Coptic art - Art of the early Christians of Egypt from the fourth to the eighth centuries CE, during the end of the Roman period and the beginning of the Byzantine period. Under Rome, Fayum burial portraits done in encaustic are the great achievement. Coptic style changed greatly under the influence of Byzantium, becoming flat and stylized. Coptic influences can be seen in later Ethiopian art.

copy - An intentional imitation, replica, reproduction, or duplication of an original work of art, usually produced in the same medium. Unlike a fake, a copy generally is intended as an emulation of a model rather than as a deception. A variation on copying, complicating the issues involved in distinguishing between originals, copies, and forgeries, are appropriations.

Cor-ten steel - Cor-ten Steel is a type of steel that oxidizes naturally over time, giving it an orange-brown color and a rough texture. It has a very high tensile strength, and in spite of its rusted appearance it is actually more resistant to damaging corrosion than standard forms of carbon steel. It has been used by many contemporary sculptors and architects.

crackle - In ceramic glazes, a network of fine craze lines, produced intentionally or accidentally, especially associated with oriental and modern porcelain. Also, in oil painting, when the paint's surface is broken by a network of small cracks.

cryptic - Having or seeming to have a hidden or ambiguous meaning; mysterious; often marked by an often perplexing brevity. "Cryptic" sometimes carries the deeper sense of secrecy or the occult, and is often sensed in Dada and in surrealist works. The history of "cryptic" starts with "kryptein," a Greek word meaning "to hide."

cyanotype - A very direct photographic process resulting in monochromatic images in tints and tones of blue. It first appeared in 1842

Da to Ez

deckle edge - The rough edge of handmade paper formed in a deckle. Also called featheredge.

depth - The third dimension. The apparent distance from front to back or near to far in an artwork.

depth of field - In photography, the distance between the nearest point and the farthest point in the subject which is perceived as acceptably sharp along a common image plane.

derivative - Unoriginal. Owing too much to one or more other artists' work(s). This term is almost always used disparagingly, even though it must be admitted that a high percentage of the art we see is derived from images their producers have seen. Newness is a quality particularly highly prized by adherents to Modernism.

dominant - The part of a composition that is emphasized, has the greatest visual weight, the most important, powerful, or has the most influence. A certain color can be dominant, and so can an object, line, shape, or texture.

DPI or dpi - Dots per inch. A measurement of the scanning resolution of an image or the quality of an output device. Expresses the number of dots a printer can print per inch, or monitor can display, both horizontally and vertically. A 600-dpi printer can print 360,000 (600 x 600) dots on one square inch of paper.

edition - A set of identical prints, sometimes numbered and signed, pulled by, or under the supervision of the artist. Two numbers are often written at the lower edge of a print — the first indicating the print's place in the order of all prints in the edition, the second number indicating the total number of prints in the edition.

egg tempera - A watercolor medium used for permanent, fine works.

emotionalism - An aesthetic and critical theory of art which places emphasis on the expressive qualities. According to this theory, the most important thing about a work of art is the vivid communication of moods, feelings, and ideas.

Engraving - A method of cutting or incising a design into a material, usually metal, with a sharp tool called a graver. One of the intaglio methods of making prints, in engraving, a print can be made by inking such an incised (engraved) surface. It may also refer to a print produced in this way. Most contemporary engraving is done in the production of currency, certificates, etc.

Enlightenment - Also called the Age of Reason, the name applied to an intellectual movement and zeitgeist which developed in western Europe during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth. The common element was a trust in human reason as adequate to solve the crucial problems and to establish the essential norms in life, together with the belief that the application of reason was rapidly dissipating the darkness of superstition, prejudice, and barbarity, was freeing humanity from its earlier reliance on mere authority and unexamined tradition, and had opened the prospect of progress toward a life in this world of universal peace and happiness. In the visual arts, this was the time of the Baroque period.

erotica and erotic art - Erotica includes images, books, and objects that cause or celebrate sexual feelings or desires. Just as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," some observers will perceive erotica as obscene or pornographic. But when sexually suggestive or explicit materials are deemed erotica or erotic art, they are described more neutrally or positively than they are when called obscenity or pornography.

etch - To use acid to cut into a surface, usually metal or glass. Too often confused with engrave

exquisite - Showing intricate and beautiful design or execution, and so beautiful or delicate as to arouse delight. Also, acutely perceptive or discriminating.

Fa to Gz

Feather, feathering - In drawing and painting, to feather is to blend an edge so that it fades off or softens. To feather is also to overlap values and colors in the manner of the overlapping feathers of a bird.

ferrotype - In photography, a positive image made directly on an iron plate varnished with a thin photosensitive film; also called a tintype. Or, the process by which they are made. The ferrotype process was introduced to the USA in 1855.

fibula - A pin or brooch used to fasten fabric at the shoulder of togas of ancient Greece and Rome. They were often of decorative design.

filigree - A delicate, lacelike, and intricate openwork ornament, usually made from thin wire.

foam core or foam board - A strong, stiff, resilient, and light weight board of polystyrene laminated with paper on both of its sides. It may be any of several thicknesses, in any of a variety of colors. It is often employed as a surface on which to mount two-dimensional work, and as a material with which to construct three-dimensional work (such as architectural models)

folk art - Art made by people who have had little or no formal schooling in art. Folk artists usually make works of art with traditional techniques and content, in styles handed down through many generations, and often of a particular region.

four-dimensional - The fourth dimension is time. So a thing which is four-dimensional has height, width, depth, and moves, or otherwise changes over a period of time.

foxing - A brownish yellow, patchy discoloration of paper caused by the action of mold on iron salts, which are present in most paper. Foxing usually results from high relative humidity — typically when a work is hung on a damp wall. To prevent foxing, mount, mat, and frame using only acid-free materials, keep glass away from the surface of the artwork, and place in a low-humidity environment. Foxing can be treated by a paper conservator, although it is unlikely to be removed entirely by standard cleaning treatments.

fragment - A portion of a whole, a fragment is often what remains of a damaged or ruined object. A fragment of pottery is called a shard.

freestanding sculpture or free-standing sculpture - A type of sculpture that is surrounded on all sides by space. Also called scupture in-the-round.To be viewed from all sides; freestanding. The opposite of relief.

fuse, fusion - To melt; two or more materials joining at a molecular level. "Fusion" may also refer to the combination or blending of other things, such as styles or subjects.

gargoyle - In architecture, a sculpture or rain spout carved to resemble a grotesque creature or monster. It is a common feature of Gothic cathedrals

genre and genres - Genre painting is the depiction of subjects and scenes from everyday life, ordinary folk and common activities. It achieved its greatest popularity in seventeenth century Holland (the Netherlands) with the works of Jan Steen (1626-1679) and Jan Vermeer (1632-1675).

gesso - Plaster or a fine plaster-like material made of gypsum, which is also called whiting, used for sculptures. An especially versatile medium in reliefs, gesso can be either a material cast in a mold or a material of a mold, a material to be modeled, or carved, or attached to something else. When used for molds into which molten metal is poured, it must be hardened with sand as a grog. Gesso may also refer to such a gypsum material mixed with an animal-hide glue and used as a ground for painting. For this latter use, it is usually applied to the surface of a wood panel or sculpture to become the surface on which an artist paints. It was used by Gothic and Renaissance panel painters, and is still used today.

gild and gilding - Applying gold leaf.

gouache - A heavy, opaque watercolor paint, sometimes called body color, producing a less wet appearing and more strongly colored picture than ordinary watercolor. Also, any painting produced with gouache.

ground - A surface to which paint is applied or the material used to create that surface. A painting's ground is usually specially prepared on its support. Traditionally for oil on canvas uses a ground of oil and white pigment, and on wood surfaces either an oil ground or gesso.

Ha to Lz

hard-edge - Refers to a twentieth century movement in painting in which the edges of shapes are crisp and precise rather than blurred.

high art - Fine art, also known as beaux-arts, art that is of universal transcendence, having withstood the test of time and representing the epitome of artistic achievement, as opposed to low art, which is also known as mass culture. Until recently, a distinction was typically made between high and low art. Traditionally, high art consists of the meticulous expression in fine materials of refined or noble sentiment, appreciation of the former depending on such things as intelligence, social standing, educated taste, and a willingness to be challenged. Low art is the shoddy manufacturing in inferior materials of superficial kitsch, simply catering to popular taste, unreflective acceptance of realism, and a certain "couch potato" mentality. Although many earlier artists took inspiration from popular and folk art, the most systematic approaches towards blurring the differences between high and low art were taken by Cubism, Dada and Surrealism. Pop Art further weakened the distinction, and artists as various as Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960-1988), Jeff Koons (American, 1955-) and the Guerrilla Girls (American), influenced strongly by the different branches of postmodern thought, have dealt it the further blows.

high relief - In relief sculpture, a form that extends at least halfway out of the background.

impasto - A thick or lumpy application of paint, or deep brush marks (brushstrokes), as distinguished from a flat, smooth paint surface. May also refer to a thick application of pastel.

incising - Cutting into a surface, typically in metal, stone, or pottery, often used for lettering and decoration

inlay - Making an image by setting thin pieces of a material precisely into a depressed ground.

intaglio - The collective term for several graphic processes in which prints are made from ink trapped in the grooves in an incised metal plate. Etchings and engravings are the most typical examples. It may also refer to imagery incised on gems or hardstones, seals, and dies for coins, or to an object decorated in this way; which when pressed or stamped into a soft substance, produces a positive relief in that substance.

linear perspective - A system of drawing or painting in which the artist attempts to create the illusion of spatial depth on a two-dimensional surface. It works by following consistent geometric rules for rendering objects as they appear to the human eye. For instance, we see parallel lines as converging in the distance, although in reality they do not.

linoleum cut, linocut, or lino-cut - A linoleum block or plate used for making relief prints.

lost-wax casting - A casting process for which a sculptor must first produce his sculpture in wax. He creates a mold around this made of refractory materials. When the mold is heated, the wax melts away, so that molten metal can replace it, reproducing exactly the original wax sculpture.

Ma to Oz

matboard - A mat that is typically cut from a heavy cardboard. Matboard serves two very important functions in the overall framing of a picture. First and foremost it protects the artwork and second it showcases and enhances the subject being framed. It is important to protect works of art on paper, photographs, and other framed objects from direct contact with glass. Matboard provides a barrier from the airborne pollutants, moisture, acids and other damaging impurities that can impact the life of the framed piece. Matboard when used correctly also leads your eye into the artwork, enhancing the overall effect. Whenever a work's presentation or storage environment should be of archival quality, be sure to use acid-free matboard. It is more expensive, but is much less likely to discolor artworksover time.

medium - The material or technique used by an artist to produce a work of art. Medium can also refer to what carries a paint's pigments, and is also called a vehicle or a base. The medium is what determines what kind of paint is produced. A painter can mix a medium with its solvents, pigments and other substances in order to make paint and control its consistency. A variety of mediums are available that provide a matte, semi-gloss, or glossy finish.

mezzotint or mezzoprint - In printmaking, an engraving process that is tonal rather than linear, or prints produced by this process. Developed in the seventeenth century, mezzotint was used widely as a reproductive printing process, especially in England, until photographic processes overtook it in the mid-nineteenth century. Mezzotints were most commonly produced from 1780s-1870s. A copper or steel plate is first worked all over with a curved, serrated tool called a rocker, raising burrs over the surface to hold the ink and print as a soft dark tone. The design is then created in lighter tones by scraping out and burnishing areas of the roughened plate so that they hold less ink, or none in highlights. Details may be sharpened by engraving or etching in a "mixed mezzotint."

mixed media or mixed-media - A technique involving the use of two or more artistic media, such as ink and pastel or painting and collage, that are combined in a single composition. The term intermedia is used synonymously.

monochromatic - Consisting of only a single color or hue; may include its tints and shades.

mount - To attach securely to a support, as when an artwork on paper is affixed to a sheet of cardboard or another flat and rigid material. It may be important to choose materials and techniques that are archival (acid-free) and either permanent or reversible.

Mural - A large design or picture, most commonly created on the wall of a public building, sometimes using the fresco technique. Among the important mural painters of the twentieth century are the three Mexican painters José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949), Diego Rivera (1886-l957), and David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974).

Nabis - An avant-garde group of French painters and poets, active 1888-99, who were persuaded by the advice Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) gave Paul Serusier (French, 1863-1927) in 1888 at Pont-Aven to reject naturalistic representation, and instead, paint in flat areas of pure color.

American Indian art or Native American art - Art produced by the first Americans and their descendants

negative space - Empty space in an artwork, a void. That's the usual definition. To some people, this term suggests unpleasant things. Sometimes when we say "negative" we mean "bad."  Both "space" and "emptiness" suggest a lack, a shortage of something. This is unfortunate. The concept of negative space is one that deserves to be highly prized. In Japanese art tradition, what we call negative space is called ma. Relevant in every Japanese art form, from sumi-e to ikebana, ma is considered a particularly valuable sort of space, not seen as negative or empty.

nostalgia - A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.

ocher or ochre - Natural earths used to make pigments, especially yellowish tan. Adjectival forms are ochery and ocherous.

offset printing - The printing process in which an inked image on a metal or paper plate is transferred to a smooth rubber cylinder and then to the paper.

oil paint - Slow drying paint made when pigments are mixed with an oil, linseed oil being most traditional. The oil dries with a hard film, and the brightness of the colors is protected. Oil paints are usually opaque and traditionally used on canvas. They can have a matte, semi-gloss, or glossy finish

old master - Traditionally, a distinguished maker of pictures or sculptures who was active before 1700 — during the Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque periods, especially Italian, Dutch and Flemish artists. Today the term is also being used to refer to recognized masters of the eighteenth century.

opaque - Something that cannot be seen through; the opposite of transparent, although something through which some light passes would be described as translucent.

open edition - A set of prints made in an unspecified or unlimited number of impressions. The opposite of open edition is a limited edition.

original - Any work considered to be an authentic example of the works of an artist, rather than a reproduction or imitation. The term excludes works produced "in the studio of" an artist, because that usually means that it was made by others, even if under the artist's influence or at his direction. This attribution must be qualified further, however, for workshop paintings in which there is evidence of the master's hand. Although they are less valued for various reasons, copies and reproductions have had tremendous impact on our experience, reaching greater audience than originals ever could, and they act as a tonic to commodification. Original may also mean the first, preceding all others. In that sense, it may refer to a prototype, a model after which other works are made, each bears great similarity to the first.

Pa to Pz

papermaking - The basic papermaking proces takes advantage of the ability of plant cell fibers (cellulose) to adhere to each other when a watery pulp made from the fibers is spread on a screen called a deckle, and dried. Today, paper is made principally from wood pulp combined with pulps from waste paper or, for fine grades of paper, with fibers from cotton rags. For newsprint, tissues, and other inexpensive papers, the pulp is prepared mechanically, by grinding the wood, sometimes boiling it with various chemicals. The pulp is poured onto a deckle, where the water drains away and the fibers begin to mat. The paper layer then passes through a series of rollers that dry, press, and smooth it, and add various finishes.

Pastel - Pigments mixed with gum and water, and pressed into a dried stick form for use as crayons. Works of art done with such pigments are also called pastels

Pastoral - Concerning shepherds, or animal husbandry in general, the country, country life, rustic serenity; a sacral-idyllic scene.

patina - A sheen or coloration on any surface, either unintended and produced by age or intended and produced by simulation or stimulation, which signifies the object's age; also called aerugo, aes ustum, and verdigris. Typically a thin layer of greens (sometimes reds or blues), usually basic copper sulfate, that forms on copper or copper alloys, such as bronze, as a result of oxidation and corrosion. Metal objects have naturally acquired patinas when long buried in soil or immersed in water. Such naturally formed patinas have come to be greatly prized. There are many formulae for the pickles and chemical treatments of metals which may be employed to encourage the formation of patinas.

period - An interval of time characterized by the prevalence of a specified culture, ideology, or technology, or regarded as a distinct phase in the development of the work of an artist, or a style or movement.

perspective - The technique artists use to project an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface.

petroglyph - An image engraved or drawn on rock, especially one made by prehistoric people

photocopy - To make a photographic reproduction of printed or graphic material, especially by xerography. This is the most common contemporary method of making inexpensive photo images on paper.

photogravure - A photomechanical printmaking process invented in 1879. A photographic image is transfered to a copper plate which is chemically etched. The plate is hand-inked for each print.

photomechanical graphic - Photographic (and analog) processes used in preparing to print images with the printing plates. Color separation is one of the functions of photomechanical processes — making a separate printing plate for each of the color components in a color picture. Usually there are four: one plate for yellow, one for blue (cyan), one for red (magenta), and one for black. Images printed by offset lithography — the printing process by which the majority of periodicals are printed for example — have invariably been photomechanical graphics until computer graphic processes have gotten to take over some of this territory. A computer generated image is more likely to be called a computer graphic or digital graphic.

pictograph - Also called a pictogram, figurative drawing or picture representing a word, sound or idea. Earliest form in the evolution of a system of writing. An example is the ancient Egyptian writing called hieroglyphs. This method of communication is still used today by certain civilisations including Chinese, Japanese, and American Indians

pixel - Short for "picture element," a dot of color on a video or computer screen, similar to the grains in a photograph, or dots in half-tone rat. On a computer monitor, each pixel can represent a number of different shades or colors, depending upon how much storage space is allocated for it.

en plein air - French for "in the open air," used chiefly to describe paintings that have been executed outdoors, rather than in the studio. Plein air painting was taken up by the English painters Richard Parks Bonington (1802-1828) and John Constable (1776-1837), and the French Barbizon School, and it became central to Impressionism.

pointillism - A method of painting developed in France in the 1880s in which tiny dots of color are applied to the canvas. When viewed from a distance, the points of color appear to blend together to make other colors and to form shapes and outlines.

polyptych - An artwork such as an altarpiece made up of more than three panels or sections, often hinged. A four-paneled one is a quadriptych. A two-paneled artwork is a diptych. A three-paneled one is a triptych.

pornography - Pictures, textures, or other material that is sexually explicit, typically equating sex with power and violence. The human bodies depicted in pornographic imagery are typically flawless and vulnerable, commodified rather than celebrated. Significant issues in the consideration of nudes in any context include: their gender, the gender of those who produced them, the gender of those who paid for their production, and the motivations of each of these people, as well as how these depictions are viewed in cultures other than those for which they were originally produced.

positive space - Space in an artwork that is positive — filled with something, such as lines, designs, color, or shapes. The opposite of negative space.

price - The amount demanded or paid for (not to be confused with the art term value) for an art object, writing, intellectual property, etc., which is largely the same as its market value or monetary worth. Knowing an earlier price for something can help in setting a new price for it, or to appropriately insure it, or to satisfy simple curiosity. How a price is set might be determined by an appraisal, or by offering it for sale either via auction or gallery (traditional or online), or by an advertisement placed in a newspaper or magazine.

primer - An undercoating paint applied to a surface, sealing it, creating a better bond (adhesion), and providing a ground for a painting. Applying such a ground is called priming.

primitive - Early or undeveloped; simple.

Print and printmaking - A print is a shape or mark made from a block or plate or other object that is covered with wet color (usually ink) and then pressed onto a flat surface, such as paper or textile. Most prints can be produced over and over again by re-inking the printing block or plate. Printmaking can be done in many ways, including using an engraved block or stone, transfer paper, or a film negative.

proof - In graphic arts, a preliminary print that is examined for quality control before final printing is done.

provenance - Generally refers to something's place of origin; its source. Used with artworks and antiques, provenance is a record or proof of authenticity or of past ownership.

pull - The graphic artist's term for printing a single print. Hence, "pulling" a print, instead of "printing" a print.

Q to Rz

quality - An inherent or distinguishing characteristic of a person or a thing. Or, having a high degree of excellence. The quality of a thing tends to be increased the more care its maker puts into its making.

rabbet - A groove along the window edge on the back of a frame. It allows for the greater protection and shallower or deeper placement of glass, mat, picture, etc. It might be produced with such tools as a rabbet plane or a router.

raku - Porous low-fired ceramic ware characterized by deep, subtly changing colors.

rare - One of a kind, or of a very limited number.

recto - The front side of any work on paper. May also be the right-hand page of a book. The opposite of verso. The front and rear sides of other two-sided objects, such as coins, medals, or panels which have a painting on each side are more often referred to as obverse and reverse.

relic - An object or a custom that remains from a previous time or culture. Something prized for its age or historic interest, especially something that can be linked to a particular person, place or event. Or, an object of religious veneration, especially a piece of the body of a holy person, or of an object associated with one. In the Christian tradition, relics were especially important throughout the Middle Ages. In the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, relics of the saints and other holy persons, as well as bits of the crown of thorns, the true cross, and other objects associated with holy persons, are prized for those associations. A container for a relic is a reliquary, also called a feretory. A feretory is also the area of a church in which relics are kept.

Relief sculpture - A type of sculpture in which form projects from a background. There are three degrees or types of relief: high, low, and sunken. In high relief, the forms stand far out from the background. In low relief (best known as bas-relief), they are shallow. In sunken relief, also called hollow or intaglio; the backgrounds are not cut back and the points in highest relief are level with the original surface of the material being carved.

remarque - In printmaking, most often in etchings, a sketch originally made by the artist on the margin of his plate to test his tools, often to test the degree of the mordant's biting before immersing the entire plate in the acid bath. Because such remarques were originally intended to be scraped or burnished away before the final edition of the plate is printed, a print with a remarque is often called a remarque proof. In the nineteenth century such remarques came to be so valued that they were often retained as part of the finished print. The subjects of these little drawings typically relate in some way to the larger image. The practice greatly fell out of use in the twentieth century.

replica - A copy. The verb form is replicate.

resist - A substance which protects a surface from receiving paints, inks, or dyes. Waxes are commonly used as a resist to the dyes used in batik.

reverse - The rear or back view of an object.

rustic - Typical of country life or country people. Lacking sophistication or elegance.

sampler - A piece of cloth embroidered with a variety of designs or mottoes, which demonstrates skillful use of various stitches. Such compositions of varied needlework were popular accomplishments among American girls in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Sa to Sh

sanguine - A red chalk drawing medium

santo, santos - Santos are religious icons or folk pictures and simply painted wooden sculptures of holy figures produced throughout Latin America and southwestern U.S.A. A santo is votive art, rarely intended to be physically descriptive of a person, so much as to be the symbolic embodiment of an ideal.

saturation - A color's purity of hue; its intensity. A pure hue has the highest saturation.

school - A group of artists whose style demonstrates a common origin or influence. A common origin is likely to be geographic (for example, Dutch school, or Viennese school, or New York school), but refers to the stylistic tendencies of artists in that area. A common influence may be a period, a movement (for example, Impressionist school), an attitude (for example, naturalist school), or a particular artist (for example, school of Rembrandt). When applied to a particular painter, this may either mean that the work in question was painted in that artist's studio by one of his pupils or assistants (apparently with a certain amount of the master's guidance), or that it is an imitation or copy of his or her work.

Sculpture - A three-dimensional work of art, or the art of making it. Such works may be carved, modeled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, and relief, and made in a huge variety of media.

secular humanism - Also called secularism, this philosophy advocates human rather than religious values. A powerful intellectual force behind the Renaissance (as well as since), especially stimulating studies of the sciences, when for centuries scholarship had been focused almost exclusively upon issues of faith.

sensuality - Excessive devotion to delights of the senses — physical, especially sexual gratification rather than spiritual or intellectual pleasures; voluptuousness; worldliness.

sepia - Dark reddish brown. Usually refers to pigments of inks used in drawing, printmaking, and photography. Because so many monochromatic photographs were produced in sepia tones during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contemporary pictures made in this color scheme often take on allegorical meanings, associating such imagery with earlier times.

serigraphy - A stencil method of printmaking in which an image is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Also called silkscreen process and screen-printing. A serigraph is a print made by this method.

saturation - A color's purity of hue; its intensity. A pure hue has the highest saturation.

school - A group of artists whose style demonstrates a common origin or influence. A common origin is likely to be geographic (for example, Dutch school, or Viennese school, or New York school), but refers to the stylistic tendencies of artists in that area. A common influence may be a period, a movement (for example, Impressionist school), an attitude (for example, naturalist school), or a particular artist (for example, school of Rembrandt). When applied to a particular painter, this may either mean that the work in question was painted in that artist's studio by one of his pupils or assistants (apparently with a certain amount of the master's guidance), or that it is an imitation or copy of his or her work.

Sculpture - A three-dimensional work of art, or the art of making it. Such works may be carved, modeled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, and relief, and made in a huge variety of media.

secular humanism - Also called secularism, this philosophy advocates human rather than religious values. A powerful intellectual force behind the Renaissance (as well as since), especially stimulating studies of the sciences, when for centuries scholarship had been focused almost exclusively upon issues of faith.

sensuality - Excessive devotion to delights of the senses — physical, especially sexual gratification rather than spiritual or intellectual pleasures; voluptuousness; worldliness.

sepia - Dark reddish brown. Usually refers to pigments of inks used in drawing, printmaking, and photography. Because so many monochromatic photographs were produced in sepia tones during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contemporary pictures made in this color scheme often take on allegorical meanings, associating such imagery with earlier times.

serigraphy - A stencil method of printmaking in which an image is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Also called silkscreen process and screen-printing. A serigraph is a print made by this method.

shading - Showing change from light to dark or dark to light in a picture by darkening areas that would be shadowed and leaving other areas light.

shadow box - A frame that is deep enough to accommodate a three-dimensional object, deeper than frames needed for two-dimensional works, or for three-dimensional ones that are very shallow.

Si to Sz

Signature, signed and unsigned - A signature is a person's name as written by that person, as distinguished from how anyone else would sign either that person's name or their own name. A signature on an artwork usually establishes the identity of its maker. Just as the names of people take various formal and informal styles, artists have been known to sign their works in a great variety of way monogram perhaps), or an impression from a stamp (as in the chop marks of Chinese and Japanese painters, and many ceramic and metal workers), or a symbol (as in James A. M. Whistler's butterfly). Expanding or accompanying a signature might be the title of the work, an inscription (a dedication or explanation perhaps), a date, initials signifying membership in an artist's organization ("RA" for Royal Academy or "AWS" for American Watercolor Society for instance), or the receipt of an honor.

Printmakers have been known to sign within a print's block or plate, or on its support outside of the image.

Typically artists sign works only when they've been finished. Signing a work is frequently the gesture marking a work's completion — the moment, as Picasso put it, that it is ready to be "abandoned."

Silkscreen or silk-screen - A stencil process of printmaking in which an image is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Also called serigraphy and screen-printing. Andy Warhol and Robert Raushenberg used silkscreens as a means of applying paint to canvases.

sketch - A quick drawing that loosely captures the appearance or action of a place or situation. Sketches are often done in preparation for larger, more detailed works of art.

state - The point at which a graphic artist makes a number of prints from his block, plate, stone or screen. If he alters his print design at all, this first series of impressions is called the first state. A second series, made after the design changes, is a second state. This can go on indefinitely until a final state is produced.

stipple and stipple brush - Stipple is a drawing, painting, or engraving method employing dots rather than lines. Stippled works can be produced with any of a variety of tools, including pencils, crayons, pens, and brushes.

stucco - The finest and whitest type of plaster used for modeling and molding. Stucco is made of a mixture of lime (often from marble), white-marble dust, and other ingredients, which might include wax, milk and other organic substances. A versatile medium in sculpture and in architectural decoration. Stucco can be either the material cast in a mold or the material of a mold, a material to be modeled in relief, or attached to something else.

Ta to Zz

tactile - Of or relating to the sense of touch.

Tapestry - A textile in which a colorful design or scene is formed by weft threads handwoven into the warp. Tapestries have usually been exhibited as wall hangings. The warp, which is usually linen or wool, is entirely covered by the weft, which is usually wool, silk, or metallic strands. Areas of individual colors are woven as separate blocks, and the gaps between blocks are later sewn together. Tapestries are either woven with the warp stretched on a vertical loom, called high-warp tapestry weaving, or horizontally on a low-warp loom.

Tempera and temper - A paint and process involving an emulsion of oil and water. It was in use before the invention of oil paints. Traditionally it involves an egg emulsion; thus the term egg tempera. The pigments or colors are mixed with an emulsion of egg yolks (removed from their sacs) or of size, rather than oil, and can be thinned and solved with water. Also known as egg tempera and temper. A varnish for tempera paints, called glair may be prepared by mixing egg whites with a little water, then beating them, and applying once the bubbles are gone.

Because some of its ingredients are organic, tempera may spoil, and get very smelly. Claims have been made that when any one of the following substances are added, it reverses the growth of bacteria in tempera: benzoate of soda, bath salts, table salt, soap or cleanser such as 409, alcohol or bleach (one capful per gallon of tempera).

temperature - The intensity of heat as measured in degrees Fahrenheit or degrees Centigrade, also known as Celsius. (Chart for temperature conversions between Fahrenheit and Centigrade)

The regulation of the temperature of environments where artworks are made, exhibited, and stored is important in their conservation. Temperature is significant because it affects relative humidity. When moist air is heated, the relative humidity decreases; when it is cooled, the relative humidity increases. Temperature is also important because deterioration progresses much more quickly at higher temperatures than at lower ones. Exposure to heat can drastically accelerate the aging of organic materials and of many modern synthetics.

tintype - A photographic process in which the negative image is produced on a thin coated plate of iron, which is why they are also known as ferrotypes. There is actually no tin involved. Tintypes first appeared in 1854.

underpainting - The layer or layers of color on a painting surface applied before the overpainting, or final coat. There are many types of underpainting. One type is an all-over tinting of a white ground. Another is a blocked out image in diluted oil paints that serves as a guide for the painter while developing the composition and color effects.

vanishing point - In linear perspective, a position on a horizon where lines or rays between near and distant places appear to converge (come together). In order to produce an illusion of depth in a two-dimensional representation of space, artists sometimes use one, two, or more vanishing points. Employing this method might seem to contradict a strictly mathematical understanding of space: parallel lines — as might form the edges of a straight path — meet at the vanishing point in a picture of a distant place, even though such lines could not meet in the actual distance. Although an artist marks vanishing points in pictures to determine the directions of receding lines, s/he is apt to remove them before completing a picture, because vanishing points are merely points of reference. Where would a vanishing point be placed in a drawing of this railroad scene?

When you see something getting farther and farther away from you, it appears to be smaller and smaller. If it continues to recede, it eventually disappears — vanishing. That sensation lies at the core of this term.

variety - A principle of design that refers to a way of combining elements of art in involved ways to achieve intricate and complex relationships. Variety is often obtained through the use of diversity and change by artists who wish to increase the visual interest of their work.

vehicle - In the visual arts, that which carries a paint's pigments, and is also called a medium or a base. The vehicle is what determines what kind of paint is produced. A painter can mix a vehicle with its solvents, pigments and other substances in order to make paint (or dye or ink) and control its consistency.

vellum - Fine parchment, originally calf-skin, used traditionally for manuscripts.

verso - The second or back side of any work on paper. May also be the left-hand page of a book. The opposite of recto. The front and rear sides of other two-sided objects, such as coins, medals, or panels which have a painting on each side are more often referred to as obverse and reverse.

viewer - A person who gazes; an onlooker or spectator. Sometimes used as a synonym for audience.

Woodcut - A print made by cutting a design in side-grain of a block of wood, also called a woodblock print. The ink is transferred from the raised surfaces to paper.

Wood engraving - A print similar to a woodcut (woodblock print) in that it is made by cutting (engraving) a design into a block of wood, usually boxwood. However unlike a woodcut, the artist cuts the design on the end-grain of hardwood rather than the side grain of soft wood. The print's design can therefore be more intricate than the typical woodcut.

xerography - A dry photographic or photocopying process in which a negative image formed by a resinous powder on an electrically charged plate is electrically transferred to and thermally fixed as positive on a paper or other copying surface. Xerox is a trademark.

yellowing - In painting, a tendency on the part of binding media to turn a tint towards yellow. This is most likely to occur when linseed oil is included

zoomorphic - In the shape of or having the attributes of an animal.