ARTH: Midterm Review

Key Terms

 All’ antica: in the antique style

 Aedicula: framed niche
 Trompe l’oeil: fool-the-eye
 Niche: a position suited for the person who fills it
 Coffers: in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or
octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.[
 Giornata (plural: Giornate) - irregular shaped section that can be plastered and
painted in one day. The shapes more or less follow the composition so adjoining
Giornate do not not have obvious dividing lines in the finished work.
 Al seco: on the dry plastered wall
 Perspective Foreshortening: shortening the lines of forms seen head on to align
them with the overall perspectival system
 Intarsia: wood inlay’
 Sarcophagus: a stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions)
 Allegory: a symbolic illustration of a concept or principle
 Seraphim: angels of the highest rank
 Di sotto in su: from below upwards
 Putto: nude little boy
 One-point (linear) perspective: all arranged in conformity with the new
mathematical depiction of space.
 Condottieri: the brilliant generals who organized the armies and fought for any
city-state willing to pay.
 Chivalry: honor, courage and courtesy comes from the French word cheval
(horse).
 Register: horizontal band
 Grisaille: grey monochrome
 Tableaux vivants: living pictures
 Noli Me Tangere: “Do not touch me”
 Predella: the lower zone of the altarpiece
 Punchwork: tooled designs in gold leaf on the halos.
 Buon (true) fresco (fresh): paint is applied with water based paints on wet
plaster
 Fresco secco(dry); paint is applied to a dry plastered wall.
 Sinopia: copies of master painter’s compositions with charcoal
 Bestiary: an encyclopedia of real and imaginary animals that gave info of both
moral and practical value.
 Majolica: glazed earthenware
 Lunette: semicircular wall area
 Iconology: the branch of arth that studies visual images and their symbolic
meaning.
 Iconography: writing of signs.