Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, also known as Caravaggio the master of chiaroscuro, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He exerted a significant influence on many great artists, marking the emergence of Caravaggism.

Caravaggio's works are a series of paintings inspired by his work. He manages to bring out the drama in the arrangement and colors used. The nuances are born of a certain encounter... Do you know which one?

Still life, a field in which Northern painters excelled, is painting that depicts inanimate objects or beings. Their mastery of this art form allows the viewer to plunge into a miniature world, captivated by the almost photographic precision of the compositions. To achieve this, painters play with chiaroscuro, a technique that creates contrast between light and dark areas to create depth.

Discover how to work with chiaroscuro in still-life painting in our video tutorial with artist Olivier Masmonteil.

The main characteristic of pigments of natural origin is that most of them tend to be toxic. As a result, 18th-century color producers had some dangerous products on hand, which had to be tamed. Gradually, non-hazardous alternatives were found to offer colors suitable for intensive use without risk to health.

As early as the 18th century, synthetic pigments such as zinc white and silver white were used to create tints, which were superseded in 1922 by titanium white, which is non-hazardous and provides better coverage.