Light and shade exist in a oil painting in two forms. Tone is simply the lightness and darkness of areas of a picture, graded from white to black. Tonal arrangement is a very significant feature of some oil paintings. Chiaroscuro is the modelling of apparent surfaces within a picture by the suggestion of light and shadow. While tone was an important feature of paintings of the Medieval period, chiaroscuro was not. It became increasingly important to painters of the 15th century, transforming the depiction of three dimensional space.

Taddeo Gaddi's Annunciation to the Shepherds is the first known large oil painting of a night scene. The internal light source of the picture is the angel.

In Fra Angelico's oil paintings, daylight, which appears to come from the actual window of the friary cell which this fresco adorns, gently illuminates the figures and defines the architecture.

In his Emperor's Dream, Piero della Francesca takes up the theme of the night scene illuminated by an angel and applies his scientific knowledge of the diffusion of light. The tonal pattern thus created is a significant element in the composition of the oil painting.

In his Agony in the Garden, Giovanni Bellini uses the fading sunset on a cloudy evening to create an atmosphere of tension and impending tragedy.

In Domenico Veneziano's formal portrait, the use of chiaroscuro to model the form is slight. However, the oil painting relies strongly on the tonal contrasts of the pale face, mid-tone background and dark garment with patterned bodice for effect.

Botticelli uses chiaroscuro to model the face of the sitter and define the details of his simple garment. The light and shadow on the edge of the window define the angle of the light.

The suggested authorship of this early 16th century portrait includes Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, Mariotto Albertinelli and Giuliano Bugiardini. The painting combines many of the lighting effects of the other works in this gallery. The form is modelled by the light and shade, as if by a setting sun, which gives an element of drama, enhanced by the landscape. The tonal pattern created by the dark garment, the white linen and position of the hand is a compositional feature of the oil painting.

In Leonardo da Vinci's John the Baptist, elements of the oil painting, including the corners of the model's eyes and mouth, are disguised by shadow, creating an air of ambiguity and mystery.