vocab. - Chapter 20

Guild

An association of merchants, craftspersons, or scholars in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

Bourse

French, “stock market.”

Feudalism

The medieval political, social, and economic system held together by the relationship between landholding liege lords and the vassals who were granted tenure of a portion of their land and in turn swore allegiance to the liege lord.

Chartreuse

A Carthusian monastery.

Fons Vitae

Latin, “fountain of life.” A symbolic fountain of everlasting life.

Mausoleum

A monumental tomb. The name derives from the mid-fourth-century BCE tomb of Mausolos at Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

Mystery Play

A dramatic enactment of the holy mysteries of the Christian faith, performed at church portals and in city squares.

Polyptychs

An altarpiece composed of more than three sections.

Book of Hours

A Christian religious book for private devotion containing prayers to be read at specified times of the day.

Breviary

A Christian religious book of selected daily prayers and Psalms.

Gothic

Originally a derogatory term named after the Goths, used to describe the history, culture, and art of western Europe in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Lancet

In Gothic architecture, a tall narrow window ending in a pointed arch.

Matte

In painting, pottery, and photography, a dull finish.

Oil Painting

A painting technique using oil-based pigments that rose to prominence in northern Europe in the 15th century and is now the standard medium for painting on canvas.

Pinnacle

In Gothic churches, a sharply pointed ornament capping the piers or flying buttresses; also used on church facades.

Retable

An architectural screen or wall above and behind an altar, usually containing painting, sculpture, or other decorations. See also altarpiece.

Romanesque

“Roman-like.” A term used to describe the history, culture, and art of medieval western Europe from ca. 1050 to ca.1200.

Rotunda

The circular area under a dome; also, a domed round building.

Tempera

A technique of painting using pigment mixed with egg yolk, glue, or casein; also, the medium itself.

Tracery

Ornamental stonework for holding stained glass in place, characteristic of Gothic cathedrals. In plate tracery, the glass fills only the “punched holes” in the heavy ornamental stonework. In bar tracery, the stained-glass windows fill almost the entire opening, and the stonework is unobtrusive.

Compline

The last prayer of the day in a Book of Hours.

Lunette

A semicircular area (with the flat side down) in a wall over a door, niche, or window; also, a painting or relief with a semicircular frame.

Aproche, aproche

Words that call attention to the Limbourgs’ success in creating the illusion of deep spatial recession.

Matins

In Christianity, early morning prayers.

Psalter

A book containing the Psalms.

Bibliophile

Lover of books.

Genre

A style or category of art; also, a kind of painting that realistically depicts scenes from everyday life.

Glaze

A vitreous coating applied to pottery to seal and decorate the surface; it may be colored, transparent, or opaque, and glossy or matte. In oil painting, a thin, transparent, or semi-transparent layer applied over a color to alter it slightly.

Glazing

The application of successive layers of glaze in oil painting.

Sfumato

Italian, “smoky.” A smokelike haziness that subtly softens outlines in painting; particularly applied to the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Correggio.

Burgomeister

Chief magistrate (mayor) of a Flemish city.

Inghelbrecht

A word referring to “angel bringer,” a reference to Gabriel’s bringing the news of Christ’s birth to Mary in the central panel.

Scrynmakers

A word referring to “cabinet- or shrine-makers,” and probably inspired the workshop scene in the right panel.

Donor Portrait

A portrait of the individual(s) who commissioned (donated) a religious work (for example, an altarpiece) as evidence of devotion.

Grisaille

A monochrome painting done mainly in neutral grays to simulate sculpture.

Sibyl

A Greco-Roman mythological prophetess.

Triptych

A three-paneled painting, ivory plaque, or altarpiece. Also, a small, portable shrine with hinged wings used for private devotion.

Fidere

Latin, “to trust.”

Finial

A crowning ornament.

Johannes de Eyck fuit hic

“Jan van Eyck was here”

Iconoclast

“breakers of images”

Stretcher Bar

One of a set of wood bars used to stretch canvas to provide a taut surface for painting.

Crossbow

The guild’s symbol.

Pietà

A painted or sculpted representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ.

Gesso

Plaster mixed with a binding material, used as the base coat for paintings on wood panels.

Renaissance

French, “rebirth.” The term used to describe the history, culture, and art of 14th- through 16th-century western Europe during which artists consciously revived the classical style.

Horizon Line / Linear Perspective / Vanishing Point

In linear perspective, the most common type, all parallel lines or surface edges converge on one, two, or three vanishing points located with reference to the eye level of the viewer (the horizon line of the picture), and associated objects are rendered smaller the farther from the viewer they are intended to seem.

Orthogonals

A line imagined to be behind and perpendicular to the picture plane; the orthogonals in a painting appear to recede toward a vanishing point on the horizon.

Prefiguration

In Early Christian art, the depiction of Old Testament persons and events as prophetic forerunners of Christ and New Testament events.

Cherub

A chubby winged child angel.

Hierarchy of Scale

An artistic convention in which greater size indicates greater importance.

Mystic Marriage

A spiritual marriage of a woman with Christ.

Engraving

The process of incising a design in hard material, often a metal plate (usually copper); also, the print or impression made from such a plate.

Print

An artwork on paper, usually produced in multiple impressions.

Woodcut

A wood block on the surface of which those parts not intended to print are cut away to a slight depth, leaving the design raised; also, the printed impression made with such a block.

Edition

A set of impressions taken from a single incised metal plate or carved woodblock.

Relief

In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas), or sunken. In the last, the artist cuts the design into the surface so that the highest projecting parts of the image are no higher than the surface itself. See also repoussé.

Scriptoria

The writing studio of a monastery.

Burin

A pointed tool used for engraving or incising.

Cross-hatching

Cross-hatching employs sets of lines placed at right angles.

Drypoint

An engraving in which the design, instead of being cut into the plate with a burin, is scratched into the surface with a hard steel “pencil.” See also etching, intaglio.

Etching

A kind of engraving in which the design is incised in a layer of wax or varnish on a metal plate. The parts of the plate left exposed are then etched (slightly eaten away) by the acid in which the plate is immersed after incising. See also drypoint, intaglio.

Incise

To cut into a surface with a sharp instrument, especially to decorate metal and pottery.

Intaglio

A graphic technique in which the design is incised, or scratched, on a metal plate, either manually (engraving, drypoint) or chemically (etching). The incised lines of the design take the ink, making this the reverse of the woodcut technique.

Parallel Hatching

A series of closely spaced drawn or engraved parallel lines.

Stylus

A needlelike tool used in engraving and incising; also, an ancient writing instrument used to inscribe clay or wax tablets.