Renaissance Through Modern Art: Test 2 Review Vocabulary

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering art terms, painting techniques, and historical concepts for the ARTH-A102 Test 2 review.

Caravaggisti

Followers and painters who adopted the distinctive style of Caravaggio, characterized by dramatic chiaroscuro, intense tenebrism, strong diagonal lighting, unidealized figures from everyday life, and heightened emotional realism (such as Artemisia Gentileschi).

Cartoon

A full-scale preparatory drawing executed on paper or tinted paper (often using charcoal, black, and white chalk) intended to transfer a composition onto a wall, panel, or canvas for painting.

Catholicism

The branch of Christianity headed by the Pope in Rome that, during the Counter-Reformation, utilized emotionally engaging, sensory, and scripturally faithful art to stimulate piety and defend orthodoxy.

Chiaroscuro

The contrast between light and dark in painting or drawing that models form, defines contours, and enhances the illusion of three-dimensional volume.

Colorito

The Cinquecento Venetian approach to painting (practiced by Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian) where form, composition, and emotional resonance are developed directly through color, light, and paint application, rather than through preparatory drawing.

Contrapposto

A classical sculptural stance in which weight is placed predominantly on one leg, shifting the axis of the hips, shoulders, and spine to convey natural balance, relaxation, and dynamic potential energy.

Council of Trent

An ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in Italy (1545–1563) that initiated the Counter-Reformation and established three key criteria for religious art: clarity and simplicity, truth to scripture, and stimulus to piety.

Counter-Reformation

The Catholic Church's comprehensive revitalization movement launched in response to the Protestant Reformation, deploying dramatic, persuasive Baroque art to reinforce church authority and inspire personal devotional fervor.

Diptych

An artwork comprised of two painted or carved panels that are paired or hinged together, such as Albrecht Dürer's The Four Apostles (1526).

Disegno

The Florentine and Roman Renaissance artistic concept of drawing and design as the rational, intellectual, and structural foundation of all visual arts, established through preparatory outlines and cartoons.

Genre painting

The pictorial representation of scenes and subjects from everyday, ordinary life—such as peasant labor, folk proverbs, and domestic activities—popularized in Northern European Renaissance art.

Heroic male nude

An artistic representation of the idealized, athletic nude male form derived from classical antiquity to express moral strength, civic virtue, and physical perfection (exemplified by Michelangelo's David).

Hierarchy of Genres

The academic ranking of painting categories based on perceived intellectual dignity and difficulty: History painting (highest), Portrait painting, Genre painting, Landscape and cityscape art, Animal painting, and Still life (lowest).

History Painting

The highest category in the academic hierarchy of genres, depicting significant narrative events drawn from the Bible, classical mythology, allegory, or notable historical episodes.

Ignudi

The twenty decorative, athletic male nude figures painted by Michelangelo on illusionistic architectural plinths and corners framing the narrative scenes across the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Impasto

A painting method where paint is applied thickly and texturally to the surface so that brushstrokes remain visible and tangible, giving the medium its own expressive presence and physical reality.

Landscape painting

A genre of painting in which natural outdoor scenery—such as mountains, trees, rivers, and skies—forms the primary subject rather than merely acting as an incidental background.

Linear style

An approach to painting and drawing emphasizing clear, sharp, unbroken outlines and precise delineation of form, closely allied with the concept of disegno.

Mannerism

A late Renaissance Italian style (from the Italian word maniera, meaning style or manner) between the High Renaissance and Baroque, known for artifice, elongated forms, compressed spaces, and stylized elegance.

Neoplatonism

A Renaissance philosophical movement synthesizing Platonic philosophy with Christian theology, holding that visible material beauty reflects invisible divine truth and elevates the human soul toward God.

Oil painting

A medium in which pigments are bound with drying oils (such as linseed oil), enabling rich luminous depth, slow drying times, and subtle blending of tones and glazes on panel or canvas.

Pastoral

An idyllic artistic or literary theme idealizing rural landscapes, natural tranquility, and shepherd life, central to Venetian Renaissance landscapes and poesia.

Poesia

A Venetian concept of painting conceived to operate like visual poetry, evoking mood, enigma, sensual lyricism, and suggestive atmosphere rather than literal narrative illustration.

Polyptych

A complex, multi-paneled painted or carved altarpiece consisting of more than three panels, often featuring movable wings that open to reveal different configurations for liturgical occasions.

Predella

The horizontal platform or base beneath an altarpiece, frequently adorned with small-scale narrative painted panels complementing the main altar scenes above.

Protestant Reformation

The 16th-century religious movement initiated by Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses in 1517 that challenged papal authority and Catholic dogma, prompting significant theological and artistic changes across Northern Europe.

Quadro Riportato

A ceiling painting technique in which scenes are executed in standard front-on perspective and surrounded by simulated architectural frames, appearing as though framed easel paintings have been transported onto a ceiling vault.

Reclining Female Nude

A secular artistic convention established in the Renaissance depicting an idealized nude female figure lounging horizontally, pioneered and popularized by Venetian masters such as Titian in the Venus of Urbino.

Self-portrait

A depiction by an artist representing their own likeness, cultivated during the Renaissance by artists like Albrecht Dürer to assert personal identity, status, and artistic intellect.

Sfumato

A painting technique developed by Leonardo da Vinci characterized by subtle, hazy gradations between tones and colors, eliminating harsh outlines and sharp boundaries.

Sotto In Su

An Italian illusionistic ceiling painting technique meaning "from below to above," utilizing steep upward foreshortening to make figures appear to float or soar in three-dimensional space above the viewer.

Tenebrism

A heightened form of chiaroscuro developed by Caravaggio where impenetrable darkness dominates the canvas, and select figures are dramatically illuminated by a sharp, focused beam of light.

Terribilità

An awe-inspiring, formidable power and fierce emotional intensity ascribed to the style and personality of Michelangelo, evident in works such as his Moses.

Wall tomb

A monumental architectural and sculptural funerary structure affixed directly to or set into a church wall, such as Michelangelo's Tomb of Pope Julius II at San Pietro in Vincoli.

Non-finito

An aesthetic state of an artwork left intentionally or unintentionally unfinished, with figures emerging only partially from rough, chiseled stone (as in Michelangelo's The Awakening Slave).

Ergotism (Saint Anthony's fire)

A disease caused by fungus-infected rye bread producing severe burning pain, convulsions, and gangrene; treated at the Antonite monastery hospital in Isenheim for which Grünewald created the Isenheim Altarpiece.

Christogram "IHS"

A sacred Christian emblem representing the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek ($\text{ΙΗΣ}$), venerated by the Jesuit order and displayed radiating divine light in Gaulli's ceiling fresco at the Church of Il Gesù.

Buon Fresco

A true fresco painting technique in which alkaline-resistant mineral pigments mixed with water are painted directly onto wet lime plaster, fusing chemically into the wall as the plaster cures.

Secco

A wall-painting technique in which pigments bound with an organic vehicle are applied onto dry plaster, resulting in a less permanent bond that is prone to flaking over time.