Art History
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carving: carvers have for centuries used many types of hammers, chisels, drills, gauges, and saws. For carrying out monumental works from small studies, various mechanical means have been developed for approximating the proportions of the original study.
chiaroscuro: a method of painting that represents sharply contrasting lighting, usually drawing highlights out of a dark scene. The term can also refer to an element of this effect in any picture. This technique was first seen in the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
cire perdue: also called ‘lost wax’, a method of casting bronze using a clay core and wax coating placed in a mould. The wax is melted in the mould and drained away, and molten bronze is then poured into the space that is left, producing a hollow bronze sculpture once the clay core has been removed.
gesso: in Spain and Italy, this was gypsum (calcium sulphate) mixed with animal glue and applied as a ground to a wood substrate. In northern Europe, a similar ground of chalk (calcium carbonate) was used in a glue binder. A first, coarse layer, known as gesso grosso, was applied, followed by a smooth top layer called gesso sottile, which could be polished to a fine finish. Some later artists applied only one layer of gesso sottile.
glaze: a film of transparent colour laid over a dried underpainting. This technique is common in the work of artists such as Titian and Rubens.
grisaille: monochromatic painting, usually in various tones of grey, that can give the effect of a stone sculptured relief. The term also refers to the underpainting of a work, where local colour is applied over the grisaille as opaque, semi-opaque, or transparent colour.
ground: the primary surface on to which colour is applied. It usually refers to an opaque coating rather than the support. Traditionally, ground is an opaque white oil priming on canvas, or chalk or gypsum mixed with animal glue (see gesso) on wood panel.
highlight: the lightest tone in a painting.
impasto: painting thickly with a bristle brush or palette knife in order to create surface texture. The term is often used to describe the technique of Impressionist painters, but also seen in the work of Rembrandt.
imprimatura: an oil ground, often of a neutral or pale tone, used as a base coat in oil painting.
lapis lazuli: a very expensive, dense blue pigment made of ground lapis lazuli – a semi-precious stone.
medium: a liquid additive used to apply pigments as paint, for example linseed oil or egg yolk (see tempera). Choice of medium influences drying time and the elasticity of paint film when dry.
modelling: in painting, indicating the three-dimensional form of an object through different tones – sometimes referred to as modelling in colour; or creating the illusion of volume by painting the effects of light and shadow on form – sometimes referred to as modelling in light and shade. In sculpture, the term denotes a technique involving the use of a pliable material such as clay or wax. The technique is exemplified also by those works in cast metal and plaster that are made from the mould of a clay original. The mould is made by the process of cire perdue.
palette: the implement – usually a flat board held in one hand – upon which a painter holds or mixes his or her colours, or a selected assortment of colours chosen for use in a painting technique. ‘Limited palette’ refers to an artist’s use of a restricted number of colours or tones.
paper: coloured papers (the most common being brown, grey, green, pink, and blue) were often used as a middle tone for drawing by early artists. Leonardo and others executed value studies on blue linen known as ‘linen from Rheims’.
parchment: also called vellum, calf-skin that has been dehaired, stretched, and scraped, then prepared with chalk and pumice stone and stretched over a wood support.
pentimento: the visibility of line or colour through the increasingly transparent overpainting which was originally used to conceal it. This reveals where artists changed their compositions.
prime: to cover a surface (support) with a preparatory coat of colour: a first coat or layer of paint, size, etc. given to any surface as a base or sealer. The term ‘primer’ is often used to describe a pigment and oil ground applied to cloth such as canvas or linen.
relief: in sculpture, three-dimensional projection from a flat background. In alto-relievo, or high relief, the protrusion is great; basso-relievo, or bas relief, protrudes only slightly; and mezzo-relievo is intermediate between the two.
repoussé: of metalwork, hammered into relief from the reverse side.
scumbling: scraping, scrubbing, or dragging a thin layer of lighter opaque or semi-opaque colour over a dark underpainting with a bristle brush, allowing the underpainting to show through. This technique was used by Constable and Turner to create cloud effects in their landscape views.
size: a gelatinous or glutinous preparation made from glue or starch used for filling the pores of cloth (usually canvas) or paper support, or as an adhesive ground for gold leaf on books. In painting, it is used to seal the support’s surface to protect it from acid and make it less absorbent.
support: the material on to which size, paint, etc. is applied. A support may be inflexible or flexible. The usual material for inflexible supports is wood panel, which can be made of many woods, including poplar, oak, and mahogany. Multiple panels glued together tongue-in-groove with grains running in opposing directions make better supports than one solid board, which is more likely to bow and warp. Flexible supports are made of cloth or paper. Cloth, most usually linen, canvas is made from flax and stretched over a frame or panel. Cloth is the weakest point in the survival of a well-made picture, but its light weight, transportability, and possibility for easy repair make it an enduring choice.
tempera: a method of painting with pigments dispersed in an emulsion and thinned with water. Fresh egg yolk is the most common traditional medium for tempera painting. Tempera was used in ancient Egypt, Greece, and the Byzantine Empire, and in Europe in medieval times and the early Renaissance for fine painting; it began to give way to oils in the 15th century.
terre verte: a very light transparent green pigment traditionally employed for underpainting flesh.
tone: the degree of lightness or darkness of a colour.
toned ground: colour mixed with white as a primer to provide a uniform opaque ground.
underpainting: preliminary painting, often sketching out the composition, usually monochrome, or blocking out areas of colour, over which successive layers of colour are added.
varnish: protective surface film imparting a glossy or matt surface appearance to a painting, usually applied to the finished work. Glazes were sometimes added after this stage.
vellum: see parchment.
verdaccio: greenish underpainting often used in tempera (see terre verte).
Index
A
abstract expressionism 64, 101
academies 45, 59–60
aesthetics 2, 39, 42, 77–9, 88
Alberti 31
Apollo Belvedere 21–5, 30, 57, 69, 91, 92, 111
Andre, Carl 72–3
Equivalent I–VIII 72–3
‘Antiques Roadshow’ 3
art
abstract 5
Africa 47, 50
African-American 52
anthropology 7
appreciation 2, 11
archaeology 7
canons 8, 49, 71, 87
China 47, 49, 50
classical 4, 9
collections 24–5, 54–6
conceptual 5
Dutch 91–2, 104
Egypt 47
feminist 49, 87
‘fine art’ 1, 13
Greek 5, 9, 20–4, 38, 71, 79, 80, 110, 112
‘high art’ 8
historians 4–7
Mayan 9–10
‘naïve’ 4, 47
non-Western 9, 49, 53
Oceania 51
primitive 5, 47, 51
rock art 8
science 77
women 27, 45, 66, 69
art history
&
nbsp; constructions 7–11
cultural 41
gender 45–6, 87–8
meaning 91–3
museums 74–5
progression 29, 40–1, 78–9
symbols 99–100
‘visual culture’ 12–15
Avante-Garde 42
B
Baroque 4
Baumgarten, Alexander Gottleib 77
Aesthetica 77
Bernini 57
The Baldicchino 57
biography (of artists) 7, 29, 31, 34, 38
Botticelli 31
Bramante 35
British Museum 54, 62
Brunelleschi 31
Burkhardt, Jacob 40
The Civilisation of Renaissance Italy 40
Byzantine 33, 94, 96, 104, 107
C
camera obscura 15
capitalism 13, 15
cartoon 105–7, 109
Cennini, Cennino 108
The Craftsman’s Handbook 108
Cézanne, Paul 75
Chicago, Judy 25–8, 42, 44, 45, 92
The Dinner Party 25–8, 42, 44, 45, 92
colonialism 52
connoisseurship 2–3, 8
Constable, John 12, 14, 87
The Cornfield 12, 14, 87
critical theory 82–3
Cubism 7, 92
D
Dalí, Salvador 63
Delphic Charioteer 111
Derrida, Jacques 83–5
The Truth in Painting 83–5
Descartes, René 15, 77
Dwan Gallery 72–3
E
Emin, Tracey 19, 72
Enlightenment 4
exhibitions 12, 59, 61
Post-Impressionism of 1912, 12, 59
Salon in Paris 61
F
Fabriano, Gentile da 15–18, 25, 53
Adoration of the Magi 15–18, 25, 53
Federal Art Project 63
feminism 26, 45–6
Foucault, Michel 82–3
What Is an Author? 82–3
Four Evangelists 69, 70
Freud, Sigmund 86
Fry, Roger 50, 75
G
Gauguin, Paul 50–1, 75
Gehry, Frank 56
Getty, John Paul 55, 56
Ghiberti, Lorenzo 112
Giotto 33
Gombrich, Ernst 34–8, 40, 41, 82
The Story of Art 35
Gothic 33
Grand Tour 57, 80, 88
Greenberg, Clement 42–3, 46
Guggenheim 56
H
Hartoum, Mona 92
Hegel, G.W.F. 40–1, 42, 78, 81–2, 86
Hirst, Damien 19, 72
I
icon 94–7
iconography and iconology 97–101
ideology 81
Impressionism 74–5
International Gothic 18
Italian Renaissance 4, 91
K
Kant, Immanuel 15, 81, 83–5, 88
Critique of Judgment 78
King Lear (William Shakespeare) 11
King Philip IV of Spain 18
Kooning, Willem de 63
L
Leochares 21
Leonardo (da Vinci) 12, 31, 66–9, 83, 86, 88, 94, 105, 106
Mona Lisa 12, 83, 94
Treatise on Painting 106
The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist 66–9, 86, 105, 106
Lichtenstein, Roy 101
Louvre 55, 61–2
M
Madrazo, Pedro da 18
Mâle, Émile 99
Manet, Eduard 20, 74–5
Marx, Karl 80–2, 86, 87
Masaccio 31
mass consumption 13
Matisse 50, 106
Medici, Cosimo de’ 59
Meier, Richard 56
Mellon, Andrew 55
Messina, Antonella da 108
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) 75
Michelangelo (Buonarroti) 8, 32, 38, 57, 59
Modernism 43, 44
modernity 13
Mondrian, Piet 63
Monet, Claude 5–6, 85, 110
Haystacks 5
The Poppy Field 5
Rouen Cathedral 5–6, 85, 110
Moore, Henry 92
Musée d’Orsay 73–4
Museum of Modern Art (New York) 63, 64
museums 2, 61–6
N
National Gallery (London) 12, 54, 62
National Gallery (Washington, DC) 55
Neo-Impressionism 74
Neo-Platonism 33
New Art History 10, 82–3
Newton, Sir Isaac 15
Nochlin, Linda 45, 46
O
oil painting 2, 108–9
Oldenburg, Claus 100
Lipstick 100
optics 14
P
Panofsky, Erwin 82, 99
Parker, Rozsika 45
patronage 2, 16–18, 45, 81
Picasso, Pablo 7, 35, 42–3, 50, 51, 88, 106
Guitar 42–3
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 51
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secondus) 21, 30–1
Natural History 30–1
Pollock, Griselda 45
Pollock, Jackson 63–5, 86
Echo 63–5
Pop Art 100–1, 104
Pope Julius II 21, 35, 57
Post-Impressionism 4, 74–5
Prado 55
Primitivism 50
provenance 2
R
Raphael (da Sanzio) 8, 35, 36, 38, 40, 57, 69
School of Athens 35, 36, 38, 40, 69
Stanze 57
Ray, Man 102, 10
Le Violon d’Ingres 102, 103
Rembrandt 109
Renaissance 4, 17, 30, 31–4, 42, 57, 97, 107, 108
Reynolds, Sir Joshua 58, 67–9, 79, 80
Three Ladies Adorning the Term of Hymen 58, 67–9, 79, 80
Rijksmuseum 55
Rodin, Auguste 83, 84
The Hand of God 83, 84
Romanticism 74, 79
Roosevelt, Franklin D. 63
Royal Academy (London) 58–9, 61
S
Saxl, Fritz 41
sculpture 1, 24, 92, 110–12
semiotics 82–3
sexuality 23, 27
Soviet Social Realism 64
Stanza della Segnatura 36–7
style 2, 4, 7
Summerson, Sir John 72
Super Mario Brothers 12, 13, 94, 103
Surrealism 64
T
Tate, Sir Henry 54, 73
Tate Britain 54, 73
Tate Modern 54
tempera 2, 107–8
U
Uffizi Gallery 15, 31
V
Van Eyk brothers 108
Van Gogh, Vincent 75, 88
Vasari, Giorgio 31–42, 59
Lives of the Artists 31–42
Velázquez, Diego 18–21, 109
Las Meninas 18, 19, 109
Vermeer, Jan 67–9, 91, 99–101, 109
Maid with a Milk Jug 67–9, 91, 99–101, 109
Victoria and Albert Museum 62
Virgin and Child 96, 107
volksgeist 78
W
Warburg, Aby 82, 99
Warhol, Andy 94, 96, 101, 102
Marilyn Monroe 94, 96, 101, 102
Washington Monument 100
Winkelmann, Johann Joachim 38–40, 60, 77–8
Imitation of the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks 39
Wittkower, Rudolph 41
Wright, Frank Lloyd 56
Z
zeitgeist 40, 78
Zeus of Artemisium 111
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