Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
ABBOZZO : in painting, the first sketching done on the canvas, and also the first underpainting. In
sculpture, a mass of material that has been carved or manipulated into a rough form of the ultimate
work. Italian for "sketch."
ABECEDARIAN : meaning arranged in alphabetical order, it should be
compared with numerical and chronological ordering, periodicity,
taxonomy, etc.
ABSURD : ridiculously incongruous or unreasonable, because of a flaw in logic. It also pertains
to the view that there is no order or value in human life or in the universe — a condition
in which human beings exist in a meaningless, irrational world in which people's lives
have no purpose or meaning.
ACADEMY: originally the school of philosophy founded by Plato in the garden of Academe, a district in the vicinity of
Athens. It was closed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, with the other pagan schools, in 529 CE. The term usually
refers to a recognized society established for the promotion of one or more of the arts or sciences. The earliest such
organization was the Museum of Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy Soter in the third century BCE. The first such
academy following the classical era in Europe was the Florentine Academy of Design (Accademia di Designo),
founded by Giorgio Vasari (1511‐1574) in 1560.
ACANTHUS : the thorny leaf of an herb native to the Mediterranean region, the design of which is
often used in capitals of the Corinthian and composite order. It sometimes resembles the
leaves of dandelion, thistle or artichoke plants, pinnately lobed basal leaves with spiny
margins.
ACCESSION : an object acquired by a museum or any other collector as part of its permanent
collection, or the act of recording and processing an addition to the permanent collection.
The opposite of accession is deaccession. Also see collection, donation, and register.
ACCULTURATION : the borrowing between lifestyles, or, the modifying of one person's or group's way of living by contact
with another
ACETATE : the common name for a type of strong, transparent or semi‐
transparent sheets of plastic, available in various thicknesses, and used in
making covers for artwork, as the basis for photographic film, in color
separation, in retouching, as cels in animated filmmaking.
ACROLITH : from the Greek meaning “stone‐ended,” this is an ancient
Greek sculpture in which the head and arms and feet were made of marble
or some other stone.
ADZE : a tool used in wood carving to rough out a form, similar to an ax and especially used by African carvers, but the
blade is set horizontally in the handle, sloping downwards.
AESTHETICISM / ÆSTHETICISM - the belief that the pursuit of beauty is the most important goal, and that it is the artist's
duty to orchestrate selected elements from nature into a composition that, like music, exists for its own sake,
without regard to moral or didactic issues.
AFROCENTRISM : the belief that African cultural heritage must be more greatly represented in humanities curricula,
represented as straightforward demonstrations of black pride to claims that classic Greek philosophy was
plagiarized from lost black sources.
AFTERIMAGE : an optical phenomenon in which the eye's nerves continue to convey an image — with colors
complementary to that of the initial image — after an initial image has departed.
AGITPROP : from two English words, this most often refers to communist or socialist oriented political propaganda
disseminated especially through literature, art, theater, or music. Also, a work, such as a painting, sculpture, poster,
or video, that is designed to impress a certain political or social attitude on its audience, with little or no
consideration given to accuracy.
AGORA : an open space used by ancient Greeks for assemblies and markets.
A.H. / AH : Anno Hebraico ("in the Hebrew year," ) or Anno Hegirae ("in the year of the Hegira”), this is a reference point in
time much like the BC of the Christian, marking the beginning of the Moslem or Jewish era, depending on its use.
À LA POUPÉE : from French meaning “with the doll”, in intaglio, this
is a means of printing several colors at one time by applying each
color to the plate separately with a felt pad.
ALIZARIN : originally a bright red pigment, also called madder lake, made from madder, derived
from the root of the plant Rubia tinctorum. The term now generally refers to a pigment
and a class of dyes derived from anthraquinone — synthetic coal‐tar — and is used in the
manufacture of blue, brown, green, red, violet, and yellow pigments.
ALLA PRIMA : from Italian meaning “first time”, a method of oil
painting in which the picture is completed with the first application
of paints to the entire area, instead of being built up by layering.
ALLUSION : an indirect reference to something or someone presumed to be familiar to the
viewer, in order to increase the effect of an image.
AMBROTYPE : a photographic process introduced in 1851‐52, which quickly replaced the
earlier daguerreotypes because they were cheaper and easier to view. It used weak collodion
negatives which were then bleached and backed by a black background which produced the
effect of a positive image.
AMBULATORY : a continuous aisle around a circular building, or a semi‐circular aisle curving around the apse of a church
behind the main altar.
AMPHITHEATER : a kind of theater "in the round," a round or oval structure having a central stage or arena surrounded by
tiers of seats rising gradually outward from it.
ANAGLYPH : A sculpture or decoration carved in low relief, such as a cameo.
ANASTOLE : the Greek name for a hairstyle in which the hair is brushed up from the forehead, arranged wreath‐like around
the face, and typical in portraits of Alexander the Great.
ANDACHTSBILD : German for “devotional picture”, a picture or sculpture with a type of imagery intended for private
devotion, first developed in Northern Europe.
ANGST : an emotional state of anxiety without a specific cause. In existentialism, this term refers to general human anxiety
at having free will, that is, of being responsible for one's actions.
ANIMISM : the belief that everything, whether animate or inanimate, possesses a soul or spirit, a fundamental system of
belief in the religions of numerous pre‐industrial societies. In philosophy, the term can be applied to the view that in
all things consciousness, or something mind‐like exists. In developmental psychology, an animistic stage in the early
thought and speech of the child has been described, notably by Jean Piaget (French, 1896‐1980).
ANOMALY : a deviation from the normal or expected form, order, or arrangement.
Incorporating one or more anomalies in producing an artwork is among the possible
means to achieving emphasis.
ANTHROPOMORPHISM : the representation of inanimate objects, animals, deities, or other
phenomena, whether real or fictitious, in human form, with human characteristics and
behaviors.
ANTI-ART : either Dada or in its tradition, which rejects conventional theories and forms —
techniques, materials, and means of display. Marcel Duchamp (French‐American, 1887‐1968) is
credited with introducing the term in 1914, and its spirit is summed up in his attempt to exhibit a
urinal, Fountain, and L.H.O.O.Q. — a reproduction of the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) on which he
drew a mustache in 1919.
ANTI-CERNE : a white space, often used by fauve artists, in the form of a line between two
areas of color in a picture; the opposite of a black line.
ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM : any point of view which opposes, fears, mistrusts, or shuns reason — logical, rational thought,
intelligence, good judgment, sound sense — or intellectuals, or intellectual views.
ANTIQUING : artificially creating an appearance of age to the surface of an object through
glazing, burning or discoloration to create new and to simulate old fine art as well.
APADANA : the great audience hall in ancient Persian palaces particularly the Persepolis.
APOTROPAIC : Greek for "turning away," refers to objects designed to ward off evil, as a good
luck charm, amulet, or talisman is intended to avert ill fortune. In cultures as varied as
those of ancient Greece and contemporary Tibet, these have usually been employed to
work against the "evil eye," and are often themselves images of eyes.
APPLIQUÉ : a design made by stitching pieces of colored fabric onto a larger
piece of cloth to be used for wall hangings and as decoration on clothing, quilts
and pillows.
APSARA : in India, a nymph of the sky or air or in Chinese Buddhism, a heavenly
maiden.
APSE : the semicircular or polygonal recess at the end of a Christian church opposite the main entry, or in a wall of a Roman
basilica where the altar was placed.
AQUAGRAPH : a monoprint made by painting with a water medium on a metal, glass, or plastic
plate and pulling one print from that plate.
AQUAMANILE : a vessel for pouring water used in the ritual of washing hands in both religious
and secular contexts — by priests before Mass (Christian) and in private households before
meals. In form, these ewers are often zoomorphic, and may portray either real or imagined
creatures, typically significant in religious iconography.
AQUARELLE : from the French of “watercolor”, the technique of drawing or painting with transparent watercolor, or a
piece of work made this way.
ARABESQUE : a complicated, intertwined, flowing design of stylized floral and plant
motifs loosely based on Arabian decoration.
ARCADE : a series of arches on column, pier, or pillars. Also refers to a roofed
passageway or gallery, especially with shops on one or both sides.
ARCHITECTONIC : used as the name of the second style of classical Roman fresco
painting, in which painters covered walls with such architectural elements as columns and
porticos, punctuated with illusory windows revealing scenic landscapes.
ARCHITRAVE : in classical architecture, the lintel or lowest part of an entablature,
sometimes called an epistyle.
ARMATURE : a skeleton‐like framework to give rigid internal support to a modeled clay or
wax sculpture.
ARTE POVERA : Italian for "poor art," it was mostly sculptural work made from
everyday materials including soil, cement, twigs, newspapers, instead of
traditional materials like stone and bronze. This largely Italian movement, named
by the critic Germano Celant in 1967, endured through the 1970s, concerned with
metaphorical treatments to do with nature, culture, history, and contemporary
life.
ASPHALTUM : in etching, a liquid that is used on plate as a soft ground, and on the backs of plates to protect them from
the mordant.
ATECTONIC : in sculpture, this refers to shapes or forms that tend to reach out into open space.
AUTEURISM : the belief that the director of a film is of primary importance as the creator of the final product, advanced by
filmmakers such as Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen.
AVANT-GARDE : French for “vanguard”, this is a movement in which artists and their work stand in the forefront of a
movement or of new ideas, often in opposition to established ideas and traditions.
AZURITE : a mineral used as a blue pigment. An ore of copper related to malachite that, when
ground up, makes a deep blue pigment with a greenish tinge commonly used in Egyptian wall
painting and as an underpainting of ultramarine in Renaissance art.
BAILEY : in the architecture of a castle, the outer wall or the open area enclosed by this outer wall.
BALDACCHINO : in architecture, an ornamental canopy on columns over a tomb, altar, or throne.
BALUSTRADE : a rail, usually about three feet high, supported by a series of posts generally as along the outside edge of a
stairway or gallery.
BAREN : in Japanese printmaking tradition, a small, flat pad of woven bamboo bark used to impress a print from a wood
block.
BENI-E / BENI-YE / BENIZURI-E / BENI-ZURI-YE : in Japanese art tradition, a two‐color print in
pink and green (or the making of such prints), with its dominant tone of rose‐red derived from
saffron. They typically produce a strong color vibration.
BESTIARY : a collection of allegories with descriptions of real or imagined animals written during
the Middle Ages.
BHAKTI : in Buddhism, the devout, selfless direction of all tasks and
activities of life to the service of one god; the adoration of a personalized
deity.
BIBELOT : a small art object, usually a finely made miniature book, which is either rare or
decorative.
BIEDERMEIER : a style of painting, furniture, and other crafts, prominent in middle class
Germany and Austria from 1815 to 1848. It was a simplified adaptation of the French
Empire style, which preceded it.
BLOTTO : a symmetical and nonobjective painting made by applying tempera paint onto one side
of photo then folding the paper and pressing the two sides together.
BODHISATTVA : in Buddhism, one who has attained enlightenment, but chooses to remain among humankind to help
others achieve it.
BOHEMIANISM : originally, the alternative lifestyle of the avant‐garde creative community of the Romantic movement
during the nineteenth century, especially characterized by anti‐bourgeois and anti‐intellectual attitude. This way of
life was thought to have been similar to that of apparently rootless Gypsies from Eastern Europe.
BOKUSAIGA : In Japanese art tradition, an ink painting employing the traditional black color.
BOTTEGA : Italian for “studio” or “workshop”, this term is used to identify an object made in the
studio of a master when his pupils' or assistants' work on it appears to dominate his own.
BOZZETTO : an Italian term for a sculptured sketch made as a model, typically of wax or clay, the
Italian equivalent of the French maquette.
BRECCIA : marble, limestone, or other stone consisting of fragments of one or more stones within a
natural cement of one or more contrasting colors. (see picture to the left.
BUCRANIA : in classical architecture, an ornament, usually in the friezes, having
the form of an ox skull.
BUN-CHIN : in Japanese art tradition, a paperweight used in painting and
calligraphy.
CAIRN : a mound of stones serving as a memorial or monument, or simply as a marker
CALENDERING : in papermaking, the process of pressing paper in order to give it a smooth surface, running it between
rollers under strong pressure.
CALOTYPE : an early photographic process, patented in 1840 by William H.F. Talbot and the first
process to employ a negative to produce a positive image on paper.
CAMAÏEU : a painting technique, in which the painter creates a monochromatic image by
employing two or three tints of a single pigment without regard to local or realistic color.
CAMPANILE : in Italian architecture, a bell‐tower, usually near, but rarely attached to, a church.
CANDELABRUM : a candle holder or lamp with several arms or branches.
CANOPIC JAR : an ancient Egyptian vase, urn, or jar used as a container for an
embalmed human organ.
CARYATID : a carved figure in sculpture in the form of a woman used as a column, usually
supporting an architectural element on her head.
CHADO : also called the "way of tea," this is the set of traditions surrounding the Japanese tea ceremony. A student of
chado is called a chajin, while the house used in the tea ceremony is called a chashitsu.
CHAMFER : to cut through the thickness of a material at an angle, giving a sloping edge. Also refers to an oblique face or
bevel cut at the corner of a board or post.
CHAMPLEVÉ : an engraved, etched, or otherwise grooved area on metal that is filled with
enamel.
CHAPLET : in lost‐wax casting, a core pin or refractory spacing block connecting the core
placed within a wax model to its surrounding mold. When the wax is melted from the
mold, they keep the core from shifting.
CHASING : the process of finishing and refining a metal surface of an object by denting
rather than engraving it with steel tools such as tracers, ciselet, punches, and matting
tools. This is done in order to remove the imperfections and rough spots on a bronze cast
which necessarily form in the casting process.
CHEVET : the eastern end of a Gothic church, including choir, ambulatory, and radiating
chapel.
CHIGI : in Japanese architectural tradition, crossed beams extending upwards from both
ends of the roof gables on a Shinto structure.
CHINOISERIE : a French word also used by English speakers, for any aspect of Chinese
influence on the arts and crafts of Europe, whether produced by Chinese artists, by
Europeans, or by others. Also refers to objects and wares produced with such design.
CHITON : a Greek tunic, the essential (and often only) garment of both men and women, the other
being the himation or mantle.
CIBORIUM : a canopy, often free‐standing and supported by four columns, erected over an altar. Also
refers to the covered cup used in the sacraments of Christian churches.
CINQUECENTO : Italian, literally "five hundred", it refers to the 1500s — the sixteenth century. It is
especially used to refer to Italian art of that century, the time of the High Renaissance and Mannerism.
CISSING : in painting, an application of color that would have resulted in a flat area of paint (covering with an even
thickness), but resulted instead in running streaks and bare spots, usually because of poor wetting of the surface.
CLADDING : in architecture, a decorative, protective, or insulating layer attached to the outside of a building or other
structure, usually aluminum, steel, limestone or marble.
CLERESTORY : in architecture, this term refers to a wall of a building which is raised above
an adjoining room containing a row of windows.
CLOISONNÉ : enamels fused inside a wire enclosure on a metal or porcelain ground, forming
chambers to receive vitreous enamel pastes.
COLLOGRAPH : a print made from an image built up with glue and sometimes other
material. The inked image is transferred from plate to paper and is simultaneously
embossed.
COLLOTYPE : a photographic printing process in which a glass plate whose surface
has been coated with gelatin carries the image to be reproduced.
COLONNADE : a row of columns supporting arches, a lintel, or an entablature used
along streets, courtyards, and around temples such as the Parthenon.
COLOPHON : the logo of a printer or publisher or an inscription page sometimes found
at the end of a book, noting information about the design of the book.
COMPLUVIUM : an opening in the center of a roof of a Roman atrium to admit light.
CORAPLASTERS : term referring to women sculptors in ancient Greek art known to have fabricated the Tanagra, fired clay
figurines that represent deities.
CORBELLED ARCH : in architecture, a "false arch" bridging a gap by means of overlapping
blocks of masonry.
COSMONONPLUSATION : the vague, speechless awe one experiences upon gazing up into the
cosmos and contemplating the pathetic minuteness of one's being, coined by Charles
Harrington Elster in his New York Times article.
COUNTERPOINT : a parallel but contrasting element or theme in a design. Incorporating one or
more counterpoints in producing an artwork is among the possible means to achieving
emphasis.
CRAZING : a network of cracks which sometimes forms in ceramic glazes caused by the glaze and clay body contracting at
different rates as they cool after firing.
CREPIDOMA : the stepped base of a Greek temple.
CUPOLA : a dome, especially a small one, which is surmounted by a lantern.
CURTAIN WALL : in castles, the surrounding fortified walls, an outer non‐
load‐bearing wall, often simply a field of large panes of glass held in place with
a lattice of other material, sometimes merely thin metal bands.
CUSP : the projecting point on the inner side of an arch, window, or rondel.
DECALCOMANIA : a surrealist art process in 1936 by Spanish artist Oscar Dominguez, who
described the technique as "with no preconceived object." It involved applying
gouache to paper or glass, then transferring a reversal of that image onto canvas or
some other material.
DECONSTRUCTION : a method of literary criticism that assumes language refers only to
itself rather than to a reality outside of a text, that asserts multiple conflicting
interpretations of a text, and that bases such interpretations on the philosophical,
political, or social implications of the use of language in the text rather than on the
author's intention.
DECOUPAGE / DÉCOUPAGE : the technique of decorating surfaces by adhering cutouts, most
commonly of paper, and then coating with one or more coats of a transparent (or
translucent) finish, usually a lacquer or varnish. Or, work produced by this technique.
DEESIS : a Greek work, literally meaning "calling on God to witness". In art, it is traditionally a
representation in Byzantine art of Christ enthroned and flanked by the Virgin Mary, St. John
the Baptist, and angels, often found on an iconostasis.
DEFORMALISM : a postmodern tradition of burlesque painting with a tendency toward bad taste and
mayhem. The name apparently comes from the works' anti‐formalist content, and from its
often cartoonishly surreal distortions.
DELTIOLOGY : the art of collecting, storing and displaying of picture postcards.
DER BLAUE REITER : taken from a painting by Wassily Kandinsky, this was a group of German
artists based in Munich from 1911 to 1914, mostly expressionist painters, but their works
ranged from pure abstraction to romantic imagery, attempting to express spiritual truths.
The group held a philosophical spirit and certain approaches to technique. Important
members of the group were Alexei Jawlensky, Gabrielle Münter, Franz Marc, Paul Klee and
August Macke.
DIGITIZING : the process of converting an image into binary code resulting in vector‐graphic or bit‐mapped image data.
DILETTANTE : from Italian meaning, “to delight”, originally, an admirer or lover of the arts, a
connoisseur or a dabbler in an art or a field of knowledge. Today, it is more likely to be
used in an amateur sense as an insult.
DING : a three‐legged ritual vessel in Chinese tradition whose origins predate the Shang
dynasty. It was used to hold food offered to ancestral spirits, and was also a ground
ornament cast with fantastic creatures, symbols, even written characters recording
ritual procedures were cast into it's surface's design. In its typical Shang form, the ding
was a sturdy, lidless vessel mounted on straight legs
DIVISIONISM : a system of painting in small dots of color placed in relation to each other based
on certain color theories.
DOLMEN : large stones standing upright with a horizontal stone balanced upon them such as in
Stonehenge. Numerous such structures have survived from Stone Age France and England with
about half of the original monument missing, but enough remains to provide an idea of what it
was.
DOTAKU : in Japanese tradition, a ceremonial bronze bell which was kept buried in hillside
sanctuaries away from everyday village life, and brought out only for use in certain agricultural
rituals.
DOWEL : a length of round wood, either as it might naturally be formed or as it can be
turned, used as a peg or a substitute for nails in securing a joint between pieces of material.
ECHINUS : In architecture, the convex element of a capital directly below the abacus.
ECLECTICISM : a system or method in which individual elements are selected or employed
from a variety of sources, systems, or styles.
ÉCORCHÉ : a figure drawn, painted, or sculpted to show the muscles of the body without skin
first given emphasis by Renaissance architect and theorist Leon Battista Alberti.
EDOKORO : in Japanese tradition, the Bureau of Painters governing the art school at imperial
court levels.
EFFIGY : a likeness or image, especially of a person now more often
used as a crude figure or dummy of someone despised, perhaps arising
from its original use as tomb monument for the deceased.
ELITISM : the belief that certain persons deserve favored treatment by virtue of their superior
artistic or intellectual accomplishments, or because of some other real or perceived status.
It is a tendency to codify levels of artistic sophistication into a hierarchical system that some
would call pretentiously exclusionary, and others realistic. It is also the sense of entitlement
that follows from this attitude, and the control or dominance by a group who take this view
or position.
EMAKIMONO : in Japanese art tradition, a horizontal scroll painting to be unrolled by hand.
EMBRASURE : in architecture, a splayed opening in a wall that enframes a doorway or a window.
EMOTIONALISM : an aesthetic and critical theory of art which places emphasis on the expressive
qualities. According to this theory, the most important thing about a work of art is the vivid
communication of moods, feelings, and ideas.
EMPIRICISM : the philosophical stance that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge.
EN PLEIN AIR : French for "in the open air", used chiefly to describe paintings that have been executed outdoors, rather
than in the studio.
ENTASIS : an almost imperceptible convex tapering in the shaft of a column.
EPISTEMOLOGY : the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its extent, the way of acquiring it and its
validity.
ÉPURE : in architecture, a full‐scale, detailed drawing done on a wall, floor,
or other large surface, from which are traced the patterns for various
building elements.
ESCUTCHEON : in heraldry, a shield or a shield‐shaped emblem bearing a
coat of arms.
ESQUISSE : a sketch showing the general features of a design or plan.
EXONUMIA : a branch of numismatics that includes medals, tokens, and scrip. Although exonumia does not include
conventional coins and paper currencies, money with various unusual qualities might be included such as elongated
or encased coins.
EXPRESSIONISM : an art movement dominant in Germany from 1905‐1925 anticipated by
Francisco de Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and others. The movements sought to present
the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect to evoke
moods or ideas.
FAÏENCE : glazed earthenware, named after a town in Italy, originally referred only to the tin
glazed earthenware used to refer to a paste which produces a glaze‐like surface when fired.
FARRAGO : from Latin meaning “fodder”, this is a motley assortment or a medley, a jumble or
conglomeration or a hodgepodge. This obscure word was derived from a Latin word meaning
mixed fodder.
FAYUM PORTRAITS : named after a town near Cairo, this refers to the Romano‐Egyptian portraits
painted with encaustic on cartonnage, a linen mummy case, or a wood panel. These were
typically used as funarary portraits. These portraits were either created during the subject's
life, or just after death, and fitted into the mummy wrappings, above the face of the deceased.
FEMMAGE : a type of collage that includes textile art, traditionally produced by women.
FÊTE GALANTE : an elegant and graceful outdoor celebration, such as those seen in the picnics and
flirtatious games often represented in the works of Antoine Watteau and other Rococo painters of
French aristocratic life.
FETTLING : the process of cleaning and finishing the surface of a piece of clay or metal work, especially
the edges, and in the case of cast work, the seam lines
FIBULA : a pin or brooch used to fasten fabric at the shoulder of togas of ancient Greece and Rome.
They were often of decorative design and are the precursors to the safety pins of today.
FORMICATION : drawing its name from a chemical substance, this is an abnormal sensation which resembles that of having
ants crawling on one's skin. This has very little to do with visual culture, but the author is chronically drawn to such
word formations as this one.
FOUNDRY : a workplace where metal is melted and poured into molds..
FOXING : refers to the brownish yellow, patchy discoloration of paper caused by the action of
mold on iron salts, which are present in most paper. It usually results from high relative
humidity — typically when a work is hung on a damp wall. To prevent this, acid‐free materials
shall be used in storage and works should be placed in a low‐humidity environment.
FRISAGE : a marquetry technique in which small flakes of precious woods are cut diagonally
and arranged so the direction of the grain of the wood produces optical effects akin to
iridescence.
FRISSON : from the French of “shiver”, this is a feeling of excitement, usually brief and somewhat
pleasureable, though caused by fear or the expectation that something is going to happen.
It was first used as an English word in 1777.
FROTTAGE : the technique of rubbing with crayon or graphite on a piece of paper which has been
placed over an object, or an image achieved in this way. Such impressions are usually made
from such highly textured subjects as leaves, wood, wire screen, gravestones, and manhole
covers. It was a technique especially employed by surrealists as part of a collage, or
combining frottage with painting techniques.
FUSUMA-E : in Japanese art tradition, paintings on sliding wall panels. Because the
materials with which sliding screens are made are short‐lived, these works are considered
to be temporary ones.
GANTRY : a rigid framework which supports tackle for lifting heavy objects.
GARBA GRIHA : the cella or inner sanctum of the Hindu temple where the icon of the
primary deity resides.
GEMÜTLICHKEIT : a quality akin to coziness that one finds in especially comfortable rooms. Although this quality invariably
depends most on the attitudes of ones hosts in an environment, it seems less likely that it would be found in rooms
furnished in a unified style of almost any kind, but rather in rooms conveying a more eclectic and cheerfully personal
taste; and also one that's clean but unafraid to show some wear.
GENERATRIX / GENERATOR : a geometric element that generates a geometric figure, especially a straight line that
generates a surface by moving in a specified way.
GENPITSU : in Japanese art tradition, a technique of painting employing a reduced number of brushstrokes
GESSO : a fine plaster‐like material made of gypsum that can be either a material cast in a mold or a material of a mold, a
material to be modeled, or carved, or attached to something else.
GESTALT : a physical, psychological, or symbolic arrangement or pattern of parts so unified as a whole that its properties
cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts
GICLÉE - French for "sprayed ink”, this is a sophisticated printmaking process, today typically produced on an IRIS ink‐jet
printer, capable of producing millions of colors using continuous‐tone technology. It is often made from
photographic images of paintings in order to produce high quality, permanent reproductions of them. The extra‐fine
image resolution possible in this printing process permits retention of a high degree of fine detail from the original
image, rendering deeply saturated colors having a broad range of tonal values.
GIRANDOLE : a composition or structure in radiating arrangement or form such as a pinwheel. A
French word for an ornamentally branching candleholder, sometimes combined with a mirror
or a clock.
GLAIR : a varnish for tempera paints prepared by mixing the remaining egg whites in tempera with a
little water, and beating them. The resulting bubbles should be allowed to dissipate before
applying.
GLYPH : a symbolic figure that is usually engraved or incised, as in the Olmec and Mayan art of Pre‐
Columbian Mexico.
GOPURAM : in architecture, the massive ornamental entrance structure
of South Indian temples.
GRAFFITI / GRAFFITO : a drawing or an inscription made on a wall or other surface, usually so
as to be seen by the public, and also called "Spraycan art" and "Subway art" at its height in the
1980s.
GRAVURE : French for “engraving”, this term has been used
broadly to cover any or all of these several types of engraving which
includes copper‐plate and wood engraving. In the 19th and 20th
centuries, prints have been referred to as "art gravures" in order to
distinguish them as art prints, rather than as merely commercial‐
grade prints. The line drawn between the two is a relatively
subjective one. Seeing this term ON a print should raise suspicion
that it is part of a huge edition, and/or for a relatively mass audience.
GUILLOCHE : a patterned ornament consisting of interlaced, curving bands.
GYOTAKU : from Japanese “fish impression”, this is a relief print made from an actual fish, and
sometimes from a shell, leaf, or other object from nature — inked and placed on paper
or cloth. The oldest known type of these were commissioned in 1862 by Lord Sakai in
the Yamagata Prefecture to preserve the memory of a record catch. These are
commonly exhibited on the walls of homes, or kept in journals to document fishing
achievements, much as western fishermen display photographs and taxidermy.
HALLENKIRCHE : in Gothic architecture, especially popular in Germany, a hall church in
which the aisles are as high as the nave.
HANIWA : in Japanese tradition, sculptured pottery cylinders, modeled in human or animal
figures, or in other forms, and placed in early Japanese burial mounds. This also
include human‐figured figurines generally found in postdating the mid‐5th century.
HARMIKA : in Buddhist architecture, a square fence‐like enclosure symbolizing heaven on top of the
dome of a stupa. At the center of this fence rises the circular disks of the temple.
HASHIRA-E : in Japanese art tradition, a narrow vertical print to be hung.
HEDDLE : the device on a loom used for raising selected warps to create
space through which the weft thread can easily pass.
HERRINGBONE PERSPECTIVE : a type of perspective in which the lines of
projection converge not on a vanishing point, but on a vertical axis at the
center of the picture, as in Roman painting.
HIMATION : a rectangular woolen or linen cloak or mantle worn by men and women of ancient
Greece, worn over a tunic and draped in various ways
HORROR VACUI : this is the compulsion to make marks in every space resulting in a crowded design. In Latin, it is literally,
"fear of empty space". Some artists exclude this from their list of principles and apparently interpret it as posessing
an undesirable, perhaps obsessive quality.
HYPOSTYLE HALL : in architecture, a hall with a roof supported by columns, applied to the
colonnaded hall of the Egyptian pylon temple.
ICONOCENTRISM : the belief that images are or should be the central element in the
universe and that images play the most important role with other things being subservient to
them.
ICONODULY / ICONOLATRY : the worship or veneration of images and the opposite of an
iconoclasm.
ICONOSTASIS : in Eastern Christian churches, a screen or partition, with doors and many
tiers of idols that separates the sanctuary from the main body of the church.
IMBRICATION : an overlapping, as of tiles, shingles, feathers or scales for instance such as they stack in a consistent
fashion.
IMITATIONALISM : an aesthetic theory of art which places emphasis on the literal qualities. According to this theory, the
most important thing about a work of art is the realistic representation of subject matter. A work is considered
successful if it looks like and reminds the audience of what is seen in the real world.
IMPASTO : a thick or lumpy application of paint, pastel or deep brush marks, as distinguished from a flat, smooth paint
surface.
IMPLUVIUM : in the architecture of ancient Rome, a depression in the floor of an atrium to
collect rainwater.
IMPRESSION : in printmaking, a single print made from a block, plate, or stone or the
process by which these prints are made.
INCRASSATE : to make a liquid thicker, or to allow a liquid to become thicker
INCRUSTATION : this is a style of classical Roman wall decoration in which the wall was divided into bright, polychrome
panels of solid colors with occasional, schematically rendered textural contrasts, often veined in imitation of
polished slabs of marble.
INTAGLIO : the collective term for several graphic processes in which prints are made from ink
trapped in the grooves in an incised metal plate. It may also refer to imagery incised on gems or
hardstones, seals, and dies for coins, or to an object decorated in this way, which when pressed or
stamped into a soft substance, produces a positive relief in that substance.
INTONACO : the final layer of plaster on which a fresco is painted.
IONIC : the second of the three orders of classical Greek architecturewhich are slender and are
typically eight to nine meters high. These type of columns have a molded base beneath them. At the
top of these fluted shafts, are laterality positioned volutes, beneath rectangular blocks of stone.
IRIDESCENCE : a surface displaying a lustrous rainbowlike brightness sometimes produced by glass, glaze or textile
surfaces.
JAGGIES : in digital imaging, picture elements that are so large that the viewer becomes
aware of them as small squares, with edges looking like zig‐zags.
JALEE WORK / JALI : Urdu for “openwork”, these are stone screen usually carved of white
marble or fine red sandstone. These are most typically found in Mughal architecture,
and simultaneously create a private space while producing patterns of light. They allow
for cooling breezes to refresh on the hottest day, while their delicate tracery enhances the space and light in an
interior environment.
JAMB : in Romanesque and Gothic churches, the vertical sides of the opening windows and
doors that are often cut on a slant outward thus providing a broader surface for sculptural
decoration. The space is usually embedded with statues of religious figures.
JATAKA : in Buddhism, tales of the lives the Buddha.
JUBÉ : this refers to a choir screen in a Gothic cathedral.
JUDAICA : Jewish art, especially objects associated with religious ceremonies or practices.
JUMP CUT : a cinematic technique used to disrupt narrative flow by arbitrarily omitting chunks from the middle of long
continuous shots to dislocate any sense of progressive action.
JUVENILIA : a general term for the works produced in an artist's youth.
KA : in ancient Egypt, the immortal human substance, the counterpart of the Western idea of the spirit or soul. It is
represented by a figure with two bent arms in the Egyptian hieroglyph.
KAGLE : a rough, highly abstracted African mask of the Dan people of West Africa.
KAKEJIKU : in Japanese art tradition, a hanging scroll used for mounting pieces of
calligraphy.
KANSHITSU : in Japanese art tradition, a technique of building up layers of lacquer
reinforced with hemp over a clay core to form a hollow structure.
KERN / KERNING : in typography, the projecting portion of a character that overlaps the edge of an adjacent letter. It is
the technique of adjusting the spacing between letters, usually to give them the appearance of even spacing.
KETUBAH : in Jewish art tradition, a mariage contract, describing the obligations of the husband and wife, especially
among Jews of Spanish‐Portuguese origin. It has often been highly ornamented, decorated with intricate and
colorful designs.
KHUTBAH : in Islamic worship, a sermon and a declaration of allegiance to a community leader.
KISS OF DEATH : when a paint brush is placed so that its brush‐end is down, and it is abandoned
long enough so that its bristles are permanently bent,
KOHL : a cosmetic preparation usually antimony sulfide used especially in Egypt and other Middle
Eastern countries as eye makeup.
KORE : literally Greek for “woman”, this is a Greek statue of a clothed maiden.
KOUROS : literally Greek for “young man”, this is a Greek statue of a male youth who may have
been a god or an athlete.
KYATHOS : a cup or dipper with a single high vertical handle.
KYLIX : in Greek and Roman antiquity, a shallow drinking cup with two horizontal handles,
often set on a stem terminating in a foot.
LABYRINTH : this is classically a unicursal pathway that leads physically to the center of a
linear pattern and then back out by simply reversing direction on the same path. They
have been known to the human race for over 3,500 years, conjuring up such images
as the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and have been thought to hold spiritual
meanings in various cultures.
LACQUER : the term popularly used for some commercially prepared clear or pigmented
varnishes derived largely from cellulose in a vehicle of fast drying solvent.
LAMASSU : from Akkadian meaning “protective spirit”, it is a large carved stone sculpture of a
sacred, winged bull with a man's head. The head is invariably bearded and the top of the head is
phallic, and sometimes bears the king's crown. These were placed on either side of the
doorways of Assyrian palaces, and of gateways to cities to protect against
evil spirits, and impress the neighbors.
LAPIS : a bright blue stone containing golden specks, used in jewelry,
intaglios, and decorative inlays and veneer. It is also the stone from which
natural ultramarine pigment is ground, which was once widely used, but is
now extremely expensive.
LECTIONARY : in Christian tradition, a list of lections often illustrated — selections from the Bible
that are read in church services.
LEITMOTIF : originally a musical term, this came to have the general meaning of a recurring and
often dominant theme in art, writing, or in life itself.
LEKYTHOS : in ancient Greece, an oil jug with an ellipsoidal body, a narrow neck, a flanged mouth, a
curved handle extending from below the lip to the shoulder, and a narrow base terminating
in a foot. It was used chiefly for ointments and funerary offerings.
LEVIGATION / TRITULATION : the reduction of a material to fine smooth paste or powder.
LIERNE : a short rib that runs from one main rib of a vault to another.
LIGATURE : in calligraphy and typography, two or more letters joined together to create a single
character. Among the most common such combinations: æ (a+e) and Æ (A+E). Among other letters
most commonly combined include oe, fi, ff, and ffl.
LIMNERS : May refer to any painter, but more often to itinerant self‐taught American painters of
the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, who made literal and naïve portraits.
LINO-CUT : a block or plate used for making relief prints produced in much the same way
woodcuts are produced, however its surface is softer and without grain. Also refers to a print
made with this method.
LINSEED OIL : a drying oil used in paints, usually boiled to
make it faster drying.
LINTEL : in architecture, a horizontal beam of any material spanning an opening, usually
between two walls or posts.
LOGGIA : in architecture, a gallery that has an open arcade or a colonnade on one or
both sides.
LOOKISM : the principle on prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of appearance, thinking less of a person whose
appearance is less than ideal or thinking more of a person because his / her appearance is ideal enough. Such factors
of appearance may include the shape, color, texture or expression of facial or bodily features, hairstyle, costume, or
body language. The earliest citation of this in print is in the Washington Post Magazine in 1978, which reported that
fat people had coined it as a defensive word.
LOST-WAX CASTING / CIRE-PERDUE : a casting process for which a sculptor must first produce his sculpture in wax. He
creates a mold around this made of refractory materials. When the mold is heated, the wax melts away, so that
molten metal can replace it, reproducing exactly the original wax sculpture.
LOZENGE : a four‐sided two‐dimensional figure with a diamondlike shape. Simply, a rhombus that is not a square.
LUNETTE : from French meaning “half‐moon”, in architecture,
this is a semicircular, fan‐shaped opening in a wall or a door.
LUTING : in pottery, the attachment of any smaller molded,
modeled, or turned ceramic component to a larger molded,
modeled or turned form using slip as a cement.
MACHICOLATION : in the architecture of castles, an opening in
the floor of an overhanging gallery through which defenders
dropped stones and boiling liquids on attackers.
MACRAMÉ : long cords knotted to form a pattern. This is an old craft revived to great popularity
in the 1960s and 1970s.
MADRASA : in Islamic tradition, a combined school and mosque.
MAGNUM OPUS : Latin for “great work”, although a masterpiece is a work that demonstrates
mastery, a magnum opus is the greatest work in the entire life of an artist,
MAHLSTICK : also called a bridge, this is a long wooden stick used by painters as a tool to
support and steady the hand that holds the brush, conserving the arm's strength, and
protecting the painting's surface.
MAJOLICA / MAIOLICA : a type of earthenware which originated during the Renaissance. Its
name comes from a Spanish island from which Italy imports early specimens. It is coated with
a tin glaze and often lustered, which produces the effect of a rich, enameled surface.
MALANGGAN : intricately carved Melanesian ceremonial sculptures — some call them masks —
made for elaborate rituals, some to memorialize the dead, some for a boy's initiation rituals,
and some for other events. These carvings took months to make, but after guests had
viewed them, the carvings were burned or left to rot, breaking the connection with
dangerous supernatural forces called into them when they were made.
MANDALA : any of various radial geometric designs symbolic of the universe, traditionally
used in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation.
MANIERA GRECA : a formal Byzantine style that dominated Italian painting in the 12th and 13th
centuries. It's characterized by shallow space and linear flatness.
MANIFESTO : a public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions. Although usually of a
political nature, there is a history in art, especially in modernism during the first half of the
twentieth century, of the spokesmen of various avant‐garde movements declare their
theories, motivations and direction, stimulating support for them or reactions against them.
MAQUETTE : a small sculpture made as a preparatory study or model for a full‐scale work.
MARIONETTE : in puppetry, a small‐scale, complete figure, usually of a person or animal and made of wood, that is moved
from above by strings or wires that are attached to its jointed arms, legs, and body.
MAROUFLAGE : a painting done on canvas and then cemented to a wall or panel.
MARQUETRY : inlay or veneers of wood form a pictorial image which forms geometric designs. At the height of its use in
late 17th century France, fine furniture was embellished with these produced with such rare and extremely expensive
materials including ebony, tortoiseshell, and brass, often inspired by Japanese lacquer. In the 18th century, this began
to be created in exotic woods and in different colors.
MASTABA : a low rectangular ancient Egyptian tomb made of mud brick or stone
masonry, with sloping sides and a flat top covering a burial chamber.
MAT / MATT / MATTE : a decorative border placed around a picture, often under
glass that serves as a frame or provides contrast between the picture and the
frame. It also refers to the thin, flat sheet of glass fiber material used to
reinforce laminating resin, hollow cast ciment fondu, and modeled concrete
sculpture.
MBARI : ceremonial houses filled with clay sculptures and paintings, honoring community deities
of the Ibo tribe in Africa.
MEGALITH : literally, "great stone", this is a large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction
of monumental Stone Age structures such as the dolmens.
MEHNDI : the traditional art of hand and foot painting in India, and parts of Africa and the
Middle East, especially for weddings, festivals, and other celebrations.
MEMORABILIA : objects collected for their historical significance, for the memories they evoke — often sentimental —
which include old posters and other advertisements, election campaign buttons, party invitations, packaging,
theater tickets, and other realia and ephemera.
METAPHYSICS : the branch of philosophy concerned with the ultimate nature of existence.
MEZZOTINT : in printmaking, an engraving process that is tonal rather than linear, or the prints produced by this process. It
is developed in the 17th century and was used widely as a reproductive printing process, especially in England, until
photographic processes overtook it in the mid‐19th century and was most commonly produced from 1780s‐1870s. A
copper or steel plate is first worked all over with a curved, serrated tool called a rocker, raising burrs over the surface
to hold the ink and print as a soft dark tone. The design is then created in lighter tones by scraping out and
burnishing areas of the roughened plate so that they hold less ink, or none in highlights.
MIHRAB : in Islamic architectural tradition, the most
important element in any mosque, the niche or
depression in the wall that indicates the
direction of Mecca. Because it functions as the
focal point in prayer ritual, its decoration was
and continues to be executed with great skill
and devotion.
MILAGRO : in Latin America, these are small metal
sculptures (usually made of silver) that believers
present at shrines, typically attaching them to
altars, and to statues or effigies of saints, etc.,
as votive offerings — promoting the healing of
sickness, successful romance, and the granting
of other requests.
MILLEFIORI : from the Italian, meaning "a thousand flowers," these are glass rods, typically one foot in length, each with a
diameter of about 3 mm. From the outside, they appear to be simple glass canes. But when seen in cross‐section,
each piece reveals a multicolored radial design, each looking much the same along the cane's length.
MINARET : in Islamic architecture, a tall, slender tower attached to or
built near a mosque.
MINBAR : in Islamic tradition, the pulpit found near the qiblah wall in a
mosque used by the imam for sermons and prayer. These are made of
wood, stone, marble and alabaster, and usually richly decorated.
MISERICORDS : wooden relief carvings in Gothic churches that
decorate the undersides of seating ledges provided for clergy during
services. They often portray biblical scenes, but many have secular subjects. It is then an expression of God's mercy
for the exhausted clergyman who would otherwise have to stand.
MIXED MEDIA / INTERMEDIA : a technique involving the use of two or more artistic methods, such as ink and pastel or
painting and collage, that are combined in a single composition.
MODERNISM : an art movement characterized by the deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms
of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
MOIRÉ / MOIRE / MOIR : a white moire fabric, especially silk, rayon, linen, or another material with a wavy or rippled
pattern or texture impressed into its surface by engraved rollers.
MONASTICISM : refers to a way of life in which individuals voluntarily join together in isolated communities where they
spend their days in prayer, manual labor and self‐denial.
MONTAGE : a single pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or overlapping many pictures or designs or the art or
process of making such a composition. This also refers to a rapid succession of different images or shots in a movie
MORDANT : in etching, a bath of either an acid or a diluted acid in which a plate or a piece of
glass to be etched is placed.
MORIAGE : in Japanese art, the forming of patterns in raised gesso.
MORTISE / MORTICE : a cavity in a material (usually wood, but sometimes stone or metal)
into which a tenon is made to fit in order to create a joint.
MOTHER-OF-PEARL - The pearly, iridescent internal layer of certain mollusk shells, used as
an inlay or veneer in jewelry, furniture, and other decorative objects.
MUDRA : in Hinduism, a stylized gesture of mystical significance, usually in representations of Hindu deities.
MUTULE : the projecting bracket placed in series under the corona of the cornice in the Corinthian,
composite, and Roman Ionic order
NABIS : from the Hebrew meaning “prophets”, this is an avant‐garde group of French painters and
poets, active 1888‐99 rejecting naturalistic representation, and instead, paint in flat areas of pure
color. Thi group felt that a painting should not imitate reality but parallel nature, creating a world
unto itself. They stressed the importance of subjective and sometimes mystical perceptions. Piérre
Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard were probably the best painters of the group.
NAÏVE ART : the style of painting characterized by a careful, simplifying approach, non‐scientific perspective, bright colors,
and often, an enchantingly literal depiction of imaginary scenes. The term usually refers to works produced by artists
who had no formal training.
NARTHEX : in architecture, a porch or vestibule of a church,
generally colonnaded or arcaded and preceding the nave.
NASHIJI : in Japanese art tradition, the pearskin effect in oriental
lacquerware, created by sunken scattered metal filings.
NAVE : in the architecture of a church, the major, central area where
the congregation gathers. It leads from the main entrance to
the altar and choir, and is usually flanked by side aisles
NECKING : a cylinder at the bottom of the Greek Ionic capital between the echinus and the flutes that masks the junction of
capital and shaft.
NECROPOLIS : a large, usually underground, burial area; literally meaning “city of the dead”.
NEO-EXPRESSIONISM : this may refer to all art produced between 1905 and 1925 in Germany. It stems from Wassily
Kandinsky and is used more narrowly, this term sometimes refers specifically to the primarily German and Italian art
revival of the 1970s and early 1980s. Rejecting both conceptual and minimalist modes, the artists of this movement
returned to gestural, figurative painting.
NEO-PLASTICISM / DE STIJL : an art movement led by Piet Mondrian advocating pure
abstraction and simplicity — form reduced to the rectangle, and color to the primary colors,
along with black and white.
NETSUKE : literally meaning “root for fastening”, in Japanese art, this is a belt toggle often
carved ivory or wood, and traditionally used to secure a purse or small container suspended on
a silk cord from the sash of a kimono, because most kimono were without pockets.
NEW WAVE CINEMA : a cinema style developed in the 1950s and 1960s that characteristically attempted to subvert viewer
expecations by using ambiguity, surprise, fuzzy camera work, and abrupt changes in space, time, and mood. The
French equivalent for this term is La Nouvelle Vague.
NIB : the point of a pen through which ink flows in order to make marks. They have most commonly been made of metal,
but have also been made of quill (feather), reed, bamboo, and plastics, among other materials.
NICHE : in architecture, an ornamental recess (concavity) in the thickness of a wall, especially for
the display of a statue, bust, vase, or other erect ornament. It is sometimes terminated by a
cartouche, but more commonly by a canopy, and with a bracket or corbel for the figure, in which
case it might be called a tabernacle. "Niche" is originally a French word. It was derived from Italian
nicchio, meaning a shellfish or mussel, because many niches are more or less shell‐like in form.
NIELLO : a soft, black alloy of sulfur with copper, gold, silver or lead used to ornament metal
objects.
NIKE : the ancient Greek goddess of victory, often identified with Athena, and by the Romans with
Victoria. She is usually represented as a winged woman with windblown draperies.
NIRVANA : in Buddhism and Hinduism, a blissful state brought about by absorption of the individual soul or consciousness
into the supreme spirit.
NOISE : in digital imaging, data or unidentifiable marks picked up in the course of scanning or data transfer that do not
correspond to the original.
NONOBJECTIVE ART : also known as nonrepresentational art, this term refers to artworks having no recognizable subject
matter (not recognizable as such things as houses, trees, people, etc.)
NOSTALGIA : a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past. The condition of being homesick;
homesickness. Those who are nostalgic are likely to favor traditions over the future's potential to be the site of
better things. Everyone would like to escape the present for some qualities remembered from (or associated with)
times past.
NYCTALOPIA : also known as night blindness this is the reduced ability to see in faint light.
NYLON ® : a type of polymer produced by a chemical process, capable of being pulled into fibers
commonly made into such materials as fabrics and cords, which are noted for their strength and
elasticity.
OAKTAG : a thin but stiff card or cardboard, the kind used in the typical manilla file‐folder.
OBELISK : a tall, four‐sided shaft of stone, usually tapering, that rises to a pyramidal point.
OBJET D'ART : a French term meaning “art object,” it is often used by English speakers to mean a
work of art which is small in size, such as a miniature painting, netsuke, a statuette, or vase.
OBVERSE : the principal side of any object, especially any two‐sided object, such as a coin, a medal, a seal, or a panel which
has a painting on each side.
OCHER / OCHRE : natural earths used to make pigments, especially yellowish tan or the color
itself.
OCULUS : a round, central opening or an "eye" in a dome.
OIL GILDING : this is the attaching of a gold leaf to a non‐absorbent surface which has been
coated with an adhesive, either a slow‐drying type containing linseed oil, or a quick‐drying type.
OINOCHOE : a Greek vessel or vase in the form of a one‐handled wine jug.
OMPHALOS : from Greek meaning “navel”, this is a central point, a hub or focal point, or the center of activity, a vessel or
object placed at the center of Greek temples symbolizing the center of the world. The ancients also used it to
designate a circular altar at Delphi, which was considered the center of the earth
ONTOLOGY : the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of being, an area of psychology relating to the being or
essence of things, or to being in the abstract.
ORIGAMI : the craft or technique of folding paper into shapes, representing animals, plants, and lots of other subjects.
ORPHISM : a style of painting related to Cubism that employed overlapping planes of bright, contrasting colors. It was
generally both more abstract and more colorful than other forms of Cubism. The name, chosen by the poet
Guillaume Apollinaire in 1913, harkened back to the singer and poet of Greek mythology. Painter Robert Delaunay
and his wife Sonia Delaunay‐Terk were the chief exponents of this early 20th century art movement.
OSTRACON / OSTRAKON : from Greek meaning “oystershell”, these are shards of limestone
or broken pottery used for sketching by Egyptian and Greek artists.
OTTOCENTO : Italian, literally "eight hundred," it refers to the 1800s — the nineteenth century
— and is often used to refer to Italian art of the period. It was the age of nationalism
throughout Europe. This is the Italian period when Italy unified into one governing unit.
OX GALL / OXGALL / OX-GALL : a waterless, oil‐ and water‐soluble, translucent, nearly transparent brown liquid, this is the
bile taken from the gall bladder of a cow, It is used with watercolors, in engraving, in marbling, and in lithography as
a wetting agent to reduce the "surface tension" of liquids, improving water's ability to penetrate and be absorbed. It
is also used in the marbling of paper to more smoothly disperse oil color on the size.
PAGODA : a Buddhist tower with several winged eaves; derived from the Indian stupa. Its
function is largely to house sacred objects. Such a temple is typically a several‐
storied tower and from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were constructed of wood.
PAISLEY : named after a textile‐producing town in Scotland, this is a pattern or a fabric
figured with a pattern of abstract, curved shapes.
PALIMPSEST : an object or image that reveals its history, just as a chalkboard sometimes allows us
to see partially erased marks. For much of history, writing surfaces were so rare that they
were often used more than once. When parchment ran short, many a writer would wash or
scrape away an old manuscript to remove old marks, so that new marks could be made right
over them, usually at right angles to the old lettering. Fortunately for modern scholars
erasing was generally ineffective, because original texts can frequently be distinguished
under the later writing.
PALMETTE : an ornamental motif based on the palm leaf, a radiating cluster of petals. It is often
seen in ancient Egyptian and classical Greek ornament.
PANACHE : a spirited quality in style or action. Originally, in French, this is a bunch of feathers or a plume, such as might
sprout from a hat or from a helmet
PANTOGRAPH : a device for copying a two‐dimensional figure to a
desired scale, consisting of styluses for tracing and copying mounted on
four jointed arms in the form of a parallelogram with extended sides.
PAPIER-COLLÉ : from French meaning “stuck paper”, this is a type of
collage in which paper shapes are combined into one work of art.
PARADIGM SHIFT : a phrase is used to describe any sort of major shift of
mind‐set or world‐view, usually occuring during the transition from one
era to the next.
PARAGONE : from the Italian for "comparison", this is a critical term referring to the debate begun in the 16th century and
continued in the 17th about the relative merits of painting and sculpture.
PARAPH : in a signature, a final squiggle or flourish. Although it may seem to have resulted simply from flamboyance, its
original function, during the Middle Ages, was to discourage forgery.
PARASOL : an umbrella atop a Chinese pagoda or a vestige of the chatra on an Indian stupa.
PARERGON : a part of a work of art which is secondary to the main subject or theme of its composition, such as a still life
or landscape which is a detail within a portrait.
PARSEMAGE : invented by Ithell Colquhoun, this is a method of making
an image by scattering dust from charcoal or colored chalk on water and
then skimming the design off by passing a stiff paper or cardboard just
under the water's surface.
PASTICHE : a work of art made in admitted imitation of several styles of
other works, often made in order to ridicule or satirize the style of the
artist it imitates.
PATINA : a sheen or coloration on any surface, either
unintended and produced by age or intended and produced
by simulation or stimulation, which signifies the object's
age.
PEDIMENT : a wide, triangular, low‐pitched gable surmounting the façade of a
building in the ancient Grecian style. It is formed at the end of a building by the
sloping roof and the cornice.
PELIKE : in ancient Greek, a storage jar with two handles, a wide mouth, little or no neck, and
resting on a foot.
PENTIMENTO : from Italian meaning “repentance,” an underlyin image in a painting, as an
earlier painting, a part of a painting, or original drawing, that shows through, usually when the
top layer of paint has been worn or become transparent with age. These images which were
supposed to be hidden often appear like ghosts ‐‐ not entirely solid, resulting from a painter's
decision that a nearly finished picture needs to be altered, but the new passage is made with
too thin a layer of paint.
PEPLOS : in ancient Greece, a woollen garment worn by women,
often open down one side and fastened on both shoulders
PERGOLA : an arbor or a walkway lined with columns supporting a roof of trelliswork upon
which vines and other plants are trained to grow.
PERIPTERAL : in architecture, a style of building in which the main structure is surrounded by
a colonnade.
PERSISTENCE OF VISION : refers to the retention in the brain for a fraction of a second of whatever the eye has seen,
which causes a rapid succession of images to merge one into the next, producing the illusion of continuous change
and motion in media such as cinema, video, and computer animations.
PHENOMENOLOGY : the branch of philosophy that studies all possible appearances in
human experience during which considerations of objective reality and of purely
subjective response are left out of account.
PHIALE : In ancient Greece and other ancient Mediterranean cultures, a bowl or wide cup
without a handle, traditionally used for libations: ritual offerings of wine or olive oil
to the gods — ceremonies in which the liquid would be spilled over an altar or a
burial site to satisfy the souls of the deceased.
PHILLUMINIST : one who collects matchbooks or matchbox tops.
PHILTRUM : in the anatomy of the human face, the area below the nose down to the upper lip, a pair of vertical ridges
separated by a vertical groove.
PHOSPHENE : a sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electric means rather than by light, as
when the eyeballs are rubbed through closed lids.
PHOTO-SECESSION / PHOTO SECESSION : an American photography movement from 1905‐1917,
led by Alfred Stieglitz, whose Little Galleries later became Gallery 291. This promoted
photography as a fine art and held that what was significant about a photogrpah was not what
was in front of the camera but the manipulation of the artist to achieve his/her subjective
vision.
PIANO NOBILE : in Renaissance architecture, the principal story, usually the second or the ground
floor.
PILASTER : a flat, often fluted rectangular column with a capital and base, attached to or set into a
wall as an ornamental motif. It may be decorative or used to buttress the wall.
PILOTIS : in architecture, thin steel or reinforced concrete posts used by architects in the early 20th
century to support concrete roof and floor slabs, avoiding the need for bearing walls.
STENDHAL / STENDHAL'S SYNDROME : dizziness, panic, paranoia, amnesia, or other nervous conditions caused by
viewing certain art objects or by trying to see too many works of art in too short a time.
STRUCTURALISM : a school of art or of art criticism that advocates and employs a method of analyzing phenomena chiefly
by contrasting the elementsof the phenomena in a system of binary opposition.
STRUCTURIST : Charles Biederman coined this term. Biederman said, "a Structurist work is neither painting nor sculpture,
but a structural extension of the two."
STUCCO : the finest and whitest type of plaster used for modeling and molding, made from a mixture of lime (often from
marble), white‐marble dust, and other ingredients, which might include wax, milk and other organic substances. A
versatile medium in sculpture and in architectural decoration, it can be either the material cast in a mold, a material
to be modeled in relief, or attached to something else. It is commonly used for covering walls and floors.
STUMP / STOMP : a kind of pencil consisting of a tight roll of paper or soft leather, or of a cylindrical piece of rubber or
other soft material used for rubbing down hard lines in pencil or crayon drawing, for blending the lines of shading so
as to produce a uniform tint. A stump may be used with any powdery pigment such as graphite or charcoal,
spreading and rubbing it.
STUPA : in Buddhist tradition, a type of shrine, usually a mound containing Buddhist
relics.
STYLOBATE : in architecture, the platform or foundation for a row of columns and
refers to the top step of the three‐step platform on the Parthenon. On the Parthenon,
the top step of the three‐step platform is known as the stylobate. It rests on the base
of the column, which supports the entablature.
SUISEKI : a Japanese word meaning “water stone,” this is a stone shaped by natural
erosion. The Chinese, influenced by Taoism, originated the concept, and use their
own terms, calling their stones "scholars' rocks." Some in the West refer to these as
"viewing stones."
SUPPEDANEUM : a support for the feet of a crucified person, projecting from the foot of
the vertical shaft of the cross. This can be seen on a typical crucifix.
SURIMONO : in Japanese tradition, a presentation print on special paper and elaborately
printed.
SUYARI : in Japanese art, a convention in which clouds are represented in band‐like form.
SYLLOGISM : an argument claimed in the form of propositions called the premises, with a final proposition called the
conclusion, resulting necessarily from the premises.
SYNCHROMISM : a style of painting employing pure colors in harmonious abstract arrangement developed by painters
Morgan Russell and Stanton MacDonald‐Wright and first exhibited in Paris in 1913, then at the Armory Show in 1914.
SYNCRETISM : the merging or fusion of differing philosophies, as in opposing art
movement, especially when the result is either incomplete or incongruous.
SYNESTHESIA / SYNAESTHESIA : a concomitant sensation; a subjective sensation
or image of a sense (as of color) other than the one (as of sound) being stimulated.
TABLEAU VIVANT - a scene presented by costumed actors who remain silent and
motionless on a stage, as if in a picture.
TALISMAN : from Greek word meaning “rite,” something worn for its supposed
magical benefit — warding off evil or attracting good luck, perhaps.
TANAGRA : in ancient Greek art, a figurine of fired clay first made in Athens and were soon being
fabricated through out the Mediterranean world to represent deities. They take their name
from an ancient city in Boeotia, where great numbers of these were illicitly removed from
tombs in the early 1870s. Tanagra sculptors were called coraplasters (in Greek, cora is a girl,
plastein means to sculpt), as they were particularly drawn to representing women. Majority
of these figurines portray fashionable women or girls elegantly wrapped in thin himatia,
often wearing large sun hats, and holding wreaths or fans.
TANKA / THANGKA : a Tibetan Buddhist painting on fabric, usually
portraying the Buddha or lamas.
TARASHIKOMI : in Japanese art, a technique involving the use of wet
pigments
TARTAN : a decoratively woven woolen fabric of a plaid pattern which is associated with a
community in Scotland — a clan or family, a district, military, commercial, or other organization.
There is a long history to a few of these associations, but only since the early 19th century did
they become popularly synonymous with particular clans or families. When a clan dominated a
region, whether in the highlands or the lowlands, this became associated with the leading clan.
TAUTOLOGY : redundancy, a needless repetition of the same meaning in what are merely
different words
TELEOLOGY : the philosophical study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. The use of ultimate purpose or design as
a means of explaining natural phenomena. Purposeful development, as in nature or history, toward a final end.
TEMPER : to bring to a desired consistency, texture, hardness, or other physical condition by or as if by blending, admixing,
or kneading. Also, to harden or strengthen metal or glass by the application of heat, or by heating and cooling.
TENON : a projection often rectangular in section on the end of a piece of material (especially in wood, but also used in
stone and metals), made to be fitted into a hollow, mortise, or groove of equivalent size in order to create a joint.
TERRA CRUDA : from Greek meaning “unfired earth,” this is material more brittle, more
easily crumbled, and can dissolve into mud if exposed to water. Works in this
material are more acceptable when they are expected to be temporary or if firing
the clay is too likely to cause it to break up.
TERRA SIGILLATA : also called Samian pottery, this is a Mediterranean ceramic ware
decorated with relief figures, first produced about 300 BCE, having evolved from
the Etruscan's black pottery called bucchero ware. It literally means "stamped earth."
It was fired in an oxidizing atmosphere. The finest examples known as
Arretine ware, were made at what is now the Italian town of Arezzo.
TESSERA : a small piece of glazed clay used in mosaics.
THERMOPLASTICS : materials which soften when they are heated and harden as they
cool without changing their basic properties, examples of which are acrylic and
polyurethane.
THRUST : the outward or lateral force produced by the weight of an arch or vault counterbalanced by buttress.
TONE / TONALITY : a quality of a color, arising from its saturation (purity and impurity), intensity (brilliance and dimness),
luminosity (brightness and dullness), and temperature (warm and cool).
TOPIARY : the sculpting of live shrubs or trees into decorative shapes.
TORCHON / TORTILLON : a tightly rolled paper stump used for drawing with powdered pigment such as charcoal or
graphite.
TOREUTICS : the art of working metal or other materials by the use of embossing, chasing, engraving, and fine carving, to
form minutely detailed reliefs.
TORII : in Japanese tradition, the gateway of a Shinto temple, consisting of two
column supporting a concave crosspiece with projecting ends and a straight
crosspiece beneath it.
TOTEM : a representation of an animal, a plant, or a natural object that serves
among certain tribal or traditional peoples as an emblem or as a guardian. Or, the
animal, plant or natural object itself.
TRACERY : in architecture, the branching, ornamental stonework, generally in a
window, where it supports the glass. This is a particular feature of Gothic
architecture.
TRANSCENDENTALISM : a philosophy holding that one can go beyond experience
in order to attain a higher plane of knowledge. It may also refer to a literary
and philosophical movement that flourished in New England in the middle
of the 19th century, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David
Thoreau, who were influenced by such German philosophers as Immanuel
Kant.
TRANSEPT : an aisle between the apse and nave in Gothic churches that cuts
across the nave and side aisles to form a cruciform in the floor plan.
TRATTEGGIO : In art restoration, the contemporary School of Rome’s scientific method of restoring ancient frescoes. The
missing parts are filled, smoothed and then touched up by means of watercolor applied with vertical brushstrokes
giving a harmonized visual effect from afar but visible to the naked eye from close to.
TRAVERTINE : quarried in Tiber Valley in Rome, this is a limestone characterized by irregularly shaped hollows, used mostly
for architecture (often cladding other materials), and for outdoor sculpture.
TRENCADIS : a Catalan type of mosaic in which shards from
waste tiles are used to clad buildings.
TRIGLYPH : an ornament in a Doric frieze, consisting of a
projecting block having on its face three parallel vertical bars
and two half grooves or chamfers on either vertical end, with
metopes on either side of all but the first and last on a side.
TUBIMANGULATION : the process of squeezing a tube of paint or other material in an especially
sloppy way.
TURPENTINE : a high quality oil paint thinner and organic solvent, produced by distilling the resins
of several coniferous trees into a volatile pungent oil.
TURRET : a small tower, usually containing stairs, that is located on the top of a building.
TUSCHE : in serigraphy and lithography, a black liquid used most with brush or pen to paint a
design. It is often confused with lithographic ink, another different kind of writing substance.
TYMPANUM : in architecture, the half‐round panel that fills the space
between the lintel and the arch over a Romanesque or Gothic doorway,
a perfect place for relief carvings.
UKIYO-E : in Japanese art, genre painting and prints, commonly
drawn on wood blocks, especially those of the Edo period.
UNDERDRAWING : drawing preliminary to other work, and incorporated into it, thus deprived
of independent artistic value. An example is the underdrawing in fresco and panel
painting, such as sinopia and abbozzo.
UPHOLSTERY : in making furniture, this refers to the stuffing, springs, cushions, and
covering fabric.
USHABTI / SHABTI / SHAWABTI : Ancient Egyptian funerary figurines or
statuettes, sometimes made of wood, stone, ceramic, and metal. An
important component of the burial assemblage from the Middle Kingdom
to the Ptolemaic period, it took over the role of the servant models, and
acted as substitutes for the deceased himself. They range in form from
miniature versions of the standard coffins of the Middle Kingdom and early
New Kingdom to shrine‐shaped boxes holding from two to several hundred
specimens. Some have been found in extra‐sepulchral contexts: pieces
buried as votive offerings or as a medium for deceased's presence at places
of special sanctity.
WABI-SABI : the quintessential Japanese aesthetic. It is a “beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” as
described by Leonard Koren in his book. It is a beauty of things modest and humble, and of "things unconventional."
Peripherally associated with Zen Buddhism, it values characteristics that are rustic, earthy, and unpretentious,
involving natural materials which are used neither representationally nor symbolically.
WARP : in weaving, the vertical threads attached to the top and bottom of a loom, through which the weft is woven.
WEDGING : a technique in which clay is thoroughly kneaded and cut before use in modeling or pottery, to make it plastic
and remove air pockets.
WEFT / WOOF : the threads or strands of yarn that are woven over and under the warp threads to make a weaving.
WHITING : ground and dried chalk used in plate cleaning and in the preparation of gesso.
WUNDERKABINETT / WUNDERKAMMER : literally a "cabinet of wonders," or a "chamber of wonders," these are
exhibition spaces in which miscellaneous curiosities — odd and wondrous rarities — brought together for private
contemplation and pleasure. The objects on display in these storage/display spaces were marvels of nature. If some
or all of the objects were art. These precursors of the museum were developments of the Renaissance.
XEROGRAPHY : a dry photographic or photocopying process in which a negative image formed by a resinous powder on an
electrically charged plate is electrically transferred to and thermally fixed as positive on a paper or other copying
surface.
XYLOGRAPHY : a printing technique that involves carving text in relief upon a wooden block, which is then inked and an
impression made on paper. This method of wood‐block printing appeared in Europe in the 14th century, and
eventually inspired Johannes Gutenberg to create individual and movable pieces of type out of metal.
YASTI : in Buddhist architecture, a spire with three chatras, or circular disks which is the
topmost element on the dome of a stupa. It symbolizes the universe and surrounded by a
square fence‐like enclosure symbolizing heaven.
ZEITGEIST : German for “the spirit of the times.” This refers to the taste, outlook, or general
trend of thought which is characteristic of the cultural productions of a period or generation.
ZIGGURAT : a terraced pyramid of successively
receding stories, used as a temple by the ancient
Assyrians and Babylonians in Mesopotamia, the
most famous of which was located at Ur.
ZOETROPE : An optical device comprised of a vertical cylinder that can spin
around a pivot. Looking through slits in the outside of the cylinder gives
an impression of movement to drawings placed on the inside of the
cylinder. It was invented in 1834 by Englishman William Horner, although
he dubbed it the Daedalum, meaning "wheel of the devil."
ZOOPRAXISCOPE : a moving picture projector invented by Eadweard Muybridge printed these as sheets of sequenced
exposures. This was invented In order to recreate a moving image from his still sequences. It was first used at the
home of Leland Stanford, former Governor of California, in 1879, and subsequently in Muybridge's lectures.
ABBEY THEATRE: The center of the Irish Dramatic movment founded in 1899 by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, built with the
express purpose of presenting Irish plays performed by Irish actors. It opened in 1904 and began showing plays by almost
every Irish playwright of renown.
AB OVO (Latin, "from the egg"): This phrase refers to a narrative that starts at the beginning of the plot, and then moves
chronologically through a sequence of events to the tale's conclusion. This pattern is the opposite of a tale that begins in
medias res, one in which the narrative starts "in the middle of things," well into the middle of the plot, and then proceeds to
explain earlier events through the characters' dialogue, memories, or flashbacks.
ABLAUT: Jacob Grimm's term for the way in which Old English strong verbs formed their preterites by a vowel change. This
is also called gradation. An example would be the principal parts of Old English strong verbs such as I sing, I sang, and I sung.
ABOLITIONIST LITERATURE: Literature, poetry, pamphlets, or propaganda written in the nineteenth century for the express
purpose of condemning slaveholders, encouraging the release and emancipation of slaves, or abolishing slavery altogether.
This literature might take the form of autobiographical writings (in the case of many slave narratives) or fictional accounts
such as Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Such writings rely heavily on pathos for rhetorical technique.
ABSTRACT DICTION / ABSTRACT IMAGERY: Language that describes qualities that cannot be perceived with the five senses.
For instance, calling something pleasant or pleasing is abstract, while calling something yellow or sour is concrete. The word
domesticity is abstract, but the word sweat is concrete. The preference for abstract or concrete imagery varies from century
to century. Philip Sidney praised concrete imagery in poetry in his 1595 treatise, Apologie for Poetrie.
ACATALECTIC: A "normal" line of poetry with the expected number of syllables in each line, as opposed to a catalectic line
(which is missing an expected syllable) or a hypercatalectic line
ACEPHALOUS: From Greek "headless," acephalous lines are lines in normal iambic pentameter that contain only nine
syllables rather than the expected ten. The first syllable, which is stressed, "counts" as a full metric foot by itself
ACMEISM: A 1912 Russian poetry movement reacting against the Symbolist movement (Harkins 1). Acmeists protested
against the mystical tendencies of the Symbolists; they opposed ambiguity in poetry, calling for a return to precise, concrete
imagery. Prominent members of the movement include Nikolay Gumilyov and Sergey Gorodetski.
ADEKAH: The adekah is a section of Genesis including Genesis 22:1‐19, of foundational importance in the three Abrahamic
traditions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
AISLING (Irish Gaelic: "dream, vision", pronounced "ash‐ling"): a genre of Irish political poetry popular in the 1600s and 1700s
in which a Spéirbhean appears who mourns the recent down‐fallen status of Ireland and predicts a coming return to fortune,
often linked with the return of a Stuart ruler to the throne of Britain.
ALAZON: A stock character in Greek drama, the alazon is a stupid braggart who is easily tricked by the clever eiron who tells
the alazon what he wants to hear.
ALEXANDRINE: A twelve‐syllable line written in iambic hexameter. Alexandrines were especially popular in French poetry for
drama between 1500‐1800 CE, but their invention dates back to the late 1100s.
ALLITERATION: Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel
sound.
ALPHABET POEM: An acrostic poem of thirteen lines in which each line consists of two words, each word beginning with
sequential letters in the alphabetic pattern
ALTER EGO: A literary character or narrator who is a thinly disguised representation of the author, poet, or playwright
creating a work
AMANUENSIS (from Latin, ab manus, "by hand", plural amanuenses): A servant, slave, secretary, or scribe who takes
dictation for an author who speaks aloud. Many works of literature‐‐especially from Roman and medieval times‐‐result from
the labor of such a scribe
AMERICAN DREAM: A theme in American literature, film, and art that expresses optimistic desires for self‐improvement,
freedom, and self‐sufficiency. Harry Shaw notes that the term can have no clear and fixed expression because "it means
whatever its user has in mind a particular time" (12). In general, it has connotations of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness" in Thomas Jefferson's phrasing. One expression of this is the materialistic "rags‐to‐riches" motif of many
nineteenth‐century novels. Here, through hard work, cleverness, and honesty, a young pauper rises in socio‐economic status
until he is a powerful and successful man. An example here would be the stories by Horatio Alger. Other expressions of this
theme focus on more more abstract qualities like freedom or self‐determination. Many critics have argued that this dream is
in many ways a myth in the twentieth‐ and twenty‐first centuries, given America's frequent discriminatory treatment of
immigrants and its continuing economic trends in which an ever smaller number of wealthy people acrue an ever larger
percentage of material wealth with each generation, i.e., "the rich get richer and the poor get babies." Other events, such as
the loss of the American frontier, segregation and exclusion of minorities, McCarthyism in the 1950s, unpopular wars in
Vietnam in the 1960s, and gradual ecological devastation over the last hundred years, together have inspired literary works
that criticize or question the American Dream‐‐often seeing it as ultimately selfish or destructive on one or more levels.
Examples of these writing would be Miller's Death of A Salesman, Ellison's Invisible Man, and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
AMPHIBRACH: In classical poetry, a three‐syllable poetic foot consisting of a light stress, heavy stress, and a light stress‐‐
short on both ends. Amphibrachs are quite rare in English, but they can be found in special circumstances, especially when
the poet manipulates the caesura to create an unusual effect.
AMPHIMACER: A three‐syllable foot consisting of a heavy, light, and heavy stress. Poetry written in amphimacers is called
cretic meter. Amphimacer is rarely used in English poetry, but it is quite common in Greek.
ANAGNORISIS: (Greek for "recognition"): A term used by Aristotle in the Poetics to describe the moment of tragic
recognition in which the protagonist realizes some important fact or insight, especially a truth about himself, human nature,
or his situation.
ANAPHORA (Greek, "carried again," also called epanaphora): The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to
create an artistic effect. For instance, Churchill declared, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in
France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We
shall defend our island, whatever the cost shall be."
ANTIMETABOLE (Greek, "turning about"): A rhetorical scheme involving repetition in reverse order: "One should eat to live,
not live to eat." Or, "You like it; it likes you."
ANTI‐SEMITIC LITERATURE: Literature that vilifies Jews or encourages racist attitudes toward them. Much of the religious
literature produced in medieval and Renaissance Europe unfortunately engaged in anti‐Semitism to one degree or another.
APOCOPE: Deleting a syllable or letter from the end of a word to comply with a certain poetic meter
APOSTROPHE: Not to be confused with the punctuation mark, apostrophe is the act of addressing some abstraction or
personification that is not physically present:
APRON STAGE: A stage that projects out into the auditorium area. This enlarges the square footage available for actors to
walk and move upon. This feature was not common in the days of classical Greco‐Roman theater, but it was a common
architectural trait in Elizabethan times and remains in use in some modern theaters. An apron stage is also known as a thrust
stage
ARCHON: An official in classical Athens. The holder of this office arranged the production of tragedies and comedies at
annual festivals honoring Dionysus.
ARÊTE: The Greek term arête implies a humble and constant striving for perfection and self‐improvement combined with a
realistic awareness that such perfection cannot be reached.
ARRAS: In Renaissance drama, a hanging tapestry or a curtain that covered a part of the frons scenae. It hid the discovery
space and may have draped around the stage's edge to hide the open area underneath.
ARZAMAS: A Russian literary circle active between 1815‐1818; it consisted of poets such as Zhukovski, Batyushkov,
Vyazemski, Pushkin, and others. The group focused on writing and sharing parodies of their literary opponents, most of
whom favored a heavily Slavonicized style
AUBADE (also called a dawn song): A genre of poetry in which a short poem's subject is about the dawn or the coming of the
dawn, or it is a piece of music meant to be sung or played outdoors at dawn. Examples include Browning's "The year's at the
spring / And day's at the morn" from Pippa Passes or Shakespeare's "Hark! hark! the lark." Some poems, such as John
Donne's "Busy old sun," share traits with the dawn song. Troilus and Criseyde also contains an example of the genre within
its larger narrative.
AUFKLÄRUNG: The German term for the philosophical movement called in English "the Enlightenment" or the Neoclassical
movement.
AUTO‐DA‐FÉ (Portuguese, "act of faith"‐‐equivalent to Span. auto‐de‐fe): The late medieval church's ceremonial execution en
masse of accused witches, Jews, heretics, or Muslims‐‐often performed by burning at the stake. In literature, such scenes
become stock material for gothic novels (e.g. Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer, Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum").
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_B.html