Brief
explanation of terminology used in the theory and practice of art.
A
Aboriginal
Rock Art
Usually refers to Australian rock painting and petroglyphs.
Abstract art
Ill-defined and very widely used term which in its most general sense describes
any art in which form and colour are stressed at the expense, or in the absence
of, a representational image. Also known as concrete art or non-objective art.
Academic art
Literally, belonging to an Academy of art. Also: derogatory term meaning conventional,
stereotyped, derivative.
Acrylic Painting
Uses a fast-drying, synthetic, water soluble paint that can be used on most
surfaces. Made from colour pigments and a synthetic plastic binder, acrylic
paint looks like oil and can be used in a variety of painting techniques.
Aegean art
From various cultures around the eastern Mediterranean from c.2800 BCE to 1400
BCE, including Cycladic, Minoan (from Crete), and Mycenean.
Aerial perspective
A way of suggesting the far distance in a landscape by using paler colours
(sometimes tinged with blue), less pronounced tones, and vaguer forms in those
areas that are farthest from the viewer. By contrast objects in the foreground
are painted in sharply outlined, brilliant, and warm colours, and background
objects are shown in muted, cooler colours.
Aesthetics
Philosophy applied to art, which attempts to formulate criteria for the
understanding of the aesthetic (rather than utilitarian) qualities of art.
African Art
Guide to classical African sculpture, religious and tribal artworks and more.
Airbrush
Instrument for spraying paint, propelled by compressed air. Invented in 1893,
it has been much used by commercial artists, whether for fine lines, large
areas, or subtle gradations of colour and tone.
Alabaster
In Antiquity, a carbonate of lime used in Egyptian sculpture, especially for
small portable pieces. Also: modern alabaster, a lime sulfate which can be
highly polished but is easily scratched, popular in 14th-century Europe for
tomb effigies.
Alla prima
Technique, commonly used in painting since the 19th century, whereby an artist
completes a painting in one session without having provided layers of
underpainting.
Allegory
An allegory is the description of a subject in the guise of another subject. An
allegorical painting might include figures emblematic of different emotional
states of mind, for example envy or love, or personifying other abstract
concepts, for example sight, glory, or beauty. These are called allegorical
figures. The interpretation of an allegory therefore depends first on the
identification of such figures, but even then the meaning can remain elusive.
All-over space
Jackson Pollock was the first artist to use all-over space in his
"drip" paintings. It refers to paintings where there is no focal point
but where everything on the canvas has the same degree of importance.
Altarpiece
In Christian church architecture, the picture or decorated screen behind the
altar. It may consist of a single painting or an elaborate group of hinged
panels.
Ancient Art
Umbrella term encompassing early forms of creative expression from ancient
Mediterranean civilizations, like Sumerian, Egyptian, Minoan, Mycenean,
Persian.
Animalier
Member of the 19th-century school of French bronze sculptors who specialized in
small animal figures. Also: animal-painter.
Animal style
Type of nomad art originating with the Celts in the 7th century BCE in southern
Russia and the Caucasus; it was characterized by the predominance of animal
motifs (zoomorphs), frequently distorted, ornamenting all kinds of portable
objects including metalwork, textiles, wood and bone.
Animation Art
The creation of a motion picture from a series of still drawings.
Antiquity
Greek and Roman civilization until the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th
century AD. Greek and Roman sculpture was admired during the Renaissance as an
ideal art, and study of The Antique formed the basis of the curriculum in most
art academics.
Applied art
The designing and decorating of functional objects or materials to give them
aesthetic appeal, e.g. printing type, ceramics, glass, furniture, metal work
and textiles. The term is frequently used to differentiate this type of work
from the fine arts (painting, drawing, sculpture) whose value is primarily
aesthetic.
Applique
Textile decoration in which cut fabric shapes are stitched to a fabric ground
as a design.
Aquatint etching
Process whereby acid is allowed to bite into a copper plate prepared with resin
which is then inked and printed.
Arabesque
Motif based on interlaced plant forms, found in the fine and decorative arts,
in architecture, and especially typical of Islamic design.
Archaic Greek art
Greek art of the mid 12th century BCE to c.480 BCE; one of four convenient
divisions of Greek art, the others being Geometric, Classical and Hellenistic.
Architecture
Science or art of building. Also: the structure or style of what is built.
Armature
Framework or skeleton on which a sculptor molds his clay.
Armory Show
International exhibition of modern art held in New York in 1913 in the 69th
Regiment Armory building. Exhibits included the work of the more Avant-Garde US
artists and of the School of Paris. The exhibition was enormously popular and
marked the birth of a real interest in modern art in 20th-century America.
Art
A form of creative expression.
Art Brut
A term used to describe drawings, paintings and any other form of art done by
untrained or amatuer artists. Could be applied to drawings done by children,
people who are mentally ill or anyone who is does not describe themselve as an
"artist" or who are not painting commercially.
Art Evaluation
How to judge the aesthetics, craftsmanship and artistic technique of a
painting.
Art Schools
The term usually refers to tertiary colleges offering Bachelor of Fine Arts
Degrees (BFA), Bachelor of Design Degrees (BDes), as well as BAs in applied art
subjects.
Artifact (or artefact)
Any object of human workmanship. Also: (archeology) an object of prehistoric or
aboriginal art, as distinguished from a similar but naturally occurring object.
Arts and Crafts Movement
Mid-19th-century artistic movement in England, inspired by John Ruskin and
William Morris; it attempted to raise the standards of design and craftsmanship
in the applied arts, and to reassert the craftsman's individuality in the face of
increasing mechanization.
Assemblage Art
Modern form consisting of objects collected and assembled together; the
components are pre-formed, not made by the artist, and not intended originally
as "art material".
Automatism
Drawing and painting method associated with Surrealism in which the artist does
not consciously create but doodles, allowing the subconscious mind and
virtually uncontrolled movement of the hand to produce an image.
Avant-garde
Artists whose work is ahead of that of most of their contemporaries;
unconventional, experimental, innovative. Also descriptive of the work produced
by such artists.
B
Bacchanal
Mythological scene popular in paintings of the Renaissance and 17th century
depicting the revels of Bacchus, Roman god of wine.
Background
Scene in painting which provides setting for main figures or design; sometimes
used synonymously with ground.
Bamboccianti
Group of painters who specialized in bambocciate (Fr. bambochades): low-life
and peasant scenes, popular in the Netherlands and Italy in the 17th century.
The name derives from Pieter van Laer (1592-1642), a Dutch painter nicknamed
"Il Bamboccio" ("Big Baby").
Banketjea or banquet piece
Banketjea is a Dutch word which means "little banquet". A Banketjea
is the name given to a still life painting which features a range of luxury
foods and expensive serving pieces.
Baroque classicism
classical style - exemplified in the paintings of Nicolas Poussin and the
architecture of Carlo Fontana which flourished during the Baroque period.
Bas-relief
Form of sculpting characterized by only a slight projection from the
surrounding surface.
Batik
An artform which employs wax resistant designs on dyed textile fabrics.
Bayeux Tapestry
Anglo-Saxon embroidery depicting the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Biscuit
Unglazed white porcelain, popular in Europe from the mid 17th century.
Black-figure technique
Style of decoration of ancient Greek ceramics, chiefly of 6th-century BCE
Corinth. Designs were painted on the object in black metal oxide paint and then
incised through to the reddish clay.
Blocking in
Before starting a painting, an artist may 'block-in' the composition of the
painting using rough outlines or geometric shapes to show him how everything
fits on the canvas. Virtually all portrait painters use this 'blocking in'
method.
Body colour
Watercolour made opaque by mixing with white. Also: term used in painting to
describe solid, definitive areas of colour which are then completed or modified
with scumbles and glazes.
Bronze
Alloy of copper and tin, used for cast sculpture. Bronze sculpture is
made from this alloy. Hence bronzist, a maker of bronze sculpture, plaques,
etc.
Brush
Implement for applying paint, usually of hog or sable hair set in a wooden
handle.
Brush stroke
The individual mark made by each application of paint with a BRUSH, usually
retaining the mark of the separate brush hairs.
Brushwork
General term for manner or style in which paint is applied, and often
considered by art historians as an identifying characteristic of a particular
artist's work.
Buon fresco, see: fresco.
Burin
Metal tool used for engraving.
Bust
Portrait sculpture showing the sitter's head and shoulders only.
Byzantine Art
Of the eastern Roman Empire centred on Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, from
the 4th century AD. At various times it embraced both Classical Greek realism
and stylized, hieratic, Oriental art.
C
Cabinet picture
small or medium-sized painting executed at an easel, and designed for
collectors, especially popular from the 17th century; see Easel Picture.
Calligraphy
The Oriental fine art of drawing/writing.
Camera obscura (camera ottica)
device that uses a lens to project a reduced image of an object on to a flat
surface so that the outline may be traced. Popular with artists from the Renaissance
to the 18th century.
Canvas
The fabric support used for an oil or acrylic painting, usually made of linen
or cotton, stretched tightly and tacked onto a wooden frame. Linen is regarded
as superior to heavy cotton in a canvas.
Caravaggism
Tendency to follow the style of Caravaggio (1571-1610), exhibited by the
Caravaggisti (17th-century painters working in Rome), who made particularly
dramatic use of chiaroscuro.
Caricature
Painting or drawing, usually a portrait, that exaggerates features for humorous
or satirical effect.
Carolingian art
European art of the period covered by the reign of Charlemagne (CE 768-814) and
his successors until CE 900; usually regarded as the foundation of medieval
art.
Carpet page
In manuscript illumination, a page totally filled with decorative design.
Cartoon
Full-sized drawing for transferring design to painting, mural, or tapestry.
Also: comic drawing; caricature.
Casting
The duplication of a model in metal or plaster by means of a mold; the model
thus formed is a cast.
Celadon
Chinese porcelain or stoneware with a distinctive gray-green glaze.
Celtic Art
Hallstatt and La Tene styles of metalwork, and abstract designs characterized
by knots, spirals and interlace patterns.
Ceramics
The general term used since the 19th century for pottery and porcelain, i.e.
fired clay.
Chalk
The common name for calcium carbonate, which is found as a natural deposit all
over the world, and is composed of the remains of tiny crustaceans.
Traditionally used in painting and drawing.
Champleve enamel
Decorated metal, usually copper, especially popular in Europe from the 11th
century to the 14th; a hollowed-out pattern in the metal was filled with
coloured glass pastes and the whole object fired, thus fusing glass to metal.
(Compare Cloisonne enamel.)
Charcoal
Form of carbon used for drawing.
Chiaroscuro
The contrasting use of light and shadow. artists who are famed for the use of
chiaroscuro include Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Rembrandt. Leonardo used
chiaroscuro to enhance the three-dimensionality of his figures, Caravaggio used
it for drama, and Rembrandt for both reasons.
Chinese Art
One of the most ancient artistic traditions, noted for its calligraphic,
ink-and-wash, ceramic and bronze artworks.
Chinoiserie
Term for a European style of art applied to furniture, ceramics, interior
design, based on imaginary pseudo-Chinese motifs.
Chip carving
Early primitive carved decoration of Northern European oak furniture, executed
with a chisel and gouge, until about the 16th century.
Chi-Rho
A monogram (the Sacred Monogram) formed by the first two letters - X and P (chi
and rho) - of the Greek word for Christ. In religious art it may refer to the
Resurrection of Christ.
Cinquecento
Italian for the 16th century. Traditionally refers to Italian fine art
(1500-1600).
Cire perdue (Fr."lost wax")
Casting process used in bronze sculpture.
Cityscape
Painting or drawing of city scenery.
Classicism
The quality of classic or classical art. The term is applied in particular to the
type of art that was the antithesis of Romanticism during the 18th and 19th
centuries, when it was held to represent the virtues of restraint and harmony,
in contrast to dramatic individual expression.
Cloisonne enamel
Decorated metal in which a design of metal strips is applied and the
compartments (cloisons) formed are filled with coloured glass pastes. (Compare
Champleve enamel.) Used in Celtic Metalwork Art.
Collage Art ("pasting")
Technique originating with Cubism in which paper, photographs, and other
everyday materials were pasted on to a support, and sometimes also painted.
Colonial Art of America
17th/18th century portraiture, miniatures, architecture, furniture-making and
crafts in America.
Colorito
Renaissance term for colouring - mastery of colour in painting.
Colourism
Term applied to various periods of painting, e.g. 16th-century Venetian, in
which colour was emphasized, rather than drawing. "colourist" is an
artist who specializes in, or is famed for, his/her use of colour.
Colour
n keeping with its status as one of the leading "visual" arts,
painting is heavily dependent upon the use of colour for its impact, mood and
depth. The impact of colour on the visual senses of the viewer is extremely
potent and even one tiny dab of brightly coloured pigment in an otherwise
monochromatic picture can transform the work.
Colour wheel
A diagrammatic chart showing the placement of colors in relationship to each
other.
Composition, of a painting
Composition describes the complete work of art, and in particular the way that
all its elements unite in an overall effect. Compositional elements in a
painting might include: size of canvas, subject matter, focal points of the
picture (if any), colour scheme, tonal warmth and contrasts, draughtsmanship,
representation and meaning, among others.
Computer Art
Visual images either computer-generated or computer-controlled using software
or hardware tools. Also referred to as Digital art.
Conceptualism/Conceptual Art
Form in which the concepts and ideas are more important than tangible, concrete
works of art.
Concrete Art
Term coined in 1930 when Theo van Doesburg became editor of the magazine art
Concret; it is sometimes used as a synonym for abstract art, though the
emphasis is not just on geometric or abstract form, but on structure and
organization in both design and execution.
Conte crayon
Proprietary manufactured chalk.
Contemporary art
A rather loose term, used by museums to describe post-war art, and by critics
to refer to art since 1970.
Content, of a painting
This traditionally refers to the message contained and communicated by the work
of art, embracing its emotional, intellectual, symbolic, and narrative content.
Contrapposto ("opposite", "anti-thesis",
"placed against")
word used in sculpture, referring to the posing of human form so that head and
shoulders are twisted in a different direction from hips and legs.
Crafts
A category embracing most decorative arts.
Curvilinear
Design or patternwork (eg. Etruscan/Celtic interlace) based on pattern of
curved lines; sinuous.
Cycladic art
type of Aegean art from the Cyclades - a group of Greek islands - c.2800 BCE to
1100 BCE.
D
Dark Ages
period of the Middle Ages from c.5th century CE to 10th century, considered a
phase in which philosophy and the arts were ignored or actively hindered.
Decalcomania (decalcomanie)
American term for lithography.
Decorative art
Collective name for art forms like ceramics, tapestries, enamelling, stained
glass, metalwork, paper art, textiles, and others, which are deemed to be ornamental
or decorative, rather than intellectual or spiritual.
Decoupage
Victorian craft which involves the cutting out of motifs from paper, gluing
them to a surface and layering with varnish to give a completely smooth finish.
Degenerate art ("Entartete Kunst")
Nazi propaganda term used from c.1937 for works of modern art disapproved of by
the party.
Design (artistic)
The plan involved in making something according to a set of aesthetics.
Diptych
Pair of painted or sculptured panels hinged or joined together; especially
popular for devotional pictures in the Middle Ages; see altarpiece.
Direct carving
Method of stone sculpture where form is carved immediately out of the block,
and not transferred from a model.
Disegno
Literally, "drawing" or "design", but which during the
Renaissance acquired a broader meaning of overall concept.
Drawing
Refers to the monochrome use of pencil, charcoal, pen, ink, or similar mediums
on paper, card or other support, producing linework or a linear quality rather
than mass. When used of a painting, it refers more specifically to the artist's
method of representing form by these means, rather than by the use of colour
and paint.
Drypoint
Copper engraving technique.
E
Earthenware
pottery made from red or white clay, fired in a kiln at less than 1200 degrees
Cent.
Easel
An upright support (typically a tripod) employed for holding an artist's canvas
while it is being painted.
Easel painting (or picture)
small or medium-sized painting executed at an easel. These were usually
intended for collectors and conoisseurs, although the term may also be used
generally for any portable painting, as opposed to mural painting.
Ecce homo (Latin, "Behold the man")
the pictorial representation of Christ's presentation to the people by Pontius
Pilate before the Crucifixion.
Emboss
to mould, stamp, or carve a surface to produce a design in relief.
Enamel
vitreous substance (usually lead/potash glass) fused to metal at high
temperature (about 800 degrees Cent) and often used for decorative objects; see
Cloisonne enamel.
Encaustic Painting
ancient technique of painting with wax and pigments fused by heat.
Engraving
the technique of incising lines on wood, metal etc. Also: the impression made
from the engraved block.
Etching
process in which the design is drawn on a metal plate through a wax ground; the
design is cut into the plate with acid, and printed. Also: a print produced by
this method.
Ethnographic art
art inspired by a particular racial culture, especially of the primitive type.
Extender
inert pigment used to bulk a paint or to lower the tinctorial strength of
another pigment.
F
Fabergé
Easter Eggs
Objects of precious jewellery made by Russian firm of fin de siecle
goldsmiths and jewellers.
Faience
type of tin-glazed earthenware, often used for architectural purposes. Also:
archeological term for ancient Egyptian wares of glazed powdered quartz.
Figurative art
synonym for representational art.
Figure drawing (and figure painting)
Drawing or painting in which the human figure predominates, usually full
length.
Figurine
small model or sculpture of the human figure, like prehistoric Venus Figurines,
such as Venus of Willendorf.
Fine art
art whose value is considered to be aesthetic rather than functional, i.e.
architecture, sculpture, painting and drawing, and the graphic arts. Compare
applied art and decorative art.
Flower painting
still-life painting of flowers, associated chiefly with Oriental art and the
Dutch painters of the 17th century.
Folk art
Traditional art of peasant societies, which includes utilitarian, decorative
and applied arts and crafts.
Foreground
Refers to the area of the picture space closest to the viewer, immediately
behind the picture plane. The next distant area is the middleground; the most
distant is the background.
Foreshortening
the use of the laws of perspective in art to make an individual form appear
three dimensional.
Form
Describes the elements in a work of art which are independent of the emotional
or interpretative significance of the work: for example, the medium, scale,
shape, colour, dimensions, line, mass, texture, and their mutual relationships.
Formalism
the tendency to adhere to conventional forms at the expense of the subject
matter.
Found Object
an object that is found, not made by the artist, and is then defined and
displayed as a work of art - also known as an "objet trouve" - and
associated with Surrealism and Dada.
Fresco Painting
Mural painting on fresh plaster; sometimes called buon fresco ("true
fresco") to distinguish it from painting "a secco", on dried
plaster.
Fresco Secco
misleading term synonymous with painting "a secco".
Frottage (Fr. "rubbing") the technique of placing paper over
textured objects or surfaces and rubbing with a wax crayon or graphite, to
produce an image. Invented by Max Ernst.
Functionalism
the artistic theory that form should be determined bv function, especially in
architecture and the decorative arts, and that this will automatically produce
objects that are aesthetically pleasing.
G
Genre-Painting
Type of picture featuring an everyday scene containing human subjects.
Geometric Style
Greek style of decoration, flourishing from c.900 to c.725 BCE, based on linear
and angular shapes.
Georgian art
refers to the styles prevalent through the reigns of the four King Georges in
Britain from 1714 to 1830. Usually refers to architecture, furniture, silver
and the like, rather than painting.
Gesso
generally used for any mixture of an inert white pigment with glue, used as a
ground for painting; strictly, a mixture in which the inert pigment is calcium
sulfate. Gesso grosso is coarse gesso made from sifted plaster of Paris, used
for the preliminary ground layer in medieval Italian panel paintings. Gesso
sottile is fine crystalline gypsum, made by slaking plaster of Paris in excess
water. Gesso can also be built up or molded into relief designs, or carved.
Gestural painting
a term that originally came into use to describe the painting of the abstract
Expressionist artists Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert
Motherwell, Hans Hofmann and others. What they had in common was the
application of paint in free sweeping gestures with the brush.
Giclee Prints
Fine art printing process using inkjet printers.
Giornata
the area of work in mural or mosaic that could be finished in one day. In
fresco painting, it refers to the area of intonaco applied each day. In true
fresco, the joins of the giornate are usually visible.
Glass Painting
technique of decorating glass, not very clearly distinguished from glass
enameling, although it may be more transparent and smoother. Early glass
painting was not fired, and therefore not permanent.
Glaze
transparent layer of paint applied over another; light passes through and is
reflected back, modifying or intensifying the underlayer. Also: vitreous layer
made from silica, applied to pottery as decoration or to make it water-tight.
Gouache
opaque watercolour paint. Also: a work executed in gouache medium.
Graffiti Art
a contemporary artform which first appeared in Philadelphia and New York during
the late 1960s/early1970s.
Graphic design
Derived from the German word graphik. Describes the applied art of
formulating/arranging image/text to communicate a message. It can be applied in
any media, such as print, digital media, animation, packaging, and signs.
Grattage ("scraping")
Technique used bv 20th-century artists, like Max Ernst (1891-1976), in which an
upper layer of paint is partially scraped away to reveal the contrasting
under-layer.
Greek Art
The foundation of Western painting and sculpture in general and Renaissance art
in particular.
Greek Sculpture
Sculptors from ancient Greece pioneered the development of statues and reliefs.
Greek vases
range of pots of different sizes, used for different purposes, most of which were
often decorated if not painted. The two main styles were black-figure and
red-figure techniques.
Grisaille
technique of monochrome painting in shades of gray, used as underpainting or to
imitate the effect of relief.
Ground
layer of preparation on a support to receive paint. Also: in etching, the
acid-resistant material spread over the metal plate before the design is
etched. Also: in pottery, the clay forming the body of a vessel on which a
design is executed.
H
Hallstatt
The first identifiable continental culture and art-style of the Celts
(c.600-450 BCE). Followed by La Tene Celtic culture.
Happenings
Type of Performance art. Spontaneous artistic event or display.
Hatching
drawing technique that uses closely spaced parallel lines to indicate toned
areas. When crossed by other lines in the opposite direction it is known as
cross-hatching.
Haut-relief (Alto-rilievo, high relief)
Form of sculptural relief characterized by a prominent projection from the
surrounding surface.
Hellenic
Greek culture of the 11th century BCE to 323 BCE.
Hellenistic
Greek culture after Alexander the Great (from 323 BCE) to the late 1st century
BCE.
Hierarchy of the Genres
The ranking system promulgated by the fine arts academies which comprised five painting-genres.
(1) History painting ("istoria", narrative compositions); (2) Portraiture
(individual, group of self-portraits); (3) Genre-Painting (everyday
scenes featuring human subjects); (4) Landscape Painting (scenic view is
paramount: human content, merely illustrative); (5) Still Life
(arrangements of domestic objects).
Hieratic
style in which certain fixed types, often sacred, are repeated, e.g. in
Egyptian or Byzantine art. It may also be applied to any art that uses severe,
rigid figures rather than naturalistic ones.
Hieroglyphs
pictorial form of writing, as used by the Egyptians.
High art
art that strives to attain the highest aesthetic and moral qualities in both
content and expression.
Historiated
architecture or sculpture decorated with narrative subjects. A historiated
initial is an initial in an illuminated mansuscript containing a narrative
scene.
History of Art
Guide to the origins, evolution and development of the fine and visual arts.
History of Art Timeline
Chronological list of dates about the evolution of painting, sculpture and
pottery.
History Painting
painting whose subject is some significant historical event, preferably
Classical, mythological, actual or literary. From the 16th century to the 19th,
history painting was more highly esteemed than other forms of painting,
especially by the academies.
How to Appreciate Paintings
Explains how to analyse painterly skills and narrative content.
Icons
(Icon Painting)
(Greek, "image", "portrait")
in Byzantine, Greek and Russian Orthodox church art, the representation of Christ
or the Virgin, or saints, in mosaic or painting; tending to be stereotyped or
hieratic; hence iconic.
Iconography
recognizable emblematic motifs and symbols in works of art.
Ideal art
Painting of various periods that is based on the artist's conception rather
than visual perception, e.g. the art of the High Renaissance, or of
17th-century classicism.
Illumination
The decoration of manuscript texts which may have started from the simple
addition of minium to the script, the general part being written in black. From
this grew quite extraordinary elaboration, fantastic interwoven strap patterns,
decorative motifes, zoomorphic imagery, plant forms. miniature portraits of
religious figures. It was one of the most important arts of the Middle Ages.
Wherever there were monasteries the art seems to have been practised. The
monastic scribe worked about six hours a day. After he had finished the work
was proof-read. Then the sheets went to a rubricator who put in titles and
headlines, then to the illuminator. The last worked miracles of miniature
presentation with the materials at his command. The oldest known illumination
is an Egyptian papyrus, the 'Book of the Dead'. The Greeks and Romans produced
some work, but very little survives. The Byzantine manuscripts contain some
perfect examples. Fourteenth-century Persian editions of the Koran, exquisite
delicate designs. Among the famed European manuscripts are the 'Book of Hours'
of the Duc de Berry produced by the Limbourg brothers (1410-13), and 'The Book
of Kells', 8th century, now in Trinity College Library, Dublin. The manuscripts
were worked on vellum, using not only colours, but also gold-leaf and other
metals, tiny fragments of precious and semi-precious stones and raising paste.
Illuminated Manuscripts
Handwritten book on vellum or parchment, usually medieval, decorated with
miniature painting, borders, and decorative capital letters; hence
illumination. Exemplars: Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Durrow.
Illusionism
The use of optical and perspectival principles to create the illusion of
painted objects being three dimensional; hence illusionist, illusionistic.
Illustration
A method of enhancing written text by providing an illustration (pictorial
explanation) of the written words.
Impasto
Thick mass of paint or pastel; hence impasted, or impastoed.
India Ink
In fine art, a drawing ink made from a black pigment consisting of lampblack
and glue.
Ink and Wash Painting
Japanese and Chinese painting technique, using ink in the same way as
watercolour.
Installation Art
This typically employs mixed media (eg. sculpture and video), which typically
fills an entire space, such as a room or gallery. It is commonly site-specific.
Intaglio
decoration produced by cutting into a surface, used in engraving, etching, gem
carving.
Intarsia
the decoration of wood with inlay work, especially in 15th-century Italy.
Interiors
a style of genre-painting perfected by Dutch Realists of the later 17th
century; later taken up by Danish artists like Peter Vilhelm Ilsted (1861-33)
and Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916).
International Gothic
since the 19th century, used to describe the style of art prevalent from c.1375
to 1425, balanced midway between naturalistic and idealistic values and
characterized by delicate and rich colouring.
Intonaco
the smooth layer of lime plaster that receives the paint in fresco painting.
Irish School
Islamic Art
Includes architecture, pottery, faience mosaics, lustre-ware, relief sculpture,
drawing, painting, calligraphy, manuscript illumination, textile design,
metalwork, gemstone carving, and other crafts.
Italianate style
in an Italian manner. Also: in architecture, the adaptation of Italian
Renaissance palace styles, especially so in America c.1840-65.
Italian Primitives
artists and their works in Italy prior to 1400.
Ivory Carving
Form of sculpture made using animal tusks and teeth, notably from elephants,
whales and walruses.
J
Jade
extremely hard stone, which may be blue, green, white, or brown; highly prized
in Chinese art for carvings and jewellery. It is composed of calcium and
magnesium, with sodium or aluminum.
Japanese Art
Yamato-e, and Ukiyo-e painting, Buddhist Temple art and Zen ink-painting.
Japonism
the craze for Japonaiserie - Japanese imports e.g. prints and furniture,
brought to Europe in the mid 19th century - and its effect on European painting
and decorative art.
Jasper Ware
type of stoneware pottery introduced by Josiah Wedgewood in 1774. Originally
pure white but sometimes stained with cobalt oxide to produce "Wedgewood
blue".
Jewellery Art
decorative art typically crafted from precious metal (gold, silver, platinum
etc.) and gemstones like diamonds, sapphires, rubies, pearls and the like.
Junk Art
A sub-species of "found art", typically sculpture or assemblage,
sometimes also called "funk art" or "trash art".
K
Kaolin
also known as China clay; used in the manufacture of hand-paste porcelain and
sometimes in the GROUNDS of paintings. Chemically it is hydrated silicate of
aluminium.
Key design
geometrical pattern of repeated horizontal and vertical straight lines, found
in ancient Greek and Celtic art.
Kinetic art
most commonly sculptures (eg. mobiles, stabiles) designed to move and thus
produce optical effects; first made in the 1920s, but most popular from 1950
onwards.
Kitsch
mass-produced vulgar craftwork articles of the kind manufactured for souvenirs;
the word has now become a pejorative term for whatever is thought to be in
flamboyant bad taste.
Kouros
Archaic Greek statue of standing youth (pl. kouroi).
Krater
ancient Greek storage vessel; different shapes were used for water and wine.
Kufic script
angular, square type of Arabic script (the more flowing script is NASHKI);
sometimes found in decorative Romanesque and Gothic art.
L
Land Art (earthworks, environmental art)
A form of contemporary art dating from the 1960s and 70s created in the
landscape, either by using natural forms, or by enhancing natural forms with
man-made materials. Famous pioneer environmental artists include Robert
Smithson, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
Landscape painting
Composition in which the scenery is the principal subject. Also: scenic areas
of a painting or drawing.
Lapis Lazuli
deep-blue semiprecious stone, used for jewellery, and from which the pigment
ultramarine is extracted.
La Tene Style
style of decorative art that appeared c.5th century BCE in Europe and was fully
developed in Celtic art of the pre-Roman period; the name is derived from a
site in Switzerland where metal objects and weapons in this style have been
found.
Life drawing
drawing from a live human model.
Linear
artistic style that emphasizes lines and contours; hence linearity and
linearism.
Linear perspective
method of indicating spatial recession in a picture by placing objects in a
series of receding planes; parallel lines receding from the onlooker's
view-point will appear to meet at a vanishing point. Pioneers included Renaissance
painters Masaccio and Andrea Mantegna.
Line engraving
the art or process of hand-engraving in Intaglio and copper plate, using a
Burin. Also: a print taken from such a plate.
Lino cut
print produced by carving a design into a block of linoleum.
Lithography
printing method in which a design is drawn on stone with a greasy crayon and
then inked.
Lost Wax Method, see: Cire Perdue.
Luminism
Style of light-related 19th century American landscape painting.
M
Maniera
according to the writings of Georgio Vasari (1511-74), the
"stylishness" associated with the art of 16th-century Italy,
epitomized in the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. Known as Mannerism.
Maquette
model made on a small scale by a sculptor or a stage-designer as a preliminary
three-dimensional "sketch'" for the final work.
Marble Sculpture
Made from limestone. It occurs in various colours, from pure white to black, often
veined.
Marine art
painting or drawing of a sea subject.
Masterpiece
originally a test piece of work done by the medieval apprentice in order to
qualify as a Master of his Guild. The term is now used more freely to mean a
work of oUbtanding importance or quality.
Medium
the means or material with which an artist expresses himself. In painting, the
medium is the liquid in which pigment is mixed and thinned, e.g. linseed oil.
Mezzotint
method of copper engraving, Also: a print produced by this method.
Mimesis
is a term which describes the artistic imitation of nature, rather than its
interpretation: in order words, the showing of things as opposed to the telling
of things (diegesis).
Miniature Painting
very small piece of work, such as a Medieval Manuscript Illumination. During
the Renaissance and the 18th and 19th centuries, the term was more specifically
applied to small portraits painted on ivory.
Minimal art
modern art that rejects texture, subject, atmosphere, etc and reduces forms and
colours to the simplest; hence minimalism, minimalist.
Mixed Media
the combination of different materials in the same work, sometimes including
performance.
Mobile
Kinetic sculpture probably originated by Alexander Calder in 1932; the
sculpture is hung from wires so that it is moved by air currents.
Modeling
three-dimensional representation of objects.
Modernism
the theory of modernist art that rejects past styles, and promotes contemporary
art as the true reflection of the age, hence modernist.
Modern Art
Traditionally starts with Impressionism, from about 1874 onwards, until the
early post-world war II period. Late Pop-art then ushers in contemporary or
post-modern art.
Monotype
printing process that takes an impression from a metal or glass plate,
producing only one print of each design, which must then be redrawn.
Monumental
connected with, or serving as, a monument. Also: used figuratively of paintings
and other art forms to mean imposing or massive.
Mosaic Art
designs formed from small pieces of stone, glass, marble, etc.
Mosan art
art of the 12th and 13th centuries in the valley of the River Meuse in France;
it produced the first great school of enamel painters using the Champleve
technique.
Motif
a repeated distinctive feature in a design.
Mughal art
art of the courts of the Muslim rulers in India, 1526-1707.
Mural Painting
pictures painted on walls or ceilings, traditionally in fresco.
Mythological painting
Pictures of subjects chosen from Greek and Roman Classical mythology, popular
from the 15th century to the 19th. Also called History Painting.
N
Naive
The work, style, or art of untaught artists, usually crudely naturalistic.
Nashki
The flowing form of Arabic calligrahic script (compare Kufic).
Naturalism
Accurate, detailed representation of objects or scenes as they appear, whether
attractive or otherwise. (compare Realism).
Non-objective art
A 20th century term applied to visual art which is not based on existing,
observable forms, but rather on abstract or idealized forms, such as geometric,
mathematical, imaginary, etc. An early pioneer of non-abstraction is Piet
Mondrian.
Non-representational art
Also called non-objective, this style consisted of works which had no reference
to anything outside themselves. In practice, it was mainly geometrically
abstract.
Nude genre
The standing male nude (kouros) first became important in the sculpture
of ancient Greece, which associated the male body with athletic prowess and
moral excellence. However, attitudes towards female nudity were different. The
female body was associated with the divinity of procreation, and for almost
five centuries, the Greeks preferred to see the standing female (kore)
clothed. Then in the 4th century BCE sculptor Praxiteles carved a naked
Aphrodite, known as the Knidian Aphrodite, which established a new
aesthetic tradition for the female form. Quite unlike the exaggerated forms of
Middle Eastern fertility figurines, the Knidian Aphrodite was created
using idealized proportions based on mathematical ratios. A self-protective
pose added to her modesty. This ideal version of the Greek female nude -
designed to appeal to the mind as well as the senses - was later also adopted
by Hellenistic Greco-Roman art but mostly discarded during the Pax Romana,
from about 50 CE.
The
first major culture to celebrate the importance of the male nude statue was
that of ancient Greece, whose religious festivals frequently included athletic
competitions in which young nude males demonstrated their physical prowess and
competed for significant honours. Greek art mirrored Greek life, and thus from
the early Archaic Age (600-500 BCE) the standing nude youth (kouros)
became a regular image in the sculptural iconography of Classical Antiquity.
Some of the most famous male nudes were sculpted by unknown artists. They
include: The Farnese Heracles (5th Century BCE), the fabulously balanced
Zeus of Artemision (c.470), The Belvedere Apollo (330), The
Dying Gaul (240) and the semi-relief The Barberini Faun (220). The
greatest known Greek sculptors of standing male nude statues include:
Polykleitos (5th century), Phidias (c.488-431 BCE), Myron (Active 480-444 BCE),
Praxiteles (Active 375-335 BCE), and also Hagesandrus, Athenodoros &
Polydorus (1st-2nd century BCE, creators of Laocoon and His Sons).
O
Objet
trouve,
see: Found Object.
Oceanic art
From the South Pacific, including Australasia.
Oeuvre
the total output of an artist. Also: a work of art.
Offset litho
lithographic technique in which ink is transferred from a plate to a rubber
roller, and then onto the paper.
Oil painting
A medium where pigments are mixed with drying oils, such as linseed, walnut, or
poppyseed, which found great favour due to its brilliance of detail, its rich
colour, and its wider tonal range. Popularized during the 15th century in
Northern Europe (whose climate did not favour fresco works), foremost pioneers
of oil paint techniques included (in Holland) Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, and (in
Italy) Leonardo Da Vinci.
Oils
There are various types of oil which are used as binders and drying agents (oil
plus pigment dries by a process of oxidation by absorbing oxygen from the air)
by oil painters. Linseed oil, made from flax seeds, adds gloss and transparency
to paints and dries very thoroughly (within 3-5 days), making it ideal for
underpainting. Stand oil is a thicker type of linseed oil, with a slower drying
time (7-14 days), which is often diluted with (eg) turpentine, and used for
glazing to produce a smooth, enamel-like finish with minimal traces of
brushmarks. Poppyseed oil, much paler, more transparent and less likely to
yellow than linseed, is often employed for white or lighter colours. Poppyseed
oil takes longer to dry than linseed oil (5-7 days), so it is perfect for
working wet on wet. Walnut oil is a thin, pale yellow-brown oil (dries in 4-5
days) which is commonly used to make oil paint more fluid.
Orders of Architecture
the five Classic orders, each composed of a column, having a base, shaft,
capital, and entablature with architrave frieze, and cornice. There are three
Greek orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These were adapted by the Romans,
who added Tuscan and Composite.
Ottonian art
Murals, illuminated manuscripts and architectural sculpture of the period 919
to early 11th century, under the Ottonian emperors.
Outsider art
Refers to works by those outside of mainstream society. Outsider art broadly
includes folk art and ethnic art as well as by prisoners, the mentally ill and
others neither trained in art nor making their works to sell them.
Overpainting
The final layer of paint that is applied over the under painting or under layer
after it has dried. The idea behind layers of painting is that the under
painting is used to define the basic shapes and design so that the overpainting
can be used to fill in the details of the piece.
P
Paintbrush
Bristles may derive from a variety of animals including boar, wolf, squirrel
and badger as well as synthetic. Red sable hair is considered the finest.
Different shapes are employed for different types of painting tasks: larger,
more indistinct areas of painting such as the sky in landscapes were typically
done with flat or round-tipped hogs hair brushes, while specific detail was
painted with fine pointed sable brushes. In addition, feathers were sometimes
employed to smooth out areas of paint to remove visible brushwork. Badger
Brushes were used to blend adjacent areas of different tones.
Painterly
a term coined by the art historian Heinrich Wolfflin to describe one of two
contrasting styles in painting: linear, which emphasizes contours; painterly,
which emphasizes colour and tone; hence painterliness.
Painting
process of applying paint. Also: object produced by applying paint to a flat
support, e.g. a wall or canvas.
Palette
slab of wood, metal or glass used by the artist for mixing paint. Also:
figuratively: the range of colours used by the artist.
Palette knife
spatula-shaped knife for mixing or applying thick, bodied paint.
Panel painting
refers to the use of wooden panels, as support: a practice which was widespread
until the appearance of canvas during the 15th century. In Flanders, Holland,
France and England, oak panels were most popular; in Germany and Austria oak,
beech, lime, chestnut, and cherrywood was used; while in Italy poplar was also
employed. Dry seasoned planks were primed with several coats of
"size" - a glue derived from animal skins - and gesso, a combination
of powdered calcium sulfate (gypsum) and animal glue. One advantage of panels,
was their extremely smooth surface, which made them ideal for painting fine
detail.
Panorama
painting of a view or landscape; especially large-scale painting around a room,
or rolled on a cylinder.
Papier Colle ("pasted paper")
collage of paper/card, first used in 1912 by Georges Braque.
Pastel
Crayon made from pigment mixed with gum and water and pressed into a
stick-shaped form, or work executed in this medium. Because pastel tends to be
light and chalky in tone, the word is also used to describe pale, light
colours.
Pastoral
idealized landscape painting or country scene.
Pensieri
small models made as preliminaries to larger models, when making sculpture.
Performance Art
Contemporary form; see also Happenings.
Perspective
A term which refers to the "depth" of a picture - that is, the
illusion of three-dimensional space on the picture's two-dimensional surface -
whereby forms in the background appear smaller than those in the foreground.
The "single point" or linear perspective system was pioneered by
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) in Florence in relation to his architecture.
Mathematically constructed so that all receding parallel lines seem to converge
towards each other, eventually meeting at a single point (the vanishing point),
this method of perspective was employed by artists from the early 15th century
onwards. Curiously, Dutch and Flemish painters of the early 15th century
developed their own independent method of perspective.
Petroglyphs
Primitive rock carvings and engravings.
Phalerae
metal boss or disc, worn as an ornament or decorating a horse's harness.
Commonly seen in Hallstatt and La Tene style Celtic art.
Photography
Now a fine arts medium.
Photomontage
picture combining juxtaposed photographic images.
Photorealism
a hyper-realistic style of painting in which an image is created in such detail
that it resembles a photograph.
Picturesque
quaint, charming. From the 18th century onwards "The Picturesque"
acquired a more specific meaning, particularly in connection with landscape
painting, and architecture; it suggested a deliberate roughness or rusticity of
design, and was to some extent transitional between Classicism and Romanticism.
Pieta
representation of the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ.
Pigment
the colour element in paint. Pigments can consist of a wide variety of
ingredients, including minerals, natural/artificial dyestuffs, and other
synthetic compounds.
describes the native American Indian art practised by the Sioux,
Commanche and Blackfeet tribes, on the Western Plains of the United States.
Plastic
used in art to describe anything that can be molded or modeled; the opposite of
Glyptic.
Plastic art
three-dimensional forms of art such as sculpture, pottery, and architecture.
Plein air painting
refers to the spontaneous outdoor method of painting from nature - usually
landscapes - as perfected by Claude Monet among others.
Pochade
sketch, especially one made outdoors.
Polymorphic painting
multiform painting, produced by some modern kinetic artists. The appearance of
the work changes according to the position of the observer.
Polyptych
painted work (usually an altarpiece) of more than three panels; see also
Diptych, Triptych.
Porcelain
hard, refined ceramic material, invented by the Chinese in the 7th century.
Portrait Art
Drawn or painted image of a person, usually naturalistic and identifiable;
hence portraiture, portraitist. See also Bust.
Poster Art
Either advertising lithographic designs, propaganda posters or reproductions of
famous paintings.
Potter's wheel
Horizontal revolving disk used to shape clay by the ceramicist.
Pottery
A form of ceramic art, in which wet clay is shaped, dried, glazed and fired in
a kiln to create a variety of vessels, and ornaments. For history and styles of
Antiquity.
Poussinist
adherent of the French late 17th-century theory of poussinism: the supremacy of
line (draftsmanship) over colour.
Prehistoric art
Creative expression of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods of the
Stone Age. For a chronological dateline, see: Prehistoric Art Timeline.
Primary colours
red, blue, and yellow; the colours that can be mixed to produce other colours,
but cannot themselves be produced from mixtures.
Primitivism/Primitive art
Paintings and drawings by people outside the influence of traditional Western
styles. Also: works by intuitive painters or sculptors with a "naive"
style commonly due to their lack of formal arts training.
Print
any image, pattern, or lettering produced on fabric or paper by a variety of
graphic processes. Also: (verb) to make an impression or image by such a
process. Usually means letter-printing; printmaking involves producing an image
that is aesthetically pleasing, or illustrative.
Printmaking
A term which applies to fine art printing processes, such as etching,
engraving, lithography, woodcut, and silkscreen, in which multiple images are
replicated from the same metal plate, stone, wood or linoleum block, or
silkscreen, with monochrome or colour printing inks.
Proportion
in painting, sculpture and architecture, this describes the ratio between the
respective parts and the whole work, as annunciated (for instance) in the Canon
of Proportion, a mathematical formula establishing ideal proportions of the
various parts of the human body.
Provenance
A term meaning the origins of a work of art, specifically its history of
ownership since its creation. Museum curators and fine art research experts at
auctioneers like Christie's and Sotheby's study a work's provenance to
establish its authenticity.
Public Art
A loose term which, in practice, means artworks financed out of the public
purse. Can also mean works (usually sculpture) sited in public places, such as
the Chicago Picasso.
Q
Quadratura
Trompe l'oeil ceiling mural paintings that seem to extend the
architectural features beyond the actual space of the room.
Quattrocento (It.)
Italian for the 15th century. Traditionally refers to Italian fine art (1400-1500).
R
Raku
Japanese pottery used for the tea ceremony; molded, not thrown on a wheel.
Ready-made
Name given by Dadaist Marcel Duchamp to prefabricated objects exhibited as
works of art.
Realism
style of painting dating from the 19th century, typified by Courbet, that makes
a deliberate choice of everyday subject matter (Realisme). Also: the opposite
of abstract or distorted (similar to naturalism). Also: in Greek Classical
sculpture. work that is not stylized or idealized.
Red-figure technique
The technique of the finest ancient Greek vase-painting in which figures were
drawn in black and the back-ground blocked in in black so that the figure stood
out in the red.
Relief sculpture
carving, etc in which forms project and depth is hollowed out; the type of
relief is determined by the degree to which the design stands out; thus alto
rilievo (high relief) and bas relief (low relief), in which the projection is
slight.
Religious Art
Typically architecture, sculpture, painting or crafts or artifacts with a
religious theme.
Renaissance ("rebirth")
The period of Renaissance art runs from c.1400 to 1600, divided into
Early Renaissance (c.1400-90), High Renaissance (c.1490-1530), and Mannerism
(c. 1530-1600); as a whole it was characterized by greater emphasis on realism,
a mastery of linear perspective, Humanism (a belief in the primacy of man) and
the rediscovery of Classical art. North of the Alps, the movement is known as
the Northern Renaissance.
Repousse
Technique of metalwork art, where metal is decorated by hammering from the side
not seen, so that the design stands out in relief.
Repoussoir
A method of creating or enhancing perspective in a painting, for instance by
placing a large figure/object in the foreground. Such repoussoir figures were
common features of Dutch figure painting of the seventeenth-century. Dutch
Realist landscape artists often exploited the dramatic effect of repoussoir to
enliven their pictures of the flat and featureless Dutch countryside.
Representational art
art that attempts to show objects as they really appear, or at least in some
easily recognizable form.
Rock Art
Petroglyphs, pictographs and other forms of stone engraving or cave painting.
S
Salon
French annual exhibition in Paris (held from 17th century onwards) of painting
and sculpture by members of the Academy, traditionally hostile to innovation.
Salon d'Automne
Rival exhibition held in Paris by the Societe du Salon d'Automne.
Salon des Independants
exhibition of the Societe des Artistes Independents of 1884, including
Seurat and Signac. The society had no selection jury.
Salon des Refuses
exbibition of 1863 promoted by Napoleon III to show works rejected by the
official Paris Salon.
Salon painting
the style acceptable to the Paris Salon; by implication dull and stereotyped.
Scholar-painter
the Japanese equivalent of Wen-jen hua (or "literary men's painting")
in Chinese art; a literary-minded amateur who painted for pleasure.
Scroll
scroll of paper or silk, popular in Oriental art. A hand scroll is about 30cm
(12 in) wide and up to 30m (100 ft) long, and unrolls from right to left to
give a continuous picture, viewed section by section. A hanging scroll, as the
name implies, is hung like a painting. Both are usually painted in ink or
watercolour.
Sculpture
Object carved or modeled in wood, stone, etc or cast in metal for an aesthetic,
nonfunctional purpose; or the process of producing it; hence sculptor.
"Sculptural" is used to describe art (including painting and drawing)
that has pronounced three-dimensional qualities.
Scumble
an opaque or semiopaque layer of paint applied over another so that the first
is partially obliterated, producing a slightly broken effect.
Seascape
painting or drawing of the sea and shipping.
Self-Portraiture
Self-portraits were created as early as the Amarna Period (c.1365 BCE) in
Ancient Egypt, although the genre wasn't properly exploited until the time of
Albrecht Durer in late 15th century Germany. Since then, other important
pioneers of self-portrait painting have included Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh
and Egon Schiele.
Sfumato
a painting technique developed by Leonardo da Vinci, in which transitions from
light to dark are so gradual they are almost imperceptible; sfumato blurs lines
and creates a soft-focus effect.
Sgraffito
A term meaning scratched; in painting, one colour is laid over another, and
scratched with a tool so that the underlying colour is revealed.
Silverpoint
A drawing method using a piece of metal, usually silver wire, drawn on a ground
prepared with Chinese white, sometimes with pigment added.
Site-specific art
Any work of art (typically murals, or sculpture) created for a specific place,
which cannot be separated or exhibited outside its intended environment.
Sketching
Typically a sketch is a rapidly executed or casual portrayal of a subject, in
pencil, charcoal, pen and ink or other portable medium, often produced as a
preliminary work in preparation for something more detailed.
Stabile
A style of 20th century sculpture consisting of a stationary object, fixed to a
base of some description. Contrasts with a mobile, the free-hanging sculptural
invention of American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976), stabiles were also
created by Calder.
Stained Glass Art
Attained its apogee during the era of Gothic Architecture.
Statue
Freestanding sculpture; life-size, representational art.
Stencil art
An image created by applying ink or paint through a cut-out surface.
Still Life painting
one of the major genres of Western art, it describes a type of painting
featuring inanimate everyday objects. There are four types: (1) flower pieces,
(2) breakfast or banquet pieces, (3) animal pieces, (4) Symbolic Still Lifes.
Stippling
a drawing technique which employs many small dots or flecks to construct the
image, or shading.
Stoneware
hard pottery made from clay plus a fusible stone (usually feldspar) and fired
at 1200-1400°C so that the stone is vitrified.
Stone Sculpture
Includes carvings from metamorphic, sedementary and igneous rocks.
Support
Canvas, paper, panel, wall, etc on which a painting or drawing is executed.
T
Tapestry
wall hanging of silk or wool with a nonrepeating pattern or narrative design
woven in by hand, during manufacture. For details and history.
Tempera
a method of painting in which pigments are combined with an emulsion of water
and egg yolks or whole eggs (plus sometimes glue or milk). Widely used in
Italian art in the 14th and 15th centuries, both for panel painting and fresco,
was then superceded by oil paint.
Tenebrism
style of 17th-century painting associated with Caravaggio making much use of
strong Chiaroscuro.
Terracotta (It ."haked earth")
hard, fired hut unglazed, brownish-red clay used for pottery, sculpture, and
building.
Tondo
circular picture or relief.
Trecento
Italian for the 14th century. Traditionally refers to Italian fine art
(1300-1400).
Tribal Art
Also called Primitive Native Art, it embraces the traditional art of tribal
societies in the Americas, Africa, India, the South Pacific, and Australasia.
Triptych
picture or carving in three parts; a form of polyptych common for altarpieces.
Trompe l'oeil
painting that "deceives the eye"; type of illusionistic painting
characterized by its very precise naturalism.
U-Z
Ukiyo-e
(woodblock prints)
Japanese, meaning "pictures of the floating world". Genre painting,
and later Woodblock prints, whose subjects were actors, domestic scenes, and
courtesans.
Vanishing point
point at which the receding parallel lines in a painting appear to meet; see
Linear perspective.
Vanitas
Still Life painting, popular from the 17th century, which contains objects as
reminders of the impermanence of temporal life and of mortality.
Video Art
Contemporary form pioneered by artists like Andy Warhol (1928-87) and Bill
Viola (b.1951). Can be either stand-alone or combined with other media in an
installation.
Viking Art
Norse art mainly embraces portable metalwork and carvings.
Visual art
A broad category of artistic disciplines, encompassing the fine arts, some of
the applied arts and certain modern art forms.
Watercolour Painting
Uses a water-soluble painting medium. Watercolours are usually applied with
brushes, but several other tools may also employed. The most common painting
techniques are known as wet-on-dry and wet-on-wet, plus the dry brush
techniques dry-on-dry and dry-on-wet. Watercolours can be removed while still
wet, by blotting. When watercolour are made thicker, opaque and mixed with
white, it is generally referred to as gouache. Thomas Girtin and JMW Turner
were two great pioneers of the art form.
Woodblock
Print produced from a design on a wooden block.
Wood Carving
Reached its apogee in Late Gothic Germany, at the hands of master wood-carvers
like Veit Stoss (1450-1533) and Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531).
Xylography
Early form of wood engraving, first seen in China in the 1st century CE.
Xylography is the oldest known engraving technique.
Yamato-e
the School of Japanese painting from the 10th to the 15th century that
preserved the native traditions.
Yellow Book
influential quarterly magazine published from 1894, of which Aubrey Beardsley
(1872-98) was art editor.
Ziggurat
ancient Babylonian and Assyrian pyramid-shaped construction.
Zoomorphic
motifs based on animal forms.
In
this Nov. 22, 1963 photo provided by the The Sixth Floor Museum at
Dealey Plaza, John F. Kennedy speaks outside the Hotel Texas in Fort
Worth, Texas. An exhibit opening next year at the Dallas Museum of Art
will feature almost all of the works of art gathered from museums and
prominent Fort Worth citizens for the hotel suite Kennedy and first lady
Jacqueline Kennedy stayed in the night before he was assassinated. (AP
Photo/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza)
A group of prominent Fort Worth citizens had
scrambled to put together the collection in the days leading up to the
president’s fateful Texas visit, transforming an otherwise plain suite
into something special.
“It’s not a story about death. It’s not a story about hate. It’s a story
about art and love, which I think is a very good tribute to the
Kennedys. It’s all about their love of art,” said Olivier Meslay,
associate director of curatorial affairs at the museum and the exhibit’s
curator.
“What they did was really amazing. They put together really a series of masterpieces,” Meslay said.
