Sfumato is a way of painting in which light turns into shadow so gradually that no line can be found between them. The word is Italian for smoke.
Leonardo da Vinci made the technique famous, but he was not the only one to use it. These 12 paintings follow it across nearly two hundred years.
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How These Were Chosen
A work earns its place when a museum or a specialist source does at least one of two things. It names sfumato, or it describes the effect: thin glazes, soft transitions, shading in Leonardo's manner. A famous face is not enough. Some well known portraits are missing because I found no such wording.
12. Andrea del Sarto, Madonna of the Harpies (1517)
Andrea del Sarto painted this altarpiece in Florence in 1517. The Uffizi describes its delicate, shaded colors as those of Leonardo da Vinci.
The painting stayed with its convent for nearly two centuries. Prince Ferdinando de' Medici wanted it from 1683 and had the convent restored. It entered the Medici collection around 1704.
The Uffizi's own text credits Leonardo for the soft shading.
At a Glance
Artist: Andrea del Sarto
Painted: 1517
Medium: Oil on panel
Where to see it: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
About This Painting
Why is it called the Madonna of the Harpies?
Giorgio Vasari described the creatures on the Virgin's pedestal as harpies. Modern scholars read them as the locusts of the Book of Revelation.
Which saints stand beside the Virgin?
Saint Francis and Saint John the Evangelist.
Was Saint Francis in the original contract?
No. The contract asked for Saint Bonaventure, and del Sarto painted Saint Francis instead.
11. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Don Andrés de Andrade y la Cal (c. 1665 to 1672)
The Metropolitan Museum describes the soft modeling of light and shadow, known as sfumato, in this full-length portrait by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.