# Tenebrism

Schema: 1.0.0 · Content revision: f5fd78058ba2
Resource base: https://mejohnc.org (or the preview host used to obtain this file).

A dramatic lighting approach in which concentrated illumination emerges from extensive darkness. It is more specific than a dark theme or ordinary high-contrast text.

## Visual family
Art & image-making. Editorial family: shared visual vocabulary, not a claim of common origin.

## Visual cues
- Dominant shadow
- Concentrated light
- Dramatic subject

## Build it
1. Let one lit image establish the mood.
2. Keep interface text evenly readable.
3. Reserve darkness for framing rather than hiding controls.

## Example
A portrait gallery with one illuminated subject and unobtrusive but visible metadata.

## Typography
Use solid, readable text beside the dramatic image. A serif can support the mood without needing a glow or shadow.

## Practical consequences
- Starting projects: Portfolio, Publication. These are suggestions, not restrictions.
- Reading/layout: spacious; bold visual emphasis.
- Asset work: A strongly lit subject image is essential to a full treatment.
- Complexity: medium. Allow time for a coherent decorative or image layer and responsive checks.

## Limits
Equating any black background with tenebrism or obscuring navigation to create drama.

## Reading the collected reference board
Notice how the faces and focal objects emerge from extensive shadow. These contemporary photographic compositions are lighting references, not historical paintings.

## Context
Contemporary screen interpretation. The recipe is a modern web adaptation.
No single inventor or exact founding date is asserted for this interpretation.

## Implementation files
- [page](/territories/tenebrism/)
- [guide](/territories/tenebrism/guide.md)
- [brief](/territories/tenebrism/brief.md)
- [tokens](/territories/tenebrism/tokens.json)
- [checks](/territories/tenebrism/checklist.md)
- [example](/territories/tenebrism/example/)
- [versionedGuide](/territories/v1/tenebrism/guide.md)
- [versionedTokens](/territories/v1/tenebrism/tokens.json)