Painting: Terminology

This page is mainly about the craft of painting – although some of the terms are used in other art forms as well as painting.

Renoir's 'Queen of colours'		Black
The Virgin Mary is usually depicted wearing		Blue
Putto		Cherub (small boy)
Italian word meaning 'light-dark': used to describe the technique of using strong contrasts between light and dark, to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures		Chiaroscuro
Network of small cracks on old varnish		Craquelure
Work of art (or any object) with two or more flat plates hinged together		Diptych, triptych, etc.
Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of St.John's Gospel, when he presents Jesus – scourged, bound, and crowned with thorns – to a hostile crowd shortly before the Crucifixion; usually translated into English as 'behold the man'; used in art to describe depictions of the scene		Ecce homo
A burin is a tool used in		Engraving
Form of engraving where the design is bitten into the plate by acid		Etching
Painting onto wet plaster		Fresco
Deep yellow pigment: named after a tree, native to Cambodia, from which it's obtained as a resinous gum (the name of the tree is said to come from the Latin name for Cambodia)		Gamboge
Poster paint made by mixing watercolours with gum arabic		Gouache
Italian word for 'dough' or 'mixture', used for the technique of laying on paint in thick layers so that the brush strokes are clearly visible		Impasto
Oil used for oil paints		Linseed
The name (from German or Dutch) for the stick used to support the hand with which the artist holds the brush		Maulstick
Work of art composed by combining existing pictures		Montage
Made from tesserae		Mosaic
Halo (of light) over a holy figure		Nimbus
A mix of styles, or an imitation of another style – comes (via French) from the Italian word for a pie crust		Pastiche
Representation of the Virgin Mary supporting the dead Christ		Pietà
Dark blue pigment – one of the first synthetic pigments – the colour familiar from blueprints – probably first synthesised in Berlin around 1706, by paint maker Johann Diesbach, as a substitute for the prohibitively expensive ultramarine		Prussian blue
Colour that signifies royalty		Purple
The name of the cuttlefish genus, given to the rich brown pigment derived from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish		Sepia
Brown pigment named after a town in Tuscany		Siena
Paintings of inanimate objects (typically flowers, fruit, game, etc.)		Still life
Painting by mixing pigments with egg yolks		Tempera
Blue pigment obtained from lapis lazuli		Ultramarine
Pigment derived from clay – name from the Latin for “shadow”, via the region of Italy where it was first extracted (Umbria) – can be raw or burnt		Umber
Flemish painter after whom a moderate brown colour is named		Van Dyke

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23