Art techniques Flashcards
a type of abstract art, usually
oil on canvas, characterized by gestural brushstrokes
and the impression of spontaneity; flourished in
New York during the 1950s and 1960s and came to
dominate art production internationally
Abstract Expressionism
finely cut stone construction; either an
individual stone that has been worked until squared or
a structure built from such stones
ashlar masonry
adopted from the French military term
for “advance guard;” refers to modern, forward-
looking artists who break with convention to create
innovative modes of expression that are unorthodox,
experimental, and radical
avante-garde
predominant style in art, architecture, and
music in seventeenth-century Europe; characterized
by dynamism and theatricality
Baroque
a kind of British porcelain imitating the
Chinese original; made by incorporating ashes from
animal bones; it was mass-produced by industrial
machines.
bone china
in engraving technology, the tool used to cut lines
into a metal plate of copper or zinc; comprised of a
steel shaft with a diamond-shaped tip
burin
a strong, coarse cloth made from hemp, flax,
cotton, or a similar yarn; used as a surface for oil
painting beginning in the sixteenth century
canvas
from the Latin for “dark chamber,” an
optical tool that in its earliest iteration was a darkened
room with a tiny opening in one wall that acted like
a lens, focusing an upside-down image of the scene
outside onto the opposite wall, which could then be
traced by an artist
camera obscura
the sunken square decorative panels on a dome
or ceiling used to lessen its weight without corrupting
its structural integrity
coffers
a straight row of columns supporting a roof,
entablature, or arcade
colonnade
colors that are opposite one
another on a color wheel: red and green, violet
and yellow, blue and orange; a key philosophy in
Impressionist color theory
complementary colors
the first perfectly clear glass; invented
in Venice and proliferating starting in the middle of
the fifteenth century
cristallo glass
a worldwide art movement that abandoned
linear perspective to break down the picture plane;
part of the larger move to abstraction in the fine arts
that responded to modern life by rejecting illusionism
and fracturing the picture plane
Cubism
the world’s first publicly available
photographic process, invented by Louis Daguerre
and introduced in 1839
daguerreotype
a philosophy traditionally credited to the elusive
Chinese sage Laozi that envisions a dynamic, life-
sustaining energy flowing through the universe
Daoism
a traditional Chinese form of kiln used
for making ceramics and named for its long and thin
shape
dragon kiln
the act of painting outdoors; French for “in
the open air”
en plein air
a technique wherein an artist mixes colored
pigments with wax (usually beeswax) and applies the
colored mixture to a smooth surface
encasutic
in printing technology, a technique for
embellishing metal surfaces with incised pictures that
can then be inked and printed on paper
engraving
a European intellectual movement of the
late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries emphasizing
reason and individualism over tradition
Enlightenment
Also called “mummy portraits,” these
naturalistic painted portraits were made in encaustic
on wood panel and attached to the mummified bodies
of upper-class citizens from Roman Fayum in Egypt.
Fayum portraits
fusing one layer of colored glass onto another
flashing
an arch that extends from the upper
portion of a wall to a pier in order to convey its
lateral thrust into the ground
flying butchress
a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet lime
plaster, which is applied to a wall or ceiling to become
physically integrated into the building
fresco
the white paint mixture used to prime the rough
surface of a canvas before it is painted
gesso
glassworkers; specifically, those who fit glass
pieces into windows and doors
glaziers
the purposefully unrealistic rendering
of figures in a narrative scene to emphasize a single
figure’s prominence, commonly Christ (i.e., sizing
human figures based on status)
hierarchic scale
In linear perspective,
marks the landscape’s horizon in a scene’s distant
background.
horizon line
from the Italian verb impastare, meaning to
knead or to paste; refers to the technique of thickly
laying paint onto the canvas so that it stands out from
the surface
impasto
a special clay used to make fine porcelain;
lauded for its purity, whiteness, translucency, and
strength; naturally occurring in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
province, China
kaolin clay
a slender, pointed window, common in
Gothic architecture
lancet window
an image registered on the surface of a
photographic plate during exposure but invisible to
the naked eye before further chemical processing
latent image
a method of making metal sculpture
using a clay core and wax coating placed in a mold
lost-wax casting
the semi-circular shape used to describe panel
paintings or distinguish the arched aperture of a
window or domed ceiling
lunette
bracelets produced in the Low Countries
(modern Holland) during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, traded throughout West Africa as a kind of
currency, and melted down by the brass workers of
Benin to make many panels that today constitute the
“Benin bronzes”
manillas
in printing technology, the slab of wood or metal
that is carved with a design, rolled with ink, and
transferred to paper or cloth to make multiple copies
of the same image
matrix
the embalming and wrapping of a body
for preservation
mummification
in photography, an image on transparent glass
or plastic film wherein the colors are reversed; used
to make a positive, which is most commonly printed
on paper
negative
the circular opening at the apex of a dome; means
“eye” in Latin
oculus
a paste made with ground pigment for color
and a drying oil such as linseed oil; used by artists to
create glossy and layered images of great complexity
oil paint
in linear perspective, the diagonal lines
drawn from the edges of the picture to the vanishing
point to create a structural grid organizing the image
and determining the size of objects within the image’s
illusionistic space
orthogonals
an instrument for copying a drawing or
plan at a different scale by a system of hinged and
joined rods
panograph
a type of colored chalk that is applied to textured
paper to achieve a delicate, filmy image
pastel
these gables, usually triangular in shape, are
placed above the horizontal lintel of a doorframe
pediments
an artwork created through actions
executed by the artist or other participants; may be
witnessed live or through documentation
performance art
a pseudoscience involving the measurement
of bumps on the skull to predict a person’s traits
phrenology
a mechanized contraption that copied
a sitter’s traced profile onto white paper to produce
a silhouette in miniature; the term derives from the
machine’s action (to trace) and the subject it reproduced
(physiognomy, i.e., a person’s facial features or
expression)
physiognotrace
a ceramic material made by heating clay in
a kiln to temperatures between 2,200 and 2,600 °F;
mastered by craftspeople in China some two thousand
years ago; can be modeled into intricate forms and
painted
porcelain
a porch leading to the entrance of a building
with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by
columns
portico
in photography, an image made from a negative
in which the tones are re-reversed and thereby
corrected
positive
among the first modernist art movements
to be developed in the United States; contributed to the
rise of American Modernism following World War;
borrowing from Cubism, Precisionism celebrated the
new American landscape of skyscrapers, bridges,
and factories in their most essential geometric forms,
focusing on mechanical forms.
Precisionism
From the Latin relevo, “to raise,” relief is a
sculptural method in which molded pieces are bonded
to a solid, planar background made of the same
material
relief
indicates forms that emerge to
a significant degree from the background
high relief
indicates forms that are shallower and do not emerge
with as much definition from the background plane.
low relief
the process of returning a thing or a person
to its country of origin
repatriation
in architecture, a facing of impact-resistant
material such as stone or concrete that covers the
surface of a structure to protect it against wear
reventment
an elaborately ornamental late Baroque style of
decoration prevalent in eighteenth-century Europe;
notable for excess, sinuous lines, pastel colors, and
gilt furniture
Rococo
decorated circular stained-glass window
favored by architects during the High Gothic period;
notable for rich decorative motifs formed by the
window’s dividing segments
Rose window
a building with a circular ground plan, often
covered by a dome
rotunda
in printing technology, a design made
by a series of small dots engraved on the metal surface
of the matrix
stipple engraving
strong use of contrasting light and dark in a
painting’s palette; a hallmark of the Baroque style in
painting
tenebrism
in ceramics, the process wherein
pigment (historically usually cobalt) is painted directly
onto the surface of an unfired porcelain vessel before a
thick clear glaze is applied over the top and the vessel
is fired
underglaze painting
in linear perspective, at the center of the horizon line; it determines
the center point for the radiating orthogonal lines.
vanishing point
In photography, photograph allowed unlimited paper prints (the
positive) to be made from a single exposure (the
negative, the product of the wet-plate process)
wet-plate process
a relief printing technique wherein a design is
carved into the surface of a block of wood, inked, and
printed on paper or cloth; it is the oldest of all printing
technologies.
woodcut
a lantern designed by Eadweard
Muybridge that projected images from photographs
printed on a rotating glass disc onto a screen in rapid
succession; when projected via light at a high speed,
the images created the illusion of a continuously
moving picture.
zoopraxiscope
