glossary
Acanthus
A common ornamental element used to depict foliage, most typically associated with the acanthus spinosus plant.
Anamorphic
Anamorphic projection is the art of creating an image of illusion, through distortion, on a 2-dimensional surface which then appears to become 3-dimensional when viewed from a fixed point through a lens, typically a camera.
Chiaroscuro
Italian; chiaro means clear, scuro means dark; an art term used in reference to contrast in light and dark within a work of art.
Diptych
A two part painting, consisting of 2 separate panels or canvases that create a continuous story between them.
Ephemeral
Quickly disappearing; transient
Grisaille
French; from the term ‘gris’ or grey; a manner of painting executed in monochrome, typically grey/grey brown, in varying values, in this case used to depict objects in relief.
Grotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as “grotto”, meaning a small cave or hollow. The expression comes from the unearthing and rediscovery in the 15th century of ancient Roman decorations in rooms and corridors of the Domus Aurea, the unfinished palace complex started by the Roman emperor Nero after the great fire from 64 AD. The compositions often include fantastic imagined beasts and figures, sometimes gruesome or comical, interspersed throughout an intricate network of multi-colored decorative ornamentation.
Illusion
(optical) An optical illusion is always characterized by visually perceived images that, at least in common sense terms, are deceptive or misleading.
In situ
A Latin phrase meaning in the place.
Loggia
Is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Italian design, which is often a gallery or corridor generally on the ground level, or sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall.
Madonnari
This is the Italian term for street painter, which refers to an artist who makes pictures of the Madonna from Christian art. These images were the original style of drawing for street painters, thus the title. An artist can be referred to as a madonnaro or madonnara.
Marouflage
A French word originally referring to sticky, partly-hardened scraps of paint, is a technique for affixing a painted canvas to a wall to be used as a mural, using an adhesive that hardens as it dries such as plaster or cement, such as wall paper paste or rabbit skin glue.
Murals
Murals are large paintings or works of art that are used to create impact for a given environment, exterior or interior. Murals have been used throughout history to create beauty, illusion and provoke thought, while ranging from traditional imagery – scenery, figurative or decorative compositions – to modern interpretations – abstracts, photography and video.
Oeuvre
(plural oeuvres) A work of art; the complete body of an artist’s work.
Perspective
From Latin perspicere, to see clearly. As used in art; the mathematical practice of creating depth and dimension through an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is perceived by the eye.
Pounce
(spolvero in Italian) – An image transfer technique used throughout history. Small perforated holes are placed on the lines of a drawing or cartoon; it is then rubbed with charcoal or dry pigment which deposits through the perforations, creating a transfer of the image onto another surface.
Quadratura
An Italian term describing a type of decoration developed in the Baroque era uniting architecture, sculpture and painting (using perspective, shading and realism) to create elaborate 3-dimensional/illusionist architectural imagery, or to simulate the continuation of existing architecture, onto a 2-dimensional surface where none exists, such as flat walls and ceilings or barrel-vaulted ceilings.
The perspective of this illusion is centered towards one focal point. The steep foreshortening of the figures, the painted walls and pillars, creates an illusion of deep recession or imaginary space, such as a heavenly sphere or even an open sky.
Andrea del Pozzo (1642 – 1709), Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639 – 1709) and Girolamo Mengozzi – Colonna (1688 – 1766) were the finest Italian quadratura masters.
Trompe l’Oeil
French term; this literally means “trick the eye”, from tromper – to deceive and l’œil – the eye. A painting device used by creating extremely realistic images to create optical illusions that appear to be actual or 3-dimensional on a 2-dimensional surface.