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
