Terms

• action painting


  Definition: an abstract painting in which the artist drips or splatters paint onto a surface like a canvas in order to create his or her work

  
• allegory


  Definition: art that has symbolic meaning beyond literal interpretation. In literature, a fable is an allegory.

  
• Amphora


  Definition: A two-handled jar used for the storage and transport of wine, oil, dried fish, and other commodities

  
• Anamphoric image


  Definition: an image must be viewed by a special means, such as a mirror, to be recognized. In this example the scull can only be seen if a mirror is held up to the picture.

  
• animal style


  Definition: Animals depicted in a stylized and often complicated pattern, often seen fighting with one another

  
• apotheosis


  Definition: a painting where the figures are rising heavenward. Often used in church ceilings.

  
• arabesque


  Definition: a flowing, intricate, and symmetrical pattern deriving from floral motifs. Frequently used in Islamic art.

  
• assemblage


  Definition: 3-D work in mixed media. Could be wall art or a sculpture. (2) an artwork composed of objects, parts of objective materials originally intended for purposes other than art

  
• bas relief


  Definition: a sculptural relief in which forms extend only slightly from the background; often called low relief

  
• benday dots


  Definition: (named for Benjamin Day) Printing process using pointillist dots and limited color palette placed close together to achieve subtle shading. This example is by Lichtenstein in the 1960's.

  
• black figure technique


  Definition: In early Greek pottery, the silhouetting of dark figures against a light background of natural, reddish clay, with linear incised details.

  
• bust


  Definition: sculpture head, neck, and upper chest

  Period: Very common in Roman period

  
• Calligraphy


  Definition: decorative handwriting, often used in religious art and manuscripts.

  
• calotype


  Definition: early type of photography, grainy.

  
• Cartouche


  Definition: The oval-shaped symbol in which the names of kings and queens of Egypt were written on the walls of the temple.

  
• chiaroscuro


  Definition: a gradual transition from light to dark in a painting. Forms are not determined by sharp outlines, but by the meeting of lighter and darker areas. The lighter areas are used to emphasize the subject. Very common in 15-17th century European paintings. Rembrandt is a master of this style.

  
• cire perdue


  Definition: (Lost wax) process of making sculpture; a clay mold is covered in wax, which when heated produces a void where metal can be poured in.

  
• cloisonne


  Definition: enamel work technique; colored bands are separated by bands of metal. Sometimes the bands are flush with the enamel, sometimes the bands protrude.

  
• Contraposto


  Definition: A figure pose which shows the human body twisted usually the shoulders and chest face a different direction than hips and legs. Done to add motion to works of art.

  
• encaustic


  Definition: An ancient method of painting that uses colored waxes burned into a wooden surface.

  
• Foreshortening


  Definition: The use of perspective to represent in art the apparent visual contraction of an object that extends back in space at an angle to the perpendicular plane of sight.
• found relief


  Definition: The projection of figures or forms from a flat background, as in sculpture, or the apparent projection of such shapes in a painting or drawing.

  
• fresco


  Definition: Wall and ceiling painting on fresh (moist) lime plaster. Pigments ground in water and absorbed into plaster.

  
• Grisaille


  Definition: painting done in neutral shades of gray to simulate the look of sculpture.

  
• groundline


  Definition: in paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand. For example, In Egyptian work the figures and objects are placed on the ground line without reference to their actual spatial relationship.

  
• Haut Relief


  Definition: a form of sculpture that is carved from, or attached to, its background. Depth of carving equal to more than half the natural circumference of the object carved

  
• hierarchy of scale


  Definition: represents a person's relative importance by the size of his depiction

  
• hieroglyphics


  Definition: Egyptian writing using symbols or pictures as characters

  
• horror vacui


  Definition: a type of artwork in which the entire surface is filled with objects, people, designs, and ornaments in a crowded, sometimes congested way

  
• icon


  Definition: a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
• iconography


  Definition: the images and symbolic representations that are traditionally associated with a person or a subject

  
• iconoclasm


  Definition: a challenge to or overturning of traditional beliefs, customs, and values, any movement against the religious use of images
• Illuminated Manuscript


  Definition: A hand written book decorated with bright colors and precious metals. Monks created the illuminated manuscripts.

  
• in situ


  Definition: in the original or natural place or site. Artwork or sculpture that resides in the location where the materials to make that artwork is found.
• Krater


  Definition: An ancient Greek wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water.

  
• Kylix


  Definition: A Greek drinking cup, but very wide and flat with handles..

  
• mandorla


  Definition: an almond-shaped nimbus surrounding sacred figures., an almond-shaped nimbus surrounding the figure of christ or other sacred figure

  
• mask head


  Definition: An animal head employed in conjunction with interlace or foliage motifs.

  
• Perspective


  Definition: the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer

  
• Perspective: atmospheric perspective


  Definition: the illusion of depth and distance created by using the weather in a landscape and dull, pale colors with hazy details in the background of a painting.