Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The blurring or softening of sharp outlines in painting by subtle and gradual blending of one tone into another.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In painting, smoked: noting a style of painting wherein the tints are so blended that outlines are scarcely perceptible, the effect of the whole being indistinct or misty.
Wiktionary
- n. In painting, the application of subtle layers of translucent paint so that there is no visible transition between colors, tones and often objects.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having vague outlines, and colors and shades so mingled as to give a misty appearance; -- said of a painting.
Etymologies
- Italian, from past participle of sfumare, to evaporate, fade out : s-, from (from Latin ex-; see ex-) + fumare, to smoke (from Latin fūmāre; see fumatory).
Examples
“In particular, he developed a theory and practice revolving around the representation of shadows, called sfumato .”
The Wall Street Journal: Leonardo's Optics in Action, in Paint
“It is like a picture, or a succession of pictures, painted in what the Italians call the sfumato, or “smoky” manner.”
The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
“But, despite sharing admiration for the grand master, art historians cannot yet agree on how exactly Leonardo managed to generate this effect referred to as sfumato after the Italian "fumo" for smoke.”
“Vinci's brush strokes and a technique called sfumato, which he used to hide transitions between dark and light areas and to create realistic shading.”
“This technique is called sfumato (from the Italian for "foggy").”
“The technique, called "sfumato," allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow.”
The Washington Post: X-ray study unlocks some of the 'Mona Lisa' magic
“Actors seem to displace an image of mist — what the creative team calls "sfumato," after the Renaissance painting technique — as they move in front of it.”
“Looking at the first picture, the word "sfumato" comes to mind...”
“It's related to the concept of "sfumato," the smoky atmospherics made famous by Da Vinci in works like the Mona Lisa.”
“In this context, the great merit of De Donder was that he extracted the entropy production out of this "sfumato" when related it in a precise way to the pace of a chemical reaction, through the use of a new function that he was to call "affinity" .3”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sfumato’.
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.