Sfumato

{{Short description|Painting technique of the Renaissance}}

File:MonaLisa sfumato.jpeg showing the use of sfumato, particularly in the shading around the eyes.]]

Sfumato ({{IPAc-en|lang|s|f|uː|ˈ|m|ɑː|t|oʊ}} {{respell|sfoo|MAH|toh}}, {{IPA|it|sfuˈmaːto|lang}}; {{lit|smoked off}}, i.e. 'blurred') is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was the most prominent practitioner of sfumato, based on his research in optics and human vision, and his experimentation with the camera obscura. He introduced it and implemented it in many of his works, including the Virgin of the Rocks and in his famous painting of the Mona Lisa. He described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke".{{cite book|last= Earls |first= Irene |title= Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary |year= 1987 |publisher= Greenwood Press |isbn= 0-313-24658-0 |pages= 263}}

According to the theory of the art historian Marcia B. Hall,{{cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Marcia B.|title=Color and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting|date=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York, N.Y.|isbn=978-0-521-45733-0}} which has gained considerable acceptance,{{cite web|title=Four Canonical Painting Modes by APA|url=http://artpaintingartist.org/the-four-canonical-painting-modes-of-the-renaissance/}} sfumato is one of four modes of painting colours available to Italian High Renaissance painters, along with cangiante, chiaroscuro, and unione.Hall, Marcia B. (2005). Rome (series "Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance"). Cambridge University Press, pp. 148-150. {{ISBN|0521624452}}, 9780521624459, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gt5gtrqoKOIC&pg=PA148 google books]