Apprentice: a student of art or artist in training. In a system of artistic training established under the guilds and still in use today, master artists took on an apprentice, who lived with the master's family, was taught every aspect of the artist's craft, and participated in the workings of the master's workshop.

Assimilate: to make or become similar.

Attribution: to ascribe, or credit, a work of art to a particular artist; the symbolic object or objects that identify a particular deity or saint in art.

Baroque: derived from the Portuguese word barroco, literally "large, irregularly shaped pearl, it was used to suggest something that was heavily ornate, complex, strange, or even in bad taste. It was used applied to the world of art of Europe from the late 1500s to the late 1700s.

Cartoon: a full-scale drawing used to transfer the outline of a design onto a surface to be painted.

Classicism: any aspect of later art or architecture reminiscent of the rules and examples of the art of ancient Greece and Rome; in general, any art aspiring to the qualities of restraint, balance, and rational order exemplified by the ancients.

Focal point: the main subject or object in a work of art.

Formal elements: refers to purely visual components--line, color, shape, texture, mass, spatial qualities, and composition.

Greco-Roman: anything pertaining to the Greek or Roman periods of history.

High relief: a sculpted image or design whose flat background surface is carved away to a certain depth, setting off the figure; it is called high or low relief depending upon the extent of projection of the image from the background.

Humanism: a philosophy pertaining to the period when it was thought that people were worthy and capable of determining their own destinies. Interest in the natural world was manifested in observation of nature, with detailed and minutely accurate rendering. Humanists also studied ancient texts and used them as models for their own works as they sought to understand the natural world in a rational and scientific way.

Idealism: a style in which artists aim to represent things not as they are but as they ought to be.

Model(ing): the process in painting of creating the illusion of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surfact by use of light and shade.

Naturalism: a style of depiction in which the physical appearance of the rendered image in nature is the primary inspiration. A naturalistic work appears to resemble visible nature.

Pentimente: a drawing or painting in which the artist changes the shape, position, or composition while working on the surface (canvas, panel, or wall). X-rays may show the original pose of a subject or the redrawing of a portion of the subject.

Portraiture: a painting or sculpture in which the focal point is a specific person or persons. During the Renaissance period, portraits were often made of a woman who was a prospect for marriage.

"universal man": a term coined by Vasari, it was used to describe the learned, inquisitive man who had many interests and was proficient in many areas.

Value: the relative relationships in a painting between darks and lights, as well as differing colors (hues).

Vasari, Giorgio: writer of "Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors"; reported on artists' physical appearnaces and personal reputations. During this time, artists were valued highly and rewarded well, with some being elevated to noble rank. Vasari was one of the most respected writers of his time, and influenced ruling families and papal reigns.

Workshop: the studio or atelier of a master artist or craftsperson, usually consisting of junior associates and apprentices.

These definitions are taken from the book, "Art History, volume 2" by Marilyn Stokstad, and notes taken in FAH 282, Survey of Renaissance-Rococo Art, Fall 1998.

© Annette Milligan 1998.

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