Why this word is great
TENEBRIST — [Noun] A painter who works in the style of tenebrism, characterized by stark, theatrical contrasts of light and dark. The term is a back-formation from tenebrism, which is from the Italian tenebroso ("dark, gloomy"), ultimately from the Latin tenebrae ("darkness"). Unlike "chiaroscuro," which broadly models form through gradations of tone, or "Impressionist," which chases the fleeting, ambient light of the outdoors, a tenebrist is a dramatist of controlled illumination, a contriver of staged radiance. He is the architect of a solitary beam carving a saint's face from a cellar's blackness; the curator of a single candle's glow on a weathered brow; the stage-manager of a divine light violently wrested from an encompassing void. Their work testifies that to see anything clearly, one must first consent to a great deal of darkness.