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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.

Petroglyphs: Primitive rock carvings and engravings.

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.

Performance Art: Contemporary form; see also Happenings.

Pensieri: small models made as preliminaries to larger models, when making sculpture.

Pastoral: idealized landscape painting or country scene.

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.

Parietal Art: Prehistoric paintings, engravings or relief sculptures on cave walls and ceilings.

Papier Colle (“pasted paper”): collage of paper/card, first used in 1912 by Georges Braque.

Panorama: painting of a view or landscape; especially large-scale painting around a room, or rolled on a cylinder.

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.

Palette knife: spatula-shaped knife for mixing or applying thick, bodied paint.

Palette: slab of wood, metal or glass used by the artist for mixing paint. Also: figuratively: the range of colours used by the artist. See: Colour Mixing Tips.

Painting: process of applying paint. Also: object produced by applying paint to a flat support, e.g. a wall or canvas.
For history and famous painters, see Fine Art Painting.

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.

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.

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.

Ottonian art: Murals, illuminated manuscripts and architectural sculpture of the period 919 to early 11th century, under the Ottonian emperors.

Origami paper folding: Reputedly invented in Japan around 1600, the the Chinese version known as “zhezhi” may be older.

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 orders of Greek architecture: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These were adapted by the Romans, who added Tuscan and Composite.

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.

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.

Offset litho: lithographic technique in which ink is transferred from a plate to a rubber roller, and then onto the paper.

Oeuvre: the total output of an artist. Also: a work of art.

Oceanic art: From the South Pacific, including Australasia.

Objet trouve, see: Found Object.

Nude genre: For a brief survey of nudity in painting and sculpture, see: Female Nudes in Art History (Top 20). See also Male Nudes in Art History (Top 10).

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.

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.

Nazi Art: Mostly architecture, film, photography, sculpture and poster art serving Nazi’ propagandist needs.

Naturalism: Accurate, detailed representation of objects or scenes as they appear, whether attractive or otherwise. (compare Realism).

Nashki: The flowing form of Arabic calligrahic script (compare Kufic).

Naive: The work, style, or art of untaught artists, usually crudely naturalistic.

Nail Art: A form of body painting.

Mythological painting: Pictures of subjects chosen from Greek and Roman Classical mythology, popular from the 15th century to the 19th. Also called History Painting.

Mural Painting: pictures painted on walls or ceilings, traditionally in fresco.

Mughal art: art and architecture of the courts of the Muslim rulers in India, 1526-1707, as exemplified by Mughal painting and by the Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Motif: a repeated distinctive feature in a design.

Mosaic Art: designs formed from small pieces of stone, glass, marble, etc.

Monumental: connected with, or serving as, a monument. Also: used figuratively of paintings and other art forms to mean imposing or massive.

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.

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.

Modernism: the theory of modernist art that rejects past styles, and promotes contemporary art as the true reflection of the age, hence modernist.

Modeling: three-dimensional representation of objects.

Mobiliary Art: Prehistoric portable artworks.

Mobile: Kinetic sculpture probably originated by Alexander Calder in 1932; the sculpture is hung from wires so that it is moved by air currents.

Mixed Media: the combination of different materials in the same work, sometimes including performance.

Minimalist art: modern art that rejects texture, subject, atmosphere, etc and reduces forms and colours to the simplest.

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.

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).

Mezzotint: method of copper engraving, Also: a print produced by this method.

Metalwork: Decorative precious metals art developed in Sumer, Egypt and Crete, before being refined by Celtic, Byzantine and Romanesque artists in Belgium.

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.

Medieval art: church architecture, illuminated manuscripts, stone sculpture, murals, metalwork and goldsmithery from the period of the Middle Ages (c.450-1450).

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.

Marine art: painting or drawing of a sea subject.

Marble Sculpture: Made from limestone. It occurs in various colours, from pure white to black, often veined.

Maquette: model made on a small scale by a sculptor or a stage-designer as a preliminary three-dimensional “sketch'” for the final work.

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.

Luminism: Style of light-related 19th century American landscape painting.

Lithography: printing method in which a design is drawn on stone with a greasy crayon and then inked.
Lost Wax Method, see: Cire Perdue.

Lino cut: print produced by carving a design into a block of linoleum.

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.

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.

Linear: artistic style that emphasizes lines and contours; hence linearity and linearism.

Life drawing: drawing from a live human model.

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.

Lapis Lazuli: deep-blue semiprecious stone, used for jewellery, and from which the pigment ultramarine is extracted.

Landscape painting: Composition in which the scenery is the principal subject. Also: scenic areas of a painting or drawing.

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.

Lacquerware: Objects (wood, bamboo, metal and other materials) coated in resinous decorative finish. Speciality of Chinese art.