Renaissance cat portrait

This is the quieter cousin of the royal portrait, and the difference is worth knowing because people often want one and search for the other. A royal portrait is about the costume: crown, robe, gold. A renaissance portrait is about the painting: the light falling from one side, the near-black background, the slow gradation from lit cheek into shadow that oil paint does and photography does not.

Chiaroscuro is the whole effect. One strong light source, deep shadow everywhere else, and the subject emerging from darkness. On a cat this does something specific and rather beautiful. It picks out the plane of the nose and one eye, and lets the rest of the head fall away. It is the most flattering treatment there is for a cat with an interesting bone structure.

Because the style leans on shadow, dark cats work far better here than they do in watercolour. A black cat that disappears into a pale wash becomes genuinely striking against a renaissance background, where the coat and the darkness are meant to merge and only the eyes and the rim light survive.

Give it a photo with light coming from one side rather than head-on flash. A window at three-quarters to your cat is close to ideal, because the style is trying to reproduce exactly that: a single soft source, and everything else left to fall dark.