Art 102 Final Exam Vocabulary

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contour

Back 1

The outline of an object or shape, especially when it suggests volume or mass

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Girolamo Savanarola

Back 2

Reformist priest-dictator who denounced the humanisctic secularism of the Medici and their artists, philosophers, and poets. Savanorola exhorted the people of Florence to repent their sins. Savanorola encouraged citizens to burn their classical texts, scientific treatises, and philosophical publications.

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Pope Julius II

Back 3

He understood well the propagandistic value of visual imagery and upon his election immediately commissioned artworks that would present an authoritative image of his rule and reinforce the primacy of the Catholic Church

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chiaroscuro

Back 4

The gradations of light and dark within a picture, especially one in which the forms are largely determined, not by sharp outlines, but by the meeting of lighter and darker areas.

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sfumato

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vanished, gone up in smoke. The very subtle gradations of light and dark developed by Leonardo to model his figures. Leonardo's sfumato lends a sensuous softness and ambiguity to his forms, as in the famous smile of the Mona Lisa

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aerial perspective

Back 6

The representation of spatial effects which are caused by interposition of the atmosphere between the viewer and distant objects; these effects include the blurring of outlines, loss of detail, alteration of hue toward blue, and diminution of color saturation and value contrast

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scale

Back 7

A measuring strip on a plan, elevation, etc., indicating the precise degree to which all parts have been reduced in size so that their true dimensions ca be quickly determined.

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façade

Back 8

The front or principal face of a building, but, sometimes any one of its sides.

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niche

Back 9

A hollow in a wall, often arched, intended to contain a statue, bust,vase, etc, or introduce solely to add depth and shadow to a surface

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modeling

Back 10

The creation of three-dimensional forms by working some soft material as clay. Modeling is often an additive process, it differs from the entirely subtractive process of carving in that material may be added as well as taken away.

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trompe l'oeil

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"deceiving the eye," The endeavor of artists to represent visual phenomena as completely possible within the limitations of their particular medium and the conventions of the time

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foreshortening

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A method of representing objects or parts of objects as if they were seen at an angle and receding into space instead of being seen in a strictly frontal or profile view.

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cire perdue

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A method of reproducing a work of sculpture by pouring a hardening liquid into a mold bearing its impression.Bronze has traditionally been used for this purpose, and for almost five thousand years it has been cast by the cire perdue process. Because of the great weight and expense of bronze, solid casting is used for only small figures; larger figures are hollow cast. In making a solid casting by the lost-wax process, the figure is first modeled in wax, allowance being made for the fact that the finished work will be in metal instead of translucent wax.

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monumental

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An adjective frequently used in art criticism to describe any structure, painting, figure, etc., which is grand, massive, and apparently permanent like a monument, regardless of its actual size. The term is also used to describe any work that is merely large, even though it may be small in intrinsic scale.