Sfumato

Sfumato is the term for the blending of colours or tones so subtly that there is no perceptible transition.

Pronunciation: sfoo.mah.toe

When I saw the Mona Lisa being displayed in the Louvre, it was under tight security.

In fact, with the crowds and security I could hardly see this painting at all. Darn it.

But the most wonderful example of sfumato can really be seen in Leonardo's Mona Lisa.

And I'm sorry to say that I can see it here on this blog more easily than in person.

In Italian, sfumato means "smoky" and is derived from the Italian word fumo meaning 'smoke.'

Leonardo da Vinci described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane."

There are NO hard edges in nature!

Areas blend into one another through miniscule brushstrokes, which makes for a rather hazy, albeit more realistic, depiction of light and color.

Sfumato is a painting technique - not necessarily a technique in drawing as seen in the hard and soft edges of Leonardo's self portrait in sanguine chalk (above).

This photo was taken during X-ray fluroscence spectrometry directly on the painting at the Louvre.

In response to an interesting comment below I posted this additional photo (above) as a good example of both hard and soft edges in one painting.

Hard and soft edges are relative:

When I said that there are no HARD edges - what I meant was that if you look at an old master painting with a magnifying glass, the edge of the object turns in space and is "lost" into the background. There is no EXACT place that you could pinpoint where the edge separates from the background.

A softer edge is why an oil painting looks so very different than a cutout paper glued onto a background - with no blending of the edges.

HOW

Painted edges can be either "hard" or "soft"....but even within the "hard" edges - they are (maybe even microscopically) "soft." It is the nature of oil paint to do this when a brush is dragged between two wet edges. When you're painting an edge on a dry area of a painting - it is a good idea to re-wet the dry area (be sure to match the paint exactly) and get that edge blended (choose hard or soft - but choose).

WHY

I find it beautiful when the artist "pushes the edges" in both directions in the same painting for contrast. If DaVinci does it - you can too - and it will give your painting that Old Master's touch.

You can see a "hard" edge in the veil - the veil becomes a "hard edge" compared to the sufmato edge - but it is still a "soft edge" as compared to a cutout-and-glued-on edge.

Detail showing contrast between "hard" veil edge & "soft" cheek edge.