CHIAR-OSCITRO (Ital.), an artistic term, composed of two Italian words, the one of which signifies light, the other darkness or shadow. But C. signifies neither light nor shadow; neither is it adequately described by saying that it is theart of disposing of both the lights and shadows in a picture, so long as either is regarded apart from the other. It is rather the art of representing light in shadow, and shadow in light, so that the parts represented in shadow shall still have the clearness and warmth of those in light, and those in light the depth and softness of those in shadow. It is not the making of the one die softly and gradually away into the other, but the preservation of both in combination, as we constantly see it in nature, when the light is not the mere glare of the sun striking on a particular object, nor the shadow the entire absence of the influ ence of light. That the skillful treatment of C. is a matter of extreme difficulty, is
plain enough from the very small number of artists who ever attain to it. Still it is a branch of art without the mastery of which no painting can be successful in any depart ment. It is as indispensable in portrait-painting as in the highest departments of ideal art; and though a just and even a lofty conception of the subject may be distinctly indi cated by attention to form alone, it is impossible that its realization can ever be satis factorily accomplished by any one who has not mastered this most subtle mode of handling colors. The only mode by which a knowledge of C. can be attained, so as to apply it practice, is by studying it as exhibited by such painters as Titian, Ilubens, Rembrandt, and, above all, Correggio.