AArt Glossary: A–Z Art Terms & Definitions | Alpha Art Gallery

Art that does not depend on a naturalistic representation of visible reality. Abstract works may simplify, distort or abandon recognizable subjects in favour of colour, line, shape, texture and form.

Art associated with formal academies and their systems of training, exhibition and artistic hierarchy, especially influential in European art from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries.

An approach to painting in which passages are completed directly, generally without building the image through many separately dried layers. The Italian phrase means “at first attempt.”

An image or narrative in which figures, objects or events communicate a broader moral, political, philosophical or symbolic meaning beyond their literal subject.

A way of suggesting distance by making faraway forms appear less distinct and often lighter, cooler or lower in contrast than forms in the foreground. It is also called aerial perspective.

A major artistic tradition of the seventeenth century associated with dramatic composition, movement, emotional intensity and powerful effects of light, although Baroque art varied significantly by region.

The substance that holds pigment particles together and helps them form a usable paint layer. Drying oil is a binder in oil paint; egg is the traditional binder in egg tempera.

The visible or implied marks produced by an artist's handling of a brush. Brushwork may be smooth and concealed, loose and expressive, broken, directional or heavily textured.

A wall-painting process in which pigment is applied to fresh, wet lime plaster so that the colour becomes integrated with the surface as the plaster sets.

A woven fabric used as a support for painting. Canvas is commonly stretched over a wooden frame and prepared before paint is applied. In “oil on canvas,” oil is the medium and canvas is the support.

The use of contrasts between light and dark to model three-dimensional form, organize a composition or create dramatic visual effects. The term comes from Italian words for light and dark.

Art associated primarily with ancient Greece and Rome, or later art inspired by Classical ideals such as proportion, harmony, balance and subjects drawn from antiquity.

An artwork or process involving materials such as paper, printed matter, fabric or other elements attached to a surface and combined into a new composition.

A fundamental visual element described through qualities such as hue, value and saturation. Colour can organize a composition, suggest atmosphere and influence visual relationships and emotional effect.

The perceived warmth or coolness of a colour. Reds, oranges and yellows are often described as warm, while blues and many blue-greens are commonly described as cool, although temperature is relative.

The organization of visual elements within an artwork, including the placement and relationship of figures, shapes, lines, colours, spaces and areas of emphasis.

A line or perceived boundary describing the edge or shape of a form. Contour may be explicitly drawn or visually implied.

A noticeable difference between visual elements, such as light and dark, warm and cool colours, rough and smooth textures, or large and small forms.

An artwork consisting of two related panels or parts intended to be viewed together. Historically, diptychs were often hinged and used for devotional imagery.

A colour approach associated with Neo-Impressionism in which colours are separated into individual marks rather than fully mixed on the palette, allowing optical relationships to occur in the viewer's perception.

A painting technique using a brush carrying relatively little fluid paint, often producing broken, textured marks that allow the underlying surface or colour to remain visible.

Paint in which pigment is bound with egg, commonly egg yolk. Egg tempera dries quickly and was especially important in medieval and early Renaissance European panel painting.

A French expression meaning “in the open air,” used for the practice of working outdoors directly before a landscape or other subject. It became particularly associated with nineteenth-century landscape painting.

An intaglio printmaking process in which lines are drawn through a resistant ground on a metal plate and then bitten into the exposed metal using acid or another mordant.

An artistic tendency emphasizing subjective experience and expressive distortion rather than naturalistic description. Expressionism became especially important in early twentieth-century European art.

An early twentieth-century movement associated with intense, non-naturalistic colour and simplified forms. Henri Matisse was among its leading figures.

Art that represents recognizable subjects from the visible world, especially the human figure, although the degree of realism may vary greatly.

A historically changing category associated with art valued primarily for aesthetic, intellectual or expressive purposes. Its boundaries vary across cultures, periods and institutions.

An area designed or perceived as a principal point of visual attention within a composition. Contrast, placement, scale, colour or detail may help create emphasis.

A form of wall painting associated especially with applying pigment to plaster. In buon fresco, pigment is applied to fresh wet plaster; painting on dry plaster is commonly called fresco secco or a secco.

Painting depicting scenes of everyday life, such as domestic activity, work, leisure, markets or social encounters, rather than primarily historical, religious or mythological events.

The application of a thin, relatively transparent paint layer over another layer so that light and colour from beneath continue to influence the visible result.

A water-based painting medium generally characterized by greater opacity than conventional transparent watercolour, allowing artists to create dense, flat areas of colour.

A carbon-based drawing material commonly used in pencils and sticks, capable of producing precise lines, soft shading and controlled tonal gradations.

Painting executed primarily in shades of grey or another limited neutral range. Grisaille may be a finished effect or function as an underpainting beneath coloured layers.

A method of creating tone or shading using sets of closely spaced parallel lines. Crossing additional sets of lines is commonly called cross-hatching.

One of the lightest areas on a depicted form, often used to indicate where light strikes a surface most directly or is strongly reflected.

In linear perspective, the horizontal level corresponding to the viewer's eye level. Vanishing points for horizontal sets of parallel lines are positioned on this line.

Paint applied thickly enough to create a raised, textured surface on which brush or palette-knife marks may remain visibly pronounced.

A nineteenth-century movement associated especially with artists working in France who explored modern life, landscape, changing light and colour through innovative approaches to painting.

A fluid drawing and writing medium available in many historical formulations. Artists may apply ink with pens, reeds or brushes and may dilute some inks to create washes.

A term describing the strong influence and reception of Japanese art, design and visual culture in Europe, particularly during the later nineteenth century. Japanese prints influenced many European artists.

Art that incorporates actual movement or depends substantially on movement for its effect. Motion may be produced mechanically, naturally or through viewer interaction.

Art in which natural or built environments form the principal subject. Landscapes may depict mountains, rivers, fields, coasts, cities or imagined environments.

Building an image through multiple applications of material. Layers may be transparent, translucent or opaque and may be applied wet into wet or after earlier passages have dried.

A geometric system for representing spatial depth in which parallel lines appear to converge toward one or more vanishing points relative to a horizon line.

A printmaking process based on the incompatibility of grease and water. Traditionally the image is drawn on a prepared stone or plate and transferred to paper through printing.

A term used for artistic tendencies that developed after the High Renaissance, particularly in sixteenth-century Italy, often associated with sophisticated compositions, elongated forms and deliberate artifice.

The material or materials used to create an artwork. In painting, “medium” may also refer more specifically to the substance that binds pigment. “Media” is the plural form commonly used in art terminology.

An artwork made by combining more than one medium or material system, such as ink with watercolour, charcoal with pastel, or paint with collage.

A broad historical category associated with major artistic changes from the later nineteenth century through much of the twentieth century. Its exact chronological boundaries vary by context.

An artwork or passage based primarily on one colour or a restricted range of tones derived from a single hue.

A recurring visual element, subject, shape or idea within an artwork, decorative scheme or artist's wider body of work.

An approach emphasizing convincing observation of the visible world and natural appearances. Its meaning varies depending on period and art-historical context.

The empty or comparatively unoccupied area around and between subjects or forms. Negative space can play an active role in balance, emphasis and visual structure.

A movement that drew strongly on the art, architecture and ideals of Classical antiquity, becoming particularly influential in Europe during the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

A late nineteenth-century movement associated especially with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, characterized by systematic approaches to separated colour and optical relationships.

Paint made by combining pigment with a drying oil binder, traditionally including oils such as linseed. Oil can support transparent glazing, opaque painting, blending and thick impasto.

Describes a material or paint layer that substantially blocks light from passing through it, concealing the surface or colour underneath.

A surface on which a painter arranges and mixes colours. The word can also mean the range of colours used in an artwork, as in “a limited palette.”

A flexible-bladed tool used to mix paint and, in some practices, to apply paint directly to a surface, often creating broad, sharply defined or textured marks.

A rigid support for painting, traditionally often made from prepared wood. Panel was particularly important for medieval and Renaissance tempera and early oil painting.

A dry colour medium made into sticks using pigment with a relatively small amount of binder and other ingredients. Pastel can create brilliant colour and soft, powdery surfaces.

A broad term for methods and visual cues used to represent depth and spatial relationships on a flat surface. Linear and atmospheric perspective are two important approaches.

Coloured particles that provide colour in paints and many other art materials. Pigments are combined with binders or other material systems to make usable media.

A technique associated especially with Neo-Impressionism in which images are constructed using small distinct touches or dots of colour. It is closely associated with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

An artwork representing a particular person or group, often with attention to appearance, identity, status, character or social role.

A broad art-historical label applied to several artists and approaches that developed after or alongside Impressionism in the later nineteenth century rather than one single unified style.

Relating to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and its wider artistic influence in nineteenth-century Britain, associated with vivid colour, close observation and subjects from literature, religion and history.

A form of illusionistic architectural painting, especially associated with Baroque interiors, in which painted perspective extends or transforms the apparent architecture of a wall or ceiling.

In nineteenth-century art history, Realism refers particularly to approaches that challenged idealized academic subjects by emphasizing contemporary life and observed reality. The word can also be used more broadly for naturalistic representation.

A major period of European cultural and artistic development associated especially with renewed engagement with Classical antiquity, humanism and innovations in representation. Its chronology and character varied by region.

A compositional device in which a prominent foreground element helps frame the scene and visually directs the viewer's attention into deeper pictorial space.

A broad cultural and artistic movement of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries associated with powerful emotion, imagination, nature, history and individual experience.

The intensity or purity of a colour. Highly saturated colour appears vivid, while reduced saturation produces a more muted or greyed appearance.

A painting technique in which a thin, broken or semi-opaque layer of lighter or differently coloured paint is applied so that parts of the underlying layer remain visually active.

A method of creating extremely subtle transitions between tones and colours so that hard outlines appear softened or smoky. Sfumato is especially associated with Leonardo da Vinci.

Art depicting arranged or observed inanimate objects such as flowers, fruit, vessels, food, books or household objects.

Creating tone, texture or form using numerous small dots or marks. Stippling can be used in drawing, engraving and other image-making processes.

The recognizable visual characteristics of an artwork, artist, group, period or tradition. Style may involve choices of colour, form, line, composition, technique and representation.

What an artwork visibly depicts, such as a person, landscape, animal or mythological event. A subject differs from a theme, which is the broader idea or meaning explored by the artwork.

The surface on which an artwork is executed. Common supports include canvas, wood panel, paper and copper. A support is different from the medium applied to it.

A late nineteenth-century artistic and literary tendency emphasizing imagination, subjective experience, dreams, myth and symbolic meaning rather than straightforward naturalistic description.

A painting medium in which pigment is mixed with a water-miscible binder. In modern art-historical discussion, the term commonly refers to egg tempera when egg is used as the binder.

A dramatic use of strong contrasts in which figures or forms emerge from predominantly dark surroundings. It is especially associated with certain Baroque painters including Caravaggio and his followers.

The actual or implied surface quality of an artwork or depicted object. Texture may be physically raised or visually suggested through marks, colour and tonal variation.

A broader idea, concern or concept explored by an artwork, such as mortality, love, power or the relationship between humanity and nature. Theme is not the same as subject.

The relative lightness or darkness of an area or colour. Tonal relationships help create form, depth, contrast and visual emphasis.

An artwork composed of three related panels or sections. Historically, triptychs were particularly important in Christian devotional and altarpiece traditions.

A preparatory drawing made on a painting support before substantial layers of paint are applied. It may establish outlines, proportions and compositional structure.

An initial layer or stage of paint used to establish tonal, compositional or colour relationships before later paint layers complete the image.

A major Japanese artistic tradition of the Edo period associated especially with woodblock prints and paintings depicting subjects including actors, beauties, landscapes and scenes of urban life.

The relative lightness or darkness of a colour or tone. Value relationships are fundamental to modelling form, establishing contrast and organizing pictorial space.

In linear perspective, a point toward which represented parallel lines appear to converge as they recede into pictorial space.

A transparent coating applied to the surface of some paintings for protective and optical purposes. Varnishes can change in appearance as they age and may require specialist conservation.

A thin application of diluted water-based colour or ink spread across an area to create transparent or semi-transparent tone.

A water-based painting medium typically used on paper. Transparent watercolour allows light from the paper to contribute to the image and can be manipulated through washes and layered applications.

Applying wet paint onto a dry surface or previously dried paint layer. The method generally allows greater edge control than painting into an already wet passage.

Applying wet paint into paint or a surface that is still wet, allowing colours and edges to blend or interact before drying. It is also called wet-into-wet.

A relief print made from a carved wooden block. Ink is applied to the raised surface and transferred to paper or another support. Japanese ukiyo-e is strongly associated with sophisticated colour woodblock printing.