Category: Dictionary

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.

Japanese Art: Yamato-e, and Ukiyo-e painting, Buddhist Temple art and Zen ink-painting.

Jade Carving: sculpture of extremely hard stone, which may be blue, green, white, or brown; highly prized in Chinese art.

Ivory Carving: Form of sculpture made using animal tusks and teeth, notably from elephants, whales and walruses.

Italian Primitives: artists and their works in Italy prior to 1400.

Italianate style: in an Italian manner. Also: in architecture, the adaptation of Italian Renaissance palace styles, especially so in America c.1840-65.

Islamic Art: Includes architecture, pottery, faience mosaics, lustre-ware, relief sculpture, drawing, painting, calligraphy, manuscript illumination, textile design, metalwork, gemstone carving, and other crafts.

Irish School: For details, see: Irish Painting and Irish Sculpture.

Intonaco: the smooth layer of lime plaster that receives the paint in fresco painting.

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.

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).

Intarsia: the decoration of wood with inlay work, especially in 15th-century Italy.

India Ink: In fine art, a drawing ink made from a black pigment consisting of lampblack and glue.

Illusionism: The use of optical and perspectival principles to create the illusion of painted objects being three dimensional; hence illusionist, illusionistic.

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.

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.

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.

History of Art Timeline: Chronological list of dates about the evolution of painting, sculpture and pottery.

How to Appreciate Paintings: Explains how to analyse painterly skills and narrative content.

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.

History of Art: Guide to the origins, evolution and development of the fine and visual arts.

Historiated: architecture or sculpture decorated with narrative subjects. A historiated initial is an initial in an illuminated mansuscript containing a narrative scene.

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.

Happenings: Type of Performance art. Spontaneous artistic event or display.

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.