Glossary

Hall, Marcia B.

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Glossary

Marcia B. Hall

The Power of Color: Five Centuries of European Painting

Glossary

Author

Marcia B. Hall

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20832

Glossary

à l’essence A technique to achieve a matte, chalky look in painting by draining the oil from the paint onto blotting paper and then diluting it with turpentine.

aerial perspective A method of creating the illusion of distance by modulating color and blurring contours to mimic the effect of the atmosphere on colors.

Alberti coloring system A system of modeling described by Leon Battista Alberti in On Painting (Della pittura, 1435), in which shadows were created by adding black or a dark monochrome. It provided a more naturalistic alternative to the Cennini system.

antimony See stibnite.

arriccio In fresco, the layer of rough plaster on which the sinopia was drawn and over which the intonaco was applied.

atmospheric perspective See aerial perspective.

bole A reddish (or brownish) clay used as the preparatory base under gold leaf on panel painting.

bottega (plural botteghe) The workshop of an artist.

broken color See couleur rompue.

buon fresco From the Italian for “good” or “true” fresco; it describes fresco in which the pigment was applied in water to damp plaster. In drying, it bonds chemically to the calcium carbonate in the plaster to form a durable surface; it was usable in regions where the climate was not damp.

cangiantismo One of the four modes of coloring in Cinquecento central Italy, characterized by its frankly ornamental and artificial manner, in which contrasting colors are juxtaposed for modeling; hue-shifting. (See also chiaroscuro, sfumato mode, and unione.)

cartoon A full-scale preliminary drawing used as a guide to the final work, which could be pounced or incised to transfer the design to the support.

Cennini coloring system A system of modeling practiced by Giotto and painters following him and described by Cennino Cennini in his Craftsman’s Handbook (Libro dell’arte, c. 1390–1400). Pure color was used in the shadows, with gradations of white added for the mid-tones and lights.

central-point perspective A method of producing the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. In central-point perspective, all parallel lines in the composition converge on the vanishing point, typically on the horizon line at the eye level of the viewer.

chiaroscuro Contrast of light and shade. One of the four modes of coloring used in Cinquecento Italy that created harsh contrasts of light and shade, usually with saturated colors for theatrical effect. (See also cangiantismo, sfumato mode, and unione.)

colorire from the Italian for “to color”; refers to composing with colors rather than to the coloring materials themselves.

couleur rompue Refers to the medieval concept of “corrupted color”; using a physical mixture of “friendly colors” to produce a clean tertiary color.

dead color In oil painting, the monochrome or reduced color underpainting added on top of the ground layer or underdrawing, which, because it soaked up some of the oil, gave a matte or dead effect.

decorum Principle of appropriateness for a chosen subject, location, or function.

disegno-colore debate The debate in sixteenth-century Italy, associated with Florence/Rome versus Venice, between the advocates of disegno (design, conception), which appeals to the intellect, and colore, which appeals to the senses and the emotions. This takes the form of the Poussinistes-Rubénistes quarrel in the seventeenth century.

down-modeling See Alberti coloring system.

ébauche A modello or rough sketch in oil, sometimes the first layer of the underpainting.

egg tempera Paint medium in which ground pigment is suspended in a mixture of raw egg (yolk, white, or whole) and water. It was popular in the Renaissance for painting panels until it was superseded by oil.

esquisse A compositional sketch representing the design in progress in preparation for the finished work.

ferule The metal band that holds the bristles or hair of a brush to its handle.

gesso Surface preparation for panel or canvas made of plaster or chalk mixed with glue. Its hard white surface can be sanded smooth and is absorbent.

giornata From the Italian for “day”; in fresco, the patch of intonaco applied for a day’s work.

glazing In oil painting, the application of a thin, translucent film of color over a dried layer to alter the color.

grisaille A method of painting in shades of monochrome gray or another neutral color.

houding A term coined by Dutch theorists to describe a perspective technique for the manipulation of chiaroscuro, color, and overall composition to create a convincing sense of space.

impasto Paint that is thickly applied so that it stands in relief and retains the marks of the brush or palette knife.

imprimatura A layer of priming that functions to isolate the oil paint from the absorbent ground; if tinted, it can provide a homogeneous base tone for the colors painted on top.

intonachino In Roman fresco painting, a very thin layer of white plaster applied over the intonaco to mask the tint of the pozzolana and restore its brilliant whiteness.

intonaco In fresco, the final layer of smoothed plaster applied over the rough arriccio, which the painter works while it is damp.

isochromatism A compositional device in which identical or nearly identical tones are balanced to create a pattern on the surface of the painting.

local color An objects “true color” when seen in daylight, unmodified by such things as aerial perspective.

macchia (plural macchie) From the Italian for “blob”; “pittura di macchie” is Giorgio Vasari’s term for open brushwork. It was called tache painting in nineteenth-century France.

maniera From the Italian for “hand”; see mannerism.

mannerism Refers to a style of late Renaissance art that emphasized artifice over naturalism; it can also be used as a period designation for mid-sixteenth-century painting in central Italy.

modeling The process of creating the illusion of three dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface by the use of light and shade.

modello A preparatory study or model for a painting, usually at a smaller scale.

naturalism A style of art seeking to represent objects as they appear in nature.

one-point perspective See central-point perspective.

open brushwork A technique of leaving brushstrokes unblended so they create a lively effect on the viewer’s eye.

orthogonal In a perspective construction, a line imagined to be behind and perpendicular to the picture plane. The orthogonals in a painting appear to converge as they recede toward the vanishing point on the horizon.

patina In painting, refers to the changes in the surface resulting from the passage of time or interventions, such as crackle, discoloration of varnish, or accumulation of dust and grime.

pentimento From the Italian for “repentance”; a change in composition during the working process.

plein air From the French for “open air”; the practice adopted in the nineteenth century of painting out-of-doors rather than in the studio or workshop.

pouncing The method of transferring a design from a pricked cartoon to another surface by forcing black chalk through the holes, to leave little dotted lines on the receptive surface.

pozzolana A volcanic ash added to the plaster of fresco, particularly in Rome, where the climate was damper than in Florence; it varied in color from brownish to grayish to slightly purple.

Realism A style of art seeking to create objective representations of the external world based on the impartial observation of everyday life.

reddering Used by Dutch painters, a means of creating the illusion of space by alternating bands of light and shade.

relief In painting, the degree in which figures appear to project from the background, obtained by modeling colors.

secco From the Italian for “dry”; the technique of painting on dry plaster, rather than damp (fresco).

sfumato mode One of four modes of coloring used in Cinquecento central Italy in which transitions between color fields are softened and blurred, as if engulfed in a smoky mist. The range of tones tends to be restricted to mid-tone and low color values. (See also cangiantismo, chiaroscuro, and unione.)

sinopia In fresco, the brush underdrawing applied to the wall before the intonaco, the final layer of wet plaster; it was replaced after the mid-Quattrocento by pounced cartoons.

size A thin layer, often made of dilute hide glue, applied during priming to reduce the porous, absorbent nature of the ground.

spolvero (plural spolveri) The dots made by pouncing a pricked cartoon.

stacco A technique for detaching fresco from the wall in which some of the plaster is removed together with the paint layer. See also strappo.

stibnite A rare grayish pigment used notably by Correggio in his tinted imprimatura.

strappo From the Italian for “to rip off”; a method for transferring fresco from its original support by gluing cloth to the surface and pulling the paint layer away from the plaster. See also stacco.

support The solid substance on which a painting is executed: for example, wood panel, canvas, plastered wall.

tache painting See macchia.

tempera See egg tempera.

tempera grassa From the Italian for “fat tempera”; a mixture of oil and egg tempera that produces more blended effects and a deeper tonality akin to the oil medium, but retains the more rapid drying effects of egg tempera. A favorite medium of late Quattrocento painters.

tenebrism Very intense chiaroscuro. It describes a strong contrast of light and dark and referred originally to the work of Caravaggio.

tinted imprimatura See imprimatura.

underdrawing The drawing or transferred design under a painting on the ground or imprimatura. For fresco, see sinopia.

unione One of the four modes of coloring used in Cinquecento Italy that aimed to achieve tonal unity by equalizing the range of value and intensity of pigments. (See also cangiantismo, chiaroscuro, and sfumato mode.)

up-modeling See Cennini coloring system.

value The degree of a colors lightness or darkness. In gray scale, white is high value and black is low value.

vendecolori Venetian specialist shops that supplied artists and other craftsmen with already prepared pigments.

verdaccio From the Italian for “dirty green”; a mixture of green with such pigments as ochre, burnt sienna, and lampblack, used especially to undermodel flesh tones in egg tempera.

wet-in-wet painting The technique of brushing fresh oil paint into a layer while it is still wet, resulting in partial or complete mixing on the support.

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