A
Abstraction:
International, 20th century, see works by De Kooning.
Art style, begun in 1910 with Kandinsky. Renunciation of naturalistic representation, art without reference to any figurative reality. The term is also used for different movements that are part of Abstraction such as Geometric Abstraction, Abstract Expressionism and Lyrical Abstraction.
Acrylic painting:
International, 20th century.
Fast-drying synthetic paint made with a resin derived from acrylic resin. Can be diluted in water but becomes resistant to water when dry.
Alabaster:
Name applied to two distinct mineral substances, the one a hydrous sulphate of lime and the other a carbonate lime.
The former is the alabaster of the present day, the latter is generally the alabaster of the ancients. The two kinds are readily distinguished from each other by their relative hardness (the ancient alabaster being harder than the modern one).
Highly esteemed in the ancient times, it was used for perfume-bottles, sculptures and even sarcophagus.
Art Brut (literally translates as raw art):
France, c. 1950, term coined by Jean Dubuffet.
Outsider art, refers to art forms created outside the mainstream of conventional art culture, developed from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses.
Art Deco:
International, early-1920s, style in painting, sculpture, architecture, and design.
Paintings influenced by contemporary sculpture, synthetic cubism and futurism. Epitomized in the stream lived works of Tamara de Lempicka.
Art Nouveau:
International, late-19th century to early-20th century. A style in painting, sculpture, architecture, and design.
Style typified in Klimt’s paintings, characterized by the use of decorative motifs, vegetal derived patterns, sinuous curves, simple compositions, and denial of volume.
Ashcan School:
USA, early-20th century, see works by Bellows, Hopper.
Characterized by the depiction of urban subject matter, focus on the daily life in neighbourhoods.
B
Baptismal Front:
Vessel used in churches to hold the water for the Christian baptism.
Located in a baptistery (separate hall or chapel where baptisms occur), baptismal fonts belong to a period when adults were baptised by immersion
Baroque:
Europe, 17th to mid-18th centuries, see works by Caravaggio, Carracci, Tiepolo, Rubens, Murillo and Vouet.
In contrast with the intellectual qualities of Mannerism, the Baroque displays a more immediate iconography, Characterized by dramatic effects of light, dynamics, contrasts or forms, and illusionist pictorial space.
Bronze:
Alloy formed wholly or chiefly of copper and tin in variable proportions.
In sculpture, it can be treated in various ways, the chief of which are casting in a mould and treatment by hammering and punching.
Byzantine:
Europe, 5th to 15th centuries.
Style derived from Paleo-Christian iconography, characterized by frontal representation, hieratic expression, stylization, and standardized flat figures. Typical of the Byzantine art is the Icon.
C
Caryatid:
Term given to the draped female figures used for piers of supports, as found in the portico of the Erectheum in Athens.
Cast:
Mould for the casting of metals, and more particularly for the copy of original statue of relief taken from a mould.
Cast à la cire perdue (“lost wax”): way of casting, where the figure is first roughly modelled in clay, then a skin of wax is applied that is worked by the sculptor and requires form and finish. The next phase is to cover it with a coating of refractory plaster to form a mould. Once heated, the wax melts and runs out of the mould thanks to holes made for that purpose. Then, the metal can be poured into the vacant mould. Once cooled, the mould has to be broken to free the metal sculpture.
Chiaroscuro (from Italian: bright-dark):
Europe, 16th to 18th centuries, see works by Caravaggio, de La Tour, Rembrandt.
Technique existing before Caravaggio but made definitive by the artist. Based on high contrasts of light and shade, suggesting three-dimensional volumes and bringing high- drama to the subjects.
Classicism:
Europe, 17th century, see works by Carracci, Poussin, and Lorrain.
Style referring to an ideal beauty inspired by the antique Greco-roman model. Developed in Italy with Carracci, brought to France by Poussin and Lorrain. Praises the perfection of drawing and the superiority of historical painting.
Clay:
Fine-grained, almost impalpable substance, very soft, more or less coherent when dry, plastic and retentive of water when wet. It consists essentially of hydrous aluminium silicate with various impurities. Modelled to make a sculpture, it can also be used for casts.
Constructivism:
Russia, c. 1920, founded by Tatlin.
Movement praising an industrial art based on a dynamic rhythm, and proposing the conjunction of painting, sculpture and architecture. Works mainly geometric and non- representational, using materials such as plastic and glass.
Contrapposto:
Term describing a human figure throwing the weight of the body on one leg so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs.
Cubism:
France, 1907-14, born with Picasso and Braque.
Refers to broken up and reassembled works. Depiction of the object from multiple angles represented simultaneously, as an reduce nature to its geometric elements.
D/E/F
Dadaism:
International, 1915-22, see works by Duchamp and Picabia.
Movement created in reaction against bourgeois values and World War I, putting emphasis on the absurd and ignoring aesthetics. Found its expression in the ready-made.
Expressionism:
Germanic countries, early-20th century, see works by Kirchner, Dix and Kokoschka. Works of expressive emotion with bold contours, crude colours, and anatomical and spatial distortions. Associated with Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke groups.
Fauvism:
France, 1905-1907, see works by Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, van Dongen.
The first definite revolt against Impressionism and academic rules of art. Movement emerging from Pointillism and influenced by Gauguin’s paintings. Use of vibrant patches of colour of extreme intensity to build a picture. The movement initiated the eruption of Modernity.
Fresco:
Technique of painting on wet lime plaster with pigments laid on the fresh wet plaster. The complete design for the fresco was pounced from a cartoon on the dry plaster. Over this was laid each day a thin coat of wet plaster and the paint made out of mineral pigments mixed in water laid on this wet surface.
Futurism:
Italy, early-20th century, see works by Balla or Boccioni.
Movement celebrating the machine age, glori-fying war, and often associated with Fascism. Characterized by the expression of dynamism and the repetition of forms to suggest movement.
G/H/I
Gothic:
Europe, 13th to early-16th centuries, see works by Monaco or Francke. Style characterized by well organised space and more dynamic representations. An International Gothic style developed in Burgundy, Bohemia and Italy (fourteenth to fifteenth century) with rich, stylistic features and decorative colouring.
Hieratic:
Term used in the arts for figures represented in a certain way that is set by religious codes and traditions.
Impressionism:
France, late-nineteenth century, see works by Monet, Renoir, Manet, and Degas (the core of the group).
A manner in painting that attempts to capture the subjective impression of the effects of light and colour in a scene. Most commonly landscapes painted “en plein-air”.
Ivory:
Term confined to the material represented by the tusk of the elephant.
K/L/M
Kore (Korai)
Statue of a female youth, offered to the deities in the archaic sanctuaries in Greece.
Kouros (Kouroi)
Statue of a male youth commonly naked, offered to the deities in the archaic sanctuaries in Greece.
Limestone:
Rock consisting essentially of carbonate lime.
Mannerism:
Europe, 1525-1600, see works by Parmigianino, Pontormo, Tintoretto.
Elegant and refined style dominated by profane subjects, complex compositions, muscular and elongated figures in complex poses, with qualities of grace, sophistication and precious details.
Marble:
Term applied to any limestone or dolomite which is sufficiently close in texture to admit of being polished. Famous quality marble are Pentelic marble in Ancient Greece sculptures or Carrara marble from the Renaissance period until now.
Metalwork:
Gold, silver and bronze may be treated in various ways, the chiefs of which are: casting in a mould and treatment by hammering and punching (“repoussé”).
N
Nabism:
France, late 19th - early 20th century, see works by Bonnard and Vuillard.
Post-Impressionist avant-garde movement whose driving force was Sérusier. Characterized by flat colouring of the surface, colours taken straight from the tube and often esoteric in spirit.
Naive Art:
France, late-19th century, see works by H. Rousseau.
Style developed out of the institutional teaching by artists lacking conventional expertise. Characterized by primitive aspect of the paintings, unusual perspective, use of pattern and cheerful colours.
Naturalism:
Europe, 1880-1900.
Extension of Realism, Naturalism aims at an even more realistic depiction of nature.
Nazarene:
Germanic countries, early-19th century, see works by Overbeck.
Artistic movement that was established in Vienna aiming to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art.
Neoclassicism:
Europe, 1750-1830, see works by David, Mengs and Ingres.
Movement based on J. Winckelmann’s theories on Ancient Greek art and showing a new interest for simplicity and moral values. Art of balance and elegant precision, far from the former expressions of passion.
Neo-Expressionism:
International, 1970s, see works by Baselitz.
Large and rapidly executed figurative painting with aggressive colours.
Neo- Impressionism:
France, late-19th century, works by Seurat and Signac.
Movement part of Post-Impressionism based on a style of painting, Pointillism, in which non-primary colours are generated by the visual mixing of points of juxtaposed primary colours.
New Realism:
Europe, 1960s, co-founded by Klein and the critic Pierre Restany Artistic movement criticizing mass-produced commercial objects.
O
Original bronze work:
The first cast of a bronze sculpture.
P
Patina:
Brownish green film that appears on copper and bronze sculptures after a long exposure. It can be made artificially with Acids.
Pietà:
Representation of the dead Christ resting on the lap of the Virgin who laments the death of her child. This sombre image of the grieving Virgin was popular at the end of the Middle Ages due to devastation caused by the plague epidemic and was widely reproduced during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the most famous example being that of Michelangelo, dating of 1498-1499.
Plaster:
Fine white calcinated gypsum which forms a hard cement when treated with water.
Portal:
In architecture, the word “portal” designates an elevated structure serving as a facade or as a main entrance to a large building in front of the door. It often takes the form of a splay in front of the main doors of an edifice, forming an overhanging shelter.
The portal is built around the doors themselves. This distinguishes it from a porch, which extends outward from the building.
The portal is the frame of the door and the arch which extends from it, either corbelled or supported by buttresses or columns.
R
Relief:
Term in sculpture signifying ornament, a figure or figures raised from the ground of a flat surface of which the sculptured portion forms an inherent part of the body of the whole. The design may be in high relief, “alto relievo” (see no.°60), or low relief, “basso relievo” (see no.°222). High relief means that the design is almost wholly detached from the ground, the attachment, though “under-cutting” remaining only here and there. Low relief means that the relief is wholly attached and may scarcely rise above the surface, or it may exceed in projection to about a half the proportionate depth (or thickness) of the figure or object represented.
S
Sandstone:
Consolidated sand rock built up of sand grains held together by a cementing substance.
Sarcophagus:
Name given to a coffin in stone, which, on account of its caustic qualities, according to Pliny, consumed the body forty days; also by the Greeks to a sepulchral chest, in stone or other material, which was more or less enriched with ornaments and sculptures.
Silk screening:
Printmaking technique based on stencilling on a porous fabric. Adopted by American graphic artists in the 1930s, it was popularized by Pop Artists in the 1960s.
Stucco:
Term loosely applied to nearly all kinds of external plastering, whether composed of lime or of cement used in sculpture for architectural decorations or for casts.
Surrealism:
Europe, 1923 to mid-19th century, see works by Ernst, Dalí or Magritte. Artistic exploration of dreams, the intimate, and the imagery of the subconscious mind. Use of the technique of psychic automatism.
Symbolism:
Europe, late-19th century, see works by Moreau or Redon.
Movement taking inspiration in poetry, mythology, legends or in the Bible, characterized by flattened forms, undulating lines, and search of aesthetical harmony.
T
Tempera:
Tempera is the name given to the painting processes in which the medium employed is an albuminous gelatinous or colloidal material. Practically, this is the equivalent to saying that any painting process in which a vehicle or binding material, other than oil is employed is tempera. In constant use during the Renaissance, it was overtaken by oil painting in the fifteenth century.
Terracotta:
Originally used to define clay sculptures “sun-dried” only. Can also be used to define fired clay. This word comes from the Italian “terra cotta”, literally “baked earth”.