Cangiante

The prophet Daniel The Prophet Daniel from the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Cangiante is one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance (the other three being Unione, Chiaroscuro, and Sfumato). It is characterized by the painter's changing to a different, lighter, hue (color) when the original hue cannot be made light enough or, conversely, changing to a darker hue when the original hue cannot be made dark enough. The painter may change, for example, from the color yellow to the color red (irregardless of the object's actual color) when painting shadows on a yellow object simply because the yellow he has to work with cannot be made dark enough to render shadows on that object (and the red can). There are, to be sure, other methods of rendering shadows (or highlights) but often the procedures available (mixing the original hue with black or brown) will render the shadow color dull and it may be the painter's intention to render even shadows in more pure colors. One must also keep in mind that in the Renaissance the available colors were severely limited in number and kind.

The word itself derives from the Italian 'cangiare' ('to change').

The greatest practitioner of this technique was Michelangelo and it is illustrated in many parts of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In the illustration of the Prophet Daniel which accompanies this article the use of cangiante can be clearly seen in the transition from green to yellow in the Prophet's robes. It might seem counter-intuitive that such a technique would work but this is another illustration of the greater importance of brightness information over color information in making sense of a scene. After Michelangelo's time the technique found widespread acceptance and is now a standard part of the painter's mental took-kit.

External links

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