Art vocabulary

abstract In painting and sculpture, emphasizing a derived, essential character that has only a stylized or symbolic visual reference to objects in nature.

armature In sculpture, a skeleton-like framework to support material being modeled.

calligraphy Handwriting or penmanship, especially elegant or "beautiful" writing as a decorative art.

ceramics The art of making objects such as pottery out of clay; also, the objects themselves.

chiaroscuro In drawing or painting, the treatment and use of light and dark, especially the gradations of light that produce the effect of modeling.

color The element of art that is derived from reflected light.

color wheel The spectrum of colors bent into a circle.

complementary colors Those pairs of colors, such as red and green, that together embrace the entire spectrum. Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.

contour A visible border of a mass in space; a line that creates the illusion of mass and volume in space.

cool colors On one half of the color wheel are the cool colors, from yellow-green to violet. Psychologically, cool colors are calming, unemphatic, depressive; optically, they

earth colors Pigments, such as yellow ochre and umber, that are obtained by mining; usually compounds of metals.

flamboyant Flamelike, flaming; applied to aspects of Late Gothic style, especially architectural tracery.

form an object represented in three dimensions. A sphere as opposed to a circle.

fresco painting on plaster, either dry or wet. In the latter, the pigments are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the plaster. Also, a painting executed in either method.

genre A style or category of art; also, a kind of painting realistically depicting scenes from everyday life.

hue the name of a spectral color.

icon A portrait or image; especially in the Greek church, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are objects of veneration. In the visual arts, a painting, a piece of sculpture; or even a building regarded as an object of veneration.

iconography The analytic study of the symbolic, often religious, meaning of objects, persons, or events depicted in works of art.

idealization The representation of things according to a preconception of ideal form or type; a kind of esthetic distortion to produce idealized forms.

kore (KOR-ay) Greek for girl, used to refer to tall columnar female figures.

kouros (COOR-aus) Greek for young man, used to refer to statues of young men.

line a mark made by a moving point.

mass The effect and degree of bulk, density, and weight of matter in space.

medium a material used to make art.

modeling The shaping or fashioning of three-dimensional forms in a soft material, such as clay; also, the gradations of light and shade reflected from the surfaces of matter in space, or the illusion of such gradations produced by alterations of value in a drawing, painting or print.

monochrome a color scheme that involves one hue and the values, tints and shades of that one hue.

mosaic Patterns or pictures made by embedding small pieces of stone or glass (tesserae) in cement on surfaces such as walls and floors; also, the technique of making such works.

oil color/paint pigment ground with oil.

picture plane the surface of a picture.

pigment Finely powdered coloring matter mixed or ground with various vehicles to form paint, crayon, etc.

polychrome Done in several colors.

primary colors Red, Yellow and Blue. Colors that are used to mix all other colors. No colors can be mixed to obtain primary colors.

realism The representation of things according to their appearance in visible nature (without idealization). In the nineteenth century, an approach that supported the representation of the subject matter of everyday life in a realistic mode. Iconographically, nineteenth-century realism is the subject matter of everyday life as seen by the artist.

relief In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas), sunken (hollow), or intaglio. In the last, the backgrounds are not cut back and the points in highest relief are level with the original surface of the material being carved.

sfumato A smokelike haziness that subtly softens outlines in painting; the term is particularly applied to the painting of Leonard and Correggio.

shape an object represented in two dimensions.

still life A painting representing inanimate objects, such as flowers, fruit, or household articles.

style A manner of treatment or execution of works of art that is characteristic of a civilization, a people, or an individual; also, a special and superior quality in a work of art.

symmetry Esthetic balance that is usually achieved by disposing forms about a real or an imaginary axis so that those on one side more-or-less correspond with those on the other. The correspondence may be in terms of shape, color, texture, etc.

tempera A technique of painting using pigment mixed with egg yolk, glue, or casein; also, the medium itself.

tenebrism painting in the "dark manner"

value the relative degree of light and dark in a work of art.

warm colors half of the color wheel from yellow to red-violet. Psychologically, warm colors tend to be exciting, emphatic, and affirmative; optically, they generally seem to advance or to project.

watercolor A painting technique using pigment (usually prepared with gum) mixed with water and applied to an absorbent surface; also, the medium itself.