Art Appreciation 1309 - Chapter 1 Vocab
High Relief
a carved panel where the figures project with a great deal of depth from the background
Style
a characteristic way in which an artist or group of artists uses visual language to give a work an identifiable form of visual expression
Shade
a color darker in value than its purest state
Actual Line
a continuous, uninterrupted line
Temperature
a description of color based on the associations with warmth and coolness
Contrast
a drastic difference between such elements as color or value (lightness/darkness)
Plane
a flat surface
In the Round
a freestanding sculpted work that can be viewed from all sides
Fauves
a group of early twentieth-century French artists whose paintings used vivid colors. From the French fauve, wild beast
Impressionism
a late nineteenth-century painting style conveying the impression of the effects of light
Implied Line
a line not actually drawn but suggested by elements in the work
Line
a mark, or implied mark, between two endpoint
Renaissance
a period of cultural and artistic change in Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century
One-pointperspective
a perspective system with a single vanishing point on the horizon
Three-point perspective
a perspective system with two vanishing points on the horizon and one not on the horizon
Foreshortening
a perspective technique that depicts a form at a very oblique (often dramatic) angle to the viewer in order to show depth in space
Woodcut
a print created from an incised piece of wood
Etching
a printmaking process that relies on acid to bite (or etch) the engraved design into the printing surface
Relief
a raised form on a largely flat background. For example, the design on a coin is "in relief "
Bas-relief
a sculpture carved with very little depth
Positive shape
a shape defined by its surrounding empty space
Fresco
a technique where the artist paints onto freshly applied plaster. From the Italian fresco, fresh
Cubism
a twentieth-century art movement that favored a new perspective emphasizing geometric forms
Mass
a volume that has, or gives the illusion of having, weight, density, and bulk
Conceptual art
a work in which the ideas are often as important as how it is made
Collage
a work of art assembled by gluing materials, often paper, onto a surface. From the French coller, to glue
Highlight
an area of lightest value in a work
Pattern
an arrangement of predictably repeated elements
Surrealist
an artist belonging to the Surrealist movement in the 1920s and later, whose art was inspired by dreams and the subconscious
Negative shape
an empty space given shape by its surround, for example the right-pointing arrow between the E and x in FedEx
Axis
an imaginary line showing the center of a shape, volume, or composition
Form
an object that can be defined in three dimensions (height, width, and depth)
Facade
any side of a building, usually the front or entrance
Abstract
art imagery that departs from recognizable images from the natural world
Neutrals
colors (such as blacks, whites, grays, and dull gray- browns) made by mixing complementary hues
Analogous Colors
colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel
Complementary Colors
colors opposite one another on the color wheel
Two-dimensional
having height and width
Monochromatic
having one or more values of one color
Concentric
identical shapes stacked inside each other sharing the same center, for example the circles of a target
Orthogonals
in perspective systems, imaginary sightlines extending from forms to the vanishing point
Automatic
suppressing conscious control to access subconscious sources of creativity and truth
Elements
the basic vocabulary of art—line, form, shape, volume, mass, color, texture, space, time and motion, and value (lightness/darkness)
Focal Point
the center of interest or activity in a work of art, often drawing the viewer's attention to the most important element
Perspective
the creation of the illusion of depth in a two- dimensional image by using mathematical principles
Space
the distance between identifiable points or planes
Motion
the effect of changing placement in time
Value
the lightness or darkness of a plane or area
Medium (plural media)
the material on or from which an artist chooses to make a work of art, for example canvas and oil paint, marble, engraving, video, or architecture
Color
the optical effect caused when reflected white light of the spectrum is divided into a separate wavelength
Outline
the outermost line of an object or figure, by which it is defined or bounde
Composition
the overall design or organization of a work
Foreground
the part of a work depicted as nearest to the viewer
Background
the part of a work depicted furthest from the viewer's space, often behind the main subject matter
Vanishing Point
the point in a work of art at which imaginary sight lines appear to converge, suggesting depth
Emphasis
the principle of drawing attention to particular content in a work
Palette
the range of colors used by an artist
Rhythm
the regular or ordered repetition of elements in the work
Intensity
the relative clarity of color in its purest raw form, demonstrated through luminous or muted variations
Figure-groundreversal
the reversal of the relationship between one shape (the figure) and its background (the ground), so that the figure becomes background and the ground becomes the figure
Scale
the size of an object or artwork relative to another object or artwork, or to a system of measurement
Volume
the space filled or enclosed by a three-dimensional figure or object
Texture
the surface quality of a work, for example fine/coarse, detailed/lacking in detail
Shape
the two-dimensional area the boundaries of which are defined by lines or suggested by changes in color or value
Hatching
the use of non- overlapping parallel lines to convey darkness or lightness
Cross-hatching
the use of overlapping parallel lines to convey darkness or lightness
Pinciples
the"grammar" applied to the elements of art— contrast, balance, unity, variety, rhythm, emphasis, pattern, scale, proportion, and focal point
Stela (plural stele
upright stone slab decorated with inscriptions or pictorial relief carvings
