mistress of the Florentine ruler Giuliano de' Medici Pacifica Brandano. Vasari's hypothesis that the model is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine Francesco del Giocondo, for some reason does not suit researchers of the work of the Great Leonardo.
But this is not the main secret. The subtlety and skill of the image is amazing. The famous biographer of Italian Renaissance artists, Giorgio Vasari, wrote that if you look closely, you seem to see a pulse beating in the hollow of the neck. “The portrait itself is considered an extraordinary work, for life itself could not be different,” is Vasari’s opinion. Perhaps the reason for such a striking effect of the portrait on the viewer lies in the technique sfumato, the masterly use of which is possible only within the framework of oil painting.
Sfumato translated from Italian means “disappearing like smoke.” Very small brush strokes allow you to achieve subtle transitions from light to shadow, from one color to another. But it was only recently that French restorers discovered just how microscopic these brushstrokes were. The thickness of the glaze layer was one to two microns. Restorers cannot explain how Leonardo da Vinci was able to perform such a miracle. The artist himself invented additives to varnishes, paints, and oils; he achieved alternating layers of paints, achieving the magnificent effect of different refractions of light rays falling on the picture. This is how the impression of depth, volume, special liveliness and flutter of colors was achieved.
One of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions was to improve the process of making oil paint by adding beeswax to it.
2. Oil paints changed the way painters work
Oil paints dry slowly. Unlike working with tempera and any glue paints, the artist can correct the painting and rewrite the layers. He has much more time to think, which means more opportunities for creative experimentation, to translate his ideas onto canvas. In addition, with this technique, paints do not fade or color shades change, which contributes to the durability of works of art. It was these possibilities that made the discovery of oil paints truly revolutionary.
Gandhara art
3. New - well forgotten old
It just so happened among humanity that some inventions were known many centuries ago. The same thing happened with oil painting. This technique has become known in European art since the 15th century, thanks to the efforts of the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck.
But according to various sources, oil painting was invented five thousand years ago. More reliable information - this technique was widespread in Western Afghanistan in the 7th century AD. This is evidenced by the finds in the Bamiyan Valley of examples of Gandhara art, which left its mark in the paintings of the complex of Buddhist monasteries.
4. Paint base - oil
The binders in oil painting are oils: walnut, linseed, safflower. The main elements of these paints are crushed pigment, binder oils and turpentine as a thinner. Both mineral and organic substances are used to create pigments. They were even made from semi-precious stones. In the past, the most expensive pigment was ultramarine blue. Lapis lazuli was used to create it, and this substance was once more expensive than gold.
Titian, painting "Flora"
5. Each master of painting of past centuries had his own secrets of the composition of oil paints
Almost every great master of painting of the 16th–18th centuries invented his own methods of making oil paints. For example, Albrecht Durer used nut oil as a binder; he passed it through sifted coal. And Titian preferred poppy oil, which he lightened in the sun and lavender essence. Rubens painted his wonderful canvases with varnish, which was created on the basis of coconut copra, lavender essence and poppy oil.
6. Oil paint was used to paint shields
In the Middle Ages, oil paints found unexpected uses. At that time, tempera was preferred for creating paintings and frescoes, but shields were painted with similar oil paints. It was believed that this way they became stronger.
Artist Jana van Eyck, painting “Our Lady of Canon van der Paele”
7. Cracks in the surface of the painting led Van Eyck to reinvent oil paints.
There is a legend about what exactly made the artist look for a different composition of paints. He once created a beautiful painting using tempera. He covered his painting with oil and left it to dry in the sun. Jan van Eyck was unpleasantly surprised that his canvas was covered in cracks. The artist began to look for oil that could be dried in the shade. Many attempts ended in failure, but van Eyck's efforts were ultimately crowned with success. The already desperate artist mixed linseed oil and the so-called “white varnish from Bruges,” which we now call turpentine. He added pigments to this solution, achieving the desired thickness. It turned out that this paint dries slowly, which allows you to make amendments to the finished work. And most importantly, the finished painting does not become cracked and the colors do not fade.
8. The invention of a tube for storing oil paints contributed to the emergence of a new direction in painting
One of the founders of impressionism, Pierre Renoir, said that without the invention of paints in tubes, there would be no impressionism. After all, the artists made oil paints themselves; they were tied to workshops and studios. For the impressionists it was very important to capture a moment, the variability of the surrounding world. Without paints in tubes, working plein air, in the open air, was very problematic. In 1841, American artist John Rand invented a tin tube that could be squeezed and squeezed out the required amount of paint. The tube was equipped with a cap. All these improvements ensured that the paint did not dry out and the artist could easily create his painting in the open air.
9. How long do oil paints take to dry?
Oil paints become dry to the touch two weeks after finishing the painting. However, they can finally be considered dry only after six months, or even a year.
10. How oil paints harden
Hardening of this type of paint occurs due to oxidation with oxygen, and not evaporation.
SFUMATO
- (from the Italian sfumato - shaded, literally - disappeared like smoke), a technique in painting: softening the outlines of objects, figures and light and shadow modeling in general, which allows you to convey the air enveloping them. The sfumato technique as the most important element of aerial perspective was theoretically justified and applied by Leonardo da Vinci.
(Illustration by Leonardo da Vinci. Mary and Child with Saint Anne. Between 1500 and 1507)
Dictionary of fine art terms. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what SFUMATO is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- SFUMATO in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Italian sfumato lit. - disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the light-air environment surrounding them. ... - SFUMATO
(Italian sfumato - shaded, literally - disappeared like smoke), a technique in painting: softening the outlines of depicted objects, figures (and light and shadow modeling... - SFUMATO in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- SFUMATO in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Italian sfumato, literally - disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects, allowing one to convey the air enveloping them. The sfumato technique was developed... - SFUMATO in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
SFUMATO (Italian sfumato, lit. - disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects using a picturesque recreation of the light-air environment surrounding them. ... - SFUMATO in the Russian Synonyms dictionary:
painting,... - SFUMATO in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language:
sfumato, uncl., ... - SFUMATO in the Spelling Dictionary:
sfum`ato, uncl., ... - SFUMATO in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
(Italian sfumato, lit. - disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the light-air environment surrounding them. ... - GIOCONDA'S SMILE in the Directory of Miracles, unusual phenomena, UFOs and other things:
“the strangest smile in the world”, one of the most famous and unsolved mysteries in the history of painting, the essence of which is not precisely formulated... - LEONARDO DA VINCI in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
da Vinci (Leonardo da Vinci) (15.4.1452, Vinci, near Florence, - 2.5.1519, Castle of Cloux, near Amboise, Touraine, France), Italian painter, sculptor, ... - SARTO, ANDREA DEL in Collier's Dictionary:
(Sarto, Andrea del) (1486-1531), Italian artist of the Florentine school, was born in Florence on July 16, 1486. Among the artist’s first works are five ... - PIERO DI COSIMO in Collier's Dictionary:
(Piero di Cosimo; Piero di Lorenzo) (1462-1521), Florentine painter. The years of his creativity fell on the period of transition from early to high... - LEONARDO DA VINCI in Collier's Dictionary:
(Leonardo da Vinci) (1452-1519), great Italian artist, inventor, engineer and anatomist of the Renaissance. Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci (or nearby...
The author of the sfumato technique (he is also the father of the airplane, the two-lens telescope and the law of conservation of mass for the movement of liquids) is Leonardo da Vinci. Before this, the transitions between colors were clearer and more straightforward, and the great Italian maestro introduced into painting the effect of a light, barely noticeable haze that envelops objects and people in the paintings. The technique serves to convey volume and “adds air,” as the artists call it, and its name is translated from Italian as “fuzzy, blurry, vague.”
Leda with a swan Now let's move on to the practical side of the question: how to achieve such smoky looks? Da Vinci painted the picture layer by layer, and each of them was not just thin, but super thin - 30-40 microns (that is, 0.03-0.04 mm!). As a result, the brush strokes in the picture are not visible at all. All this was helped to determine the X-ray studies to which the scientist Philip Walter subjected the Mona Lisa and other paintings by the Italian. Who will dare to repeat the trick along the way?
Saint Anne with Mary and the Christ Child
Da Vinci supported his discoveries in both art and science with theoretical works: “On Painting and Perspective”, “On Flying”, “The Dispute of the Painter with the Poet, Musician and Sculptor”, “On Nature, Life and Death”, “ On the laws of statics”, “On how to depict a face, figure and clothes”, “Several inventions”, “On how to depict trees and greenery” and many other useful things for artists and their sympathizers. In addition, Leonardo showed himself in the literary field, writing several fables, facetia (comic stories) and even predictions. All these works (both theoretical and artistic) can be found in the following collection and learn about the philosophy and creativity of the author not from third parties, but from his own words, and most importantly, learn from the famous creator:
Which other artist used the sfumato technique?
“The Sfumato technique is changing the world of permanent makeup”
“Buy Sfumato tiles at Santekhnika-online.”
Salon and store owners boldly use the word “sfumato” in advertising. But their products bear only external, individual signs of this painting technique.
I propose to deepen your knowledge about this unusual technique. This will help you not only distinguish sfumato from ordinary chiaroscuro. But you will be convinced once and for all of the genius of its creator, Leonardo da Vinci.
The most important thing about sfumato
If an artist uses sfumato, it means you will NOT see clear lines or sharp transitions from color to color.
On the contrary, one color will gently flow into another. This creates the illusion of a barely noticeable haze between the viewer and the image. From Italian sfumato is translated as haze.
We see the reference sfumato in the image of the face of the Mona Lisa.
Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa. 1503-1519 Louvre, Paris Very soft shadows are applied in the corners of the mouth and around the eyes. If you look at the portrait from different angles, it seems that the facial expression changes.
The contours of the face are also softened. It’s as if we see the air enveloping the woman. Therefore, it feels like she will take this air into her chest and sigh.
Leonardo did everything to make the Mona Lisa seem alive.
I was mistaken for a long time. I thought it was simple: apply soft shadows and blend the lines. Voila, here's your sfumato.
In reality, everything is much, much more complicated. After all, you can’t blend oil paints.
Look at the close-up detail of the Mona Lisa.
What do you see unusual?
Okay, let's compare. With detail from Botticelli's portrait of a young man. How are their techniques fundamentally different?
Right: Botticelli. Portrait of a young man. 1483 National Gallery London
In Botticelli we see brushstrokes. Leonardo seems to have no brushstrokes. At all. Even very small ones. You can zoom in as much as you like, you won't see them. Even under a microscope. And you won’t see it with an x-ray either.
Leonardo's secret sfumato
Leonardo was an innovator. Therefore, ordinary chiaroscuro did not suit him. He wanted his heroes in the paintings to come to life.
He noticed that there are no lines in nature. Which means they shouldn’t be on the canvas, Leonardo decided.
He experimented for a long time. He even blew smoke indoors while he was working on portraits. And he invented his own technique.
Using a magnifying glass, Leonardo applied very small strokes. Each stroke is one fortieth of a millimeter long.
After that, he applied a thin layer of light yellow paint, the color of the primer, to the network of colorful strokes. The layer was 1-2 micrometers. This is very, very little. For comparison, the diameter of a human hair is 80 micrometers.
And so 20-30 times. A layer of micro-strokes, a layer of paint. The result was something unimaginable. Not a single line, not a single stroke.
As you may have guessed, using this technique you can’t paint a picture in a week. This is why Leonardo carried the Mona Lisa with him for the rest of his life. He returned to work on the portrait for 16 years.
Who else has used sfumato?
Leonardo loved to share his inventions. He also taught the sfumato technique to other artists. That’s why it was so widespread during the Renaissance, among his contemporaries.
This technique was used by Giorgione and Correggio.
Left: Giorgione. Portrait of a man. 1506 San Diego Museum. Right: Antonio Correggio. Madonna Campori. 1517 Estense Gallery, Modena
I think Correggio went too far with the misty shroud. The image turned out to be not so much alive, but rather out of focus.
Giorgione's sfumato really works to revive him. His man is very realistic.
The most diligent student was Raphael. He loved to learn from others and adopted other people's methods very accurately. Including sfumato.
Raphael. Sistine Madonna (fragment). 1513 Old Masters Gallery, Dresden, Germany But Leonardo remained an unsurpassed master of sfumato. Other artists used it in a lighter version.
Not everyone had the time to work on one painting for years. And applying microscopic strokes was a very difficult skill. Only Leonardo could do this.
What can sfumato be confused with?
Sfumato is often confused with chiaroscuro.
Both techniques are used to transition from light to shadow. But if sfumato makes this transition soft. That chiaroscuro makes it sharp.
Visually, the difference is in color contrast.
If the contrast is strong, then a theatrical effect appears. It’s as if the characters and objects are illuminated by a stage spotlight. This is called chiaroscuro.
Caravaggio. Kiss of Judas. 1602 National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin Look at how the light and dark contrast sharply in The Kiss of Judas. The light snatches parts of faces and hands from the dark space. Everything is outlined very clearly.
Now compare the Mona Lisa and the detail from The Kiss of Judas.
It immediately becomes clear that sfumato is a general mutedness, shadedness. And shadowbroso is a sharp contrast between illuminated areas and darkened ones.
In this case, chiaroscuro and sfumato can be used in one painting.
The same Leonardo masterfully used both techniques. John the Baptist is especially illustrative.
Leonardo da Vinci. Saint John the Baptist. 1513-1516 Louvre, Paris.
