The Renaissance Terms Flashcards
Italian for beautiful view; a roofed but open-sided porch or turret structure affording an extensive view; usually located at the rooftop of a dwelling but sometimes an independent tower on an eminence in a landscape or formal garden
Belvedere
Italian for an enclosed parcel of land used for hunting, or park
Barco
A style of art and architecture characterized by extensive or extravagant ornamentation; curved rather than straight lines; classical forms of high renaissance
Baroque
Italian for grove of trees; thricket
Bosco
Small grove of trees
Boschetto
A natural or human-made waterfall; a series of small waterfalls or steeply inclined rapids
Cascade
Style of the Eastern or Greek Orthodox Church
Byzantine
A small, natural, roughly squared, or ovoid, stone large enough to be used for paving; Belgian blocks are rough-cut stones of a more rectangular form about twice the size of common bricks
Cobblestone
The Italian word for an interior courtyard, usually surrounded by a colonnade, or an arcade in a palace or other building
Cortile
A hemispherical roof or dome situated atop a circular or polygonal base and crowning a roof; a tower-like structure eith lantern windows projecting above a roof
Cupola (Latin cupa for “cup”)
A knoblike decorative feature that terminates the top of an architectural pinnacle, gable peak or bannister; typically with foliage motif
Finial
Popular feature in Italian Renaissance gardens, usually enclosed by walls and/or clipped evergreen hedges; setting for musical and dance performances; Villa Madama, Rome
Garden Theater
Italian word for a natural or articial cave built as a shady moist retreat from the heat; stems from the Latin word crypta or crypt, meaning “a cave or cavern…picturesques…an agreeable retreat…an excavation…made to imitate s rocky cave, often adorned with shell-work and serving as a place of…cool retreat”
Grotto
An Italian word describing a small garden set apart from the main garden of a rural Renaissance garden, providing greater privacy than available in the larger, more crowded areas of the villa during times of festive social gatherings
Giardino segreto (Secret Garden)
A French word meaning a surface encrusted with shells, pebbles, and coarse, rough-hewn rocks; origin of the word rococo
Rocaille
French word for a garden structure, hothouse, or sheltered place within a garden for the protected growth of citrus trees in cooler climates; popular in England (17th to 19th centuries)
Orangerie or Orangery
Named for the Greek god of travelers; related to the worship of stone; the bust or legless torso of a male figure emerging from square pedestal; sometimes used as a pilaster or monument in ancient Greece and as milestones of one’s property to demarcate ownership in Rome.
Herm or Herma
Italian word for palace in an urban setting
Palazzo
A pleasure garden created during the earliest Italian Renaissance stage of villa garden development for purposes of gathering together people to enjoy the pleasure of the garden and to conduct conversations; an adaptation of the earlier Greco-Roman academy or aristocratic villa setting of Imperial Roman times
Philosopher’s Garden
French garden feature with water fountains and sculpture as the major design elements; typically open and spacious
Parterre d’eau
The Italian word for the portion of the villa that functions as a farm
Podere
A method of forming stonework with roughened surfaces and recessed joints, employed principally in Renaissance buildings to give an appearance of great strength
Rustication
Italian for sacred grove; often an underdeveloped or wild area set in contrast to a more formally designed garden; derived from the ancient tradition of the Greek sacred grove, where one could experience natural surroundings rather than human-made surroundings
Sacro bosco
From the Italian word for “to scratch”; a process of incising or scratching the outer surface of a mural or clay vessel to produce design
Sgraffito
To scribble on a wall or public surface
Graffito or graffiti
Italian for baked earth; hard-baked clay of reddish or yellowish-brown color used for sculpture, flower pots and as a building material; may be glazed or painted; (or) the expression for the color of hard-baked clay
Terra cotta
In the Renaissance Italy, a country house surrounded by formal gardens
Villa