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
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)
Italian for an enclosed parcel of land used for hunting, or park
Barco
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
A confined segment of a view usually toward a terminal or dominant element or feature; may be natural or completely human-made view
Vista