Art History Terms Final

Pain

Chiaroscuro

The use of contrasts between light and dark to create illusions

LDV Virgin of the Rocks

Sfumato

A painting technique that uses subtle gradations of tone and color with no harsh outlines, creating a smoky or soft effect.

LDV Mona Lisa

Ignudi

Idealized nude male figures used as decorative elements, often symbolizing beauty or human perfection.

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Trompe l’oeil

A technique that creates the optical illusion that painted objects exist in three dimensions.

Andrea Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi, especially the painted ceiling opening to the sky.

Drum (in Architecture)

The cylindrical or polygonal wall that supports a dome and raises it above the main structure.

The drum of Brunelleschi’s dome on Florence Cathedral.

Central Plan

A building design organized symmetrically around a central point, often circular or polygonal.

Donato Bramante’s Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio.

Portico

A porch or entrance structure supported by columns and usually topped by a pediment.

Andrea Palladio’s villas, such as Villa Rotonda, which features classical porticos.

Mannerism

A style that exaggerates proportions, poses, and spatial relationships, often emphasizing elegance over naturalism.

Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Long Neck.

Engraving

A printmaking technique where lines are incised into a surface (usually metal) to create an image.

Albrecht Dürer’s engravings, such as Adam and Eve (1504).

Anamorphic Image

A distorted image that appears normal only when viewed from a specific angle or with a device.

Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors, featuring a distorted skull.

Memento Mori

A symbolic reminder of mortality, emphasizing the inevitability of death.

Skulls and hourglasses in Renaissance still-life paintings, or the skull in The Ambassadors by Holbein.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th-century religious movement that challenged the authority and practices of the Catholic Church, emphasizing scripture, personal faith, and rejecting many forms of religious imagery as idolatrous.

Counter-Reformation

The Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation, aiming to reaffirm Catholic doctrine and regain followers. Art and architecture were used as emotional, dramatic tools to inspire faith and devotion.

Example: The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Council of Trent

A series of Catholic Church meetings (1545–1563) that clarified doctrine and addressed Protestant critiques.

Significance for Art: Art was required to be clear, emotionally engaging, and doctrinally correct, avoiding ambiguity or excessive sensuality. This directly shaped Baroque religious art.

Baroque

A 17th-century artistic style characterized by dramatic lighting, intense emotion, movement, realism, and grandeur, often used to engage viewers emotionally and spiritually.

The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio

Tenebrism

An extreme use of strong contrast between light and dark, where figures emerge sharply from deep shadow to heighten drama.

Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi

Colossal Order

An architectural feature where columns or pilasters extend through multiple stories of a building, creating a sense of grandeur and unity.

St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

Quadro Riportato

A ceiling-painting technique where scenes are painted to look like framed easel paintings attached to the ceiling, rather than breaking the architectural space.

The Loves of the Gods ceiling by Annibale Carracci

Illusionistic Ceiling Painting

A technique that uses perspective to make ceilings appear open to the sky, creating the illusion of three-dimensional space beyond the architecture.

Triumph of the Name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli

Still Life

A genre depicting inanimate objects (food, flowers, instruments), often symbolizing themes like mortality, wealth, or the passage of time.

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Jan Davidsz. de Heem

Camera Obscura

An optical device that projects an external image onto a surface, aiding artists in achieving accurate perspective and Realism

Johannes Vermeer

Genre Painting

Paintings depicting everyday life scenes - ordinary people engaged in common activities

The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer

etching

A printmaking technique in which a metal plate (usually copper) is coated with an acid-resistant ground. The artist scratches lines into the ground, then uses acid to bite those lines into the plate. Ink is applied and wiped so it remains in the incised lines, and damp paper is pressed onto the plate to create the print.

The Three Crosses by Rembrandt van Rijn