Category: Art Dictionary

Haut-relief (Alto-rilievo, high relief) :Form of sculptural relief characterized by a prominent projection from the surrounding surface.

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.

Hallstatt: The first identifiable continental culture and art-style of the Celts (c.600-450 BCE). Followed by La Tene Celtic culture.

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 under painting or to imitate the effect of relief.

Hallstatt: The first identifiable continental culture and art-style of the Celts (c.600-450 BCE). Followed by La Tene Celtic culture.

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.

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.

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. See also: Graphic Art.

Grand Tour: A cultural trip around Europe, taking in the painting, sculpture and architecture of Paris, Florence, Venice, Rome, Naples, Vienna and other important centres of classical, Renaissance and Baroque art.

Graffiti Art: a contemporary artform which first appeared in Philadelphia and New York during the late 1960s/early1970s.

Giclee Prints : Fine art printing process using inkjet printers.

Goldsmithing (Goldsmithery): The applied art or craft of metalworking in gold and silver.

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.

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.

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.

Ink and Wash Painting: Japanese and Chinese painting technique, using ink in the same way as watercolour.

Intaglio: decoration produced by cutting into a surface, used in engraving, etching, gem carving.

Impasto: Thick mass of paint or pastel; hence impasted, or impastoed.

Illustration: A method of enhancing written text by providing an illustration (pictorial explanation) of the written words.

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.

Iconography: recognizable emblematic motifs and symbols in works of art.

Ice Sculpture: a contemporary form of plastic art which uses blocks of ice as material.

Holocaust Art : Includes Nazi propaganda works, images created by victims and postwar concentration camp memorials of the Shoah.

Genre-Painting: Type of picture featuring an everyday scene containing human subjects.

High art: art that strives to attain the highest aesthetic and moral qualities in both content and expression.

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.

Greek Art:The foundation of Western painting and sculpture in general and Renaissance art in particular.

Gouache: opaque watercolour paint. Also: a work executed in gouache medium.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Formalism: the tendency to adhere to conventional forms at the expense of the subject matter.

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.

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.

Folk art: Traditional art of peasant societies, which includes utilitarian, decorative and applied arts and crafts.

Fresco Painting : Mural painting on fresh plaster; sometimes called buon fresco (“true fresco”) to distinguish it from painting “a secco”, on dried plaster.

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.

Found Objects: items that are found, not made by the artist, and then defined and displayed as a work of art – also known as an “objets trouves” – and associated with Surrealism and Dada.

Figurine : small model or sculpture of the human figure, like prehistoric Venus Figurines, such as Venus of Willendorf.

Flower painting : still-life painting of flowers, associated chiefly with Oriental art and the Dutch painters of the 17th century.

Figure drawing (and figure painting): Drawing or painting in which the human figure predominates, usually full length.

Figurative art: synonym for representational art.

Faience : type of tin-glazed earthenware, often used for architectural purposes. Also: archeological term for a type of ancient pottery in Egypt, comprising wares of glazed powdered quartz.

Ethnographic art : art inspired by a particular racial culture, especially of the primitive type.

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.

Engraving : the technique of incising lines on wood, metal etc. Also: the impression made from the engraved block.

Enamelling : the process of fusing a vitreous substance (usually lead/potash glass) to metal at high temperature (about 800 degrees Cent) – as used in decorative metalwork and goldsmithing; see Cloisonne and Champleve.

Emboss : to mould, stamp, or carve a surface to produce a design in relief.

Encaustic Painting : ancient technique of painting with wax and pigments fused by heat.

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.

Drypoint : Copper engraving technique.

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.

Disegno : Literally, “drawing” or “design”, but which during the Renaissance acquired a broader meaning of overall concept.

Dome : Architectural feature found on top of buildingd like the Pantheon in Rome, the Cathedral in Florence (Brunelleschi), Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome (Michelangelo and others), St Paul’s Cathedral in London (Christopher Wren) and the Pantheon in Paris, designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-80).

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.

Diptych : Pair of painted or sculptured panels hinged or joined together; especially popular for devotional pictures in the Middle Ages; see altarpiece.

Design (artistic) : The plan involved in making something according to a set of aesthetics.

Direct carving : Method of stone sculpture where form is carved immediately out of the block, and not transferred from a model.

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. See also: French Decorative Arts (c.1640-1792).

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.

Decalcomania (decalcomanie) : American term for lithography.

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.

Cycladic art : type of Aegean art from the Cyclades – a group of Greek islands – c.2800 BCE to 1100 BCE.

Curvilinear : Design or patternwork (eg. Etruscan/Celtic interlace) based on pattern of curved lines; sinuous.

Crafts : A category embracing most decorative arts.

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.

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.

Contemporary art : A rather loose term, used by museums to describe post-war art, and by art critics to refer to art since 1970.

Conte crayon : Proprietary manufactured chalk.

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.

Conceptualism/Conceptual Art : Form in which the concepts and ideas are more important than tangible, concrete works of art.

Computer Art : Visual images either computer-generated or computer-controlled using software or hardware tools. Also referred to as Digital art.

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.

Colour wheel : A diagrammatic chart showing the placement of colors in relationship to each other. For more details, see: Colour Theory in Painting.

Colour : For a general guide, see: 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.

Colorito : Renaissance term for colouring – mastery of colour in painting.

Colonial Art of America : 17th/18th century portraiture, miniatures, architecture, furniture-making and crafts in America. For a comparison, see: Australian Colonial Painting (c.1780-1880).

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.

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.)

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.

Cire perdue (Fr.”lost wax”) : Casting process used in bronze sculpture.

Cinquecento : Italian for the 16th century. Traditionally refers to Italian fine art (1500-1600).

Cityscape : Painting or drawing of city scenery.

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.

Christian Art : Church architecture, painting, sculpture or decorative art associated with a Christian message.

Chip carving : Early primitive carved decoration of Northern European oak furniture, executed with a chisel and gouge, until about the 16th century.

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.

Chinoiserie : Term for a European style of art applied to furniture, ceramics, interior design, based on imaginary pseudo-Chinese motifs.

Chinese Art : One of the most ancient artistic traditions, noted for its calligraphic, ink-and-wash, ceramic and bronze artworks. See: Chinese Pottery.

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.)

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.

Charcoal : Form of carbon used for drawing.