noun
Meaning 1
A painting technique, prominent during the Italian Renaissance, involving the application of subtle layers of translucent paint, blurring the transition between colors, tones and often objects and creating the illusion of depth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Qualifier: painting
Topics: art, arts
Examples
- 1960, Helmut Ruhemann, Leonardo's Use of Sfumato, in The British Journal of Aesthetics, Volume 1, British Society of Aesthetics, page 233, The interpretation of ‘sfumato’ is equally wrong. In ‘sfumato’ there is no blurring of the outlines which delineate the contours of figures and there is no blending or diminution of the definition of forms or for that matter any mellowing of colours.
- 2018, Lena Redman, Knowing with New Media, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature, page 234, No smeared sfumatos—blurred lines and borders—or anaemic chewing of emotions, just forcefully chopped slabs of substance.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided