USEFUL INFORMATION - Glossary of Fine Art Terms

 

 

 

 

Key
Used to describe the prevailing tone (qv) of a painting (qv): a predominantly light painting, for example, is said to have a high key. Also, in fresco (qv) painting, the slightly coarsely laid plaster used to provide a key or ‘lock’ for the final layer of intonaco (qv) on which the image is painted.

 

(Wooden) Keys
The flat, triangular, wooden wedges inserted into slots at the corner joints of a stretcher (qv) in order to ‘lock’ the canvas (qv) into position.

 

 

 

 

Laid Down
A work on paper (qv) that has being mounted or glued onto a backing material. Over time this is likely to damage the work (and therefore its value) and it requires the services of a skilled paper conservator to remove it safely.

 

Landscape
A painting (qv) genre (qv) that predominantly features natural scenery where the figures and other objects are incidental to the composition.

 

Laying-in
See Under-painting.

 

Lean
Used to describe paint (qv) thinned with spirit which has a low oil content.

 

Lightfast
Pigments (qv) which are resistant to fading or other changes due to light. If carefully protected, some pigments will stay virtually unchanged for decades, even centuries, whilst other are fugitive (qv) and will fade or darken if exposed to direct sunlight for even a short period of time. No painting (qv) or other work on paper (qv) should ever be exposed to direct sunlight.

 

Limited Edition
See Printmaking.

 

Linear
A form of painting (qv) where images are predominantly created by the use of defined lines or edges to create form - the opposite of Painterly (qv).

 

Linear Perspective
See Perspective and Vanishing Point.

 

Linen
The material traditionally used as canvases (qv) for oil paintings (qv).

 

Lining
See Re-lining.

 

Linseed - Linseed Oil
The most commonly used carrier in oil paint (qv). It can also be used as a painting (qv) medium (qv), making oil paints more fluid, transparent (qv) and glossy (qv). It is derived from the dried ripe seeds of the flax plant.

 

Lithograph - Lithography
In printmaking (qv), a lithograph is an authorised copy of an original artwork created by the artist himself or by a skilled craftsmen working with the artist’s authority and under his guidance. The process relies on the principle that oil and water cannot mix. The artist uses a set of greasy crayons (qv) or pencils (qv) to draw a mirror image of the original artwork onto a smooth lithographic stone (qv), metal plate (qv) or matrix (qv). An oil-based ink is then applied directly to the stone or plate which immediately bonds with the equally greasy crayon or pencil lines. Water is then wiped onto the remaining unpainted areas to discourage the ink from smearing. A sheet of paper is placed over the entire inked stone or plate and both are placed in a press. Light pressure is used to transfer the ink to the paper. A monochrome (qv) lithograph requires a single, black, impression. A polychrome (qv) or colour lithograph requires a number of printings of different colours where the same paper must be placed precisely over the previously-inked image. Lithography was invented in Solnhofen, Germany by Alois Senefelder in 1798. Also refers to the resulting print. (From Greek: lithos = stone + grapho = to write).

 

Lithographic Stone
See Lithograph and Matrix.

 

Local Colour
The actual colour (qv) of an object or surface, unaffected by light or reflected colour.

 

Loom State
A canvas (qv) that has not been primed (qv), sized (qv) or otherwise prepared prior to painting (qv).

 

Lost Wax Process
A method of casting bronze (qv) sculpture that was used from the Middle Ages to the early 18thC. The artist would begin by making a model of a sculpture in wax before covering it with a mould (qv), usually made of clay. The wax would then be melted away - or lost - and molten bronze poured into the resulting clay mould. After the bronze had hardened the clay mould would be broken to reveal the sculpture. (From French: cire perdue = lost wax).

 

Low Relief

See Bas Relief.

 

Luminosity
A quality seen in some paintings (qv) of a glow coming from within, the illusion that light is emanating from the picture.

 

 

 

 

Maquette
A small, scale model produced in preparation for a finished sculpture or architectural project, in order to visualise the finished work and/or to obtain a patron’s approval prior to the creation of the full-size work. Also referred to as plastico and modello (qv). (From French: maquette = scale model). See also Modello.

 

Marble Sculpture
The art of creating three-dimensional forms from marble. The marble from Carrara, in the province of Massa-Carrara in Tuscany, Italy, has long enjoyed the reputation of being the finest marble for use in sculpture and has been used for this purpose since the days of Ancient Rome: for example in The Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome, as well as many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's (Italian, 1475–1564) statue of David in Florence.

 

Margin
The area of paper outside the image area of an artwork, typically a work on paper (qv) or print.

 

Marmi finti
A painted imitation of marble. Usually a decorative feature, it was sometimes used in paintings (qv), particularly by the artist Andrea Mantegna (Italian, c.1430-1506). (From Italian: fake marble).

 

Marouflage
A technique for gluing a mural-sized painting on paper (qv) or fabric to a wall.

 

Masstone
The top tone (qv) or bodycolour (qv) of a paint (qv) seen only by reflected light.

 

Mat - Matting
A stiff, usually coloured, piece of cardboard, with a central cut-out window, used to highlight an artwork within a frame (qv).

 

Matrix (plural: Matrices)
In printmaking (qv), the surface on which an image is incised and then used to make an impression on paper (qv), thus creating a print. A wood block (qv), metal plate (qv), or lithographic stone (qv) can be used as a matrix.

 

Matt
Having a dull surface appearance, the opposite of glossy (qv).

 

Mechanical Cracks - Mechanical Cracking
See Sigmoidal.

 

Medium (plural: Media)
Either the chosen medium of an artist, such as painting (qv), drawing (qv) or sculpture (qv) or the type of binder (qv) which ensures that paint pigments (qv), such as oil (qv) or acrylic (qv), adhere to one another.

 

Medium Relief
See Relief.

 

Mezzo-Rilievo
See Relief.

 

Mezzotint
A mezzotint is an intaglio (qv) printmaking (qv) process, technically drypoint (qv). It was the first tonal method to be developed, enabling half-tones (qv) to be produced without using line or dot-based techniques like hatching (qv), cross-hatching (qv) or stippling (qv). Tonality (qv) is created by roughening the plate (qv) with thousands of small dots made by a cradle (qv), a metal tool with small teeth. The plate is inked and the face of the plate is wiped clean leaving the tiny pits in the plate holding the ink. The plate is printed in the normal way for an intaglio plate. A high level of quality and richness in the print can be achieved but, because the pits in the plate are not deep, only a small number of top-quality impressions (qv) can be printed before the quality of the tone starts to degrade, typically one or two hundred. The process was invented by Ludwig von Siegen in Germany in 1642.

 

Mixed Media
The use of different media in the same artwork. The use of mixed media began with the Cubist collages (qv) and constructions of Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963) around 1907.

 

Modelling
See Sculpture.

 

Modello (plural: Modelli)
A small version of a large painting (qv), not strictly speaking a preliminary sketch, to be shown to a patron or commissioning institution for their approval before the final, full-sized work was undertaken. Most modelli are in oil paint (qv) or a combination of chalk (qv), ink (qv) and paint (qv). (From Italian: miniature).

 

Mold
See Mould.

 

Monochrome - Monochromatic
Being of a single colour, usually black, hence a painting (qv) or print in which a single colour predominates, perhaps with variations of value (qv) and intensity (qv). The opposite of Polychrome (qv). (From Greek: monos = alone + khroma = colour).

 

Monogram
A unique and often elaborate symbol, crest, design, or combination of initials, used by an artist to authenticate a work of art; or added subsequently to indicate ownership, as on silver and some works on paper.

 

Monotone
See Monochrome.

 

Monotyping
A type of printmaking (qv) made by drawing (qv) or painting (qv) on a smooth, non-absorbent surface or matrix (qv), traditionally a copper etching plate (qv).

 

Mosaic
An ancient technique for creating images using small units of coloured glass, stone, or other material, set into mortar. Also the resulting work. Some of the most famous mosaics are to be seen in the flooring and wall decorations of the villas of Ancient Rome, such as at Pompeii.

 

Mould
A hollow form into which molten metal is poured, or soft material is pressed, to harden into a required shape, typically a sculpture (qv). Sometimes spelt ‘Mold’.

 

Mount - Mountboard
A piece of coloured board with a central window cut out, usually cut with bevelled edges (qv), used as a surround to compliment the artwork within a frame (qv).

 

Mural
Any painting (qv), fresco (qv), mosaic (qv), or other medium applied directly onto the surface of a wall.

 

Museum Board
Multi-ply board used in conservation framing. Made from cotton rags or buffered cellulose to ensure chemical stability and neutrality.

 

 

 

 

Narrative Painting
A painting (qv) portraying a story as the dominant feature.

 

Naturalism
A method of depiction in the fine arts (and literature) in which reality as the result of sensory experience, rather than theory, is represented as realistically and scientifically precisely as possible. (From French: naturalisme).

 

Naturalistic
A work of art that closely resembles forms in the natural world.

 

New English Art Club (NEAC)
English exhibiting society. The club was founded in 1886 by a generation of British artists who looked to France for their inspiration and, indeed, they had originally intended to call themselves the ‘Society of Anglo-French Painters’. They felt that their work was being neglected by the Royal Academy (qv), and the club’s constitution, based on the method of jury selection at The Paris Salon (qv), ensured a more democratic selection procedure than at the Royal Academy. Membership entitles the holder to use the title NEAC.

 

Neutral - Neutral Colour
Having no hue (qv), therefore black, white, or grey.

 

Nimbus
In painting (qv) or other artwork, the disc or halo, usually golden, placed behind the head of a saint or other sacred personage to distinguish him or her from ordinary mortals. Also referred to as an aureole (qv).

 

 

 

 

Old Master
One of the great European painters of the 15thC to the early 18thC who created what are considered to be some of the greatest masterpieces in the canon of Western art, such as Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519), Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564), Titian (Italian, c.1477–1576), Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520), Caravaggio (Italian, 1573–1610), Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640) and Rembrandt (Dutch, 1606–1669). Or a painting (qv) by such a painter.

 

Oil of Turpentine
See Turpentine.

 

Oil Paint(s)
A painting medium (qv) in which dry, finely-ground pigment (qv) is mixed into a paste with drying oils, such as linseed (qv), the most traditional component, poppy (qv) or walnut. The paste may then be diluted with more oil and/or a spirit such as turpentine (qv) or white spirit (qv). Oil paintings (qv) dry slowly with a hard film and the colours are then protected. Oil paints are usually opaque (qv) and traditionally used on canvas (qv). They can have a matt (qv) or gloss (qv) finish. Though oils had been used in the Middle Ages, it was not until the van Eyck brothers in the early 15thC that the medium became fully developed.  It reached Italy during the 1460s and by the end of the century had largely replaced tempera (qv) as the preferred medium due to its brilliance of detail, richness of colour, and greater tonal range.

 

Oil Painting
A painting (qv) executed with pigments (qv) mixed with oil, usually on canvas (qv) or board. Also the resulting artwork.

 

Oil Sketch
An artwork, created wholly or primarily in oil paint (qv), which is less finished than a final painting. Oil sketches were originally created as preparatory studies or modelli (qv) from which to gain a patron’s approval for a larger painting. Also called an Oil Study.

 

Oil Study
See Oil Sketch.

 

Opaque
Impenetrable to light, therefore not translucent (qv) or transparent (qv).

 

Opacity
Being opaque (qv).

 

Orders of Architecture
The three basic styles of design in classical architecture, seen in the form of columns, capitals, and entablatures, each referred to as ‘an order’:

 

	The earliest, the Doric, was the simplest, with a sturdy, fluted column and a plain capital.
	The Ionic had a more slender column, a more elaborate base, and a capital formed by a pair of spiral scrolls.
	The Corinthian was the most ornate, having a very slender column and a capital formed of ornately carved acanthus leaves.

 

Over-painting
Paint (qv) which has been applied at any time after the completion of the original picture, partially covering the original painted surface.