 |
| Definitions
and Explanations |
|
|
|
|
Abstraction-Création
1931-36 |
An International artist group
founded in Paris by the French artist
Auguste Herbin and the Belgian artist Georges Vantongerloo - the
leaders of the group, and Jean
Arp, Georges Valmier, Albert Gleizes, Jean Hélion and
Frantisek Kupka. The group consisted of
abstract painters and sculptors.
|
| A.D. |
Anno Domini/Anno
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, latin: In the year of the
Lord/in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ.
|
| aeropittura |
Futurist School
depicting air paintings or airplane paintings e.g. an airplane
high above an Italian landscape.
|
| Agnus
Dei |
latin: Lamb of God, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God - a lamb crowned with a halo (symbol of divinity)
bearing the Christian cross or Latin cross (the main symbol of
Christianity).
|
| al
fresco |
al fresco technique. The art of
painting on fresh, moist plaster with pigments dissolved in water (the
opposite technique is called "al secco").
|
| allegory |
a visible symbol representing an
abstract idea, e.g. Botticelli's "La
Primavera" or "Allegory of Spring", 1477-78, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
|
| al
secco |
al secco technique. The art of
painting on dry plaster with the pigments in a binding medium,
e.g. egg (the opposite technique is called " al fresco").
|
| animatronics |
or Audio-Animatronics are lifelike
mechanical puppets or figures e.g. Spinosaurus from "Jurassic Park
III".
|
Annunciation,
the
(of the Virgin Mary) |
The (arch-)angel Gabriel's announcement
to the Virgin Mary of the Incarnation.
|
| Antichrist |
a false Christ, an adversary to
Christ, being in opposition to all that is pertaining to Christ,
this will be manifested during the tribulation period.
|
| Art
Brut
|
invented by Jean
Dubuffet, used about art made by e.g. prisoners and psychiatric
patients or non-professional artists.
|
| assemblage
|
Three-dimensional collages
constructed from combined materials.
|
| automatism
|
creating a work of art without the
use of thought or the conscious mind, used by the Surrealists,
e.g. Miro.
|
|
|
| b |
| Babel,
the Tower of |
a tower built into heaven, the story
of Babel comes from Genesis 11.1-9, "The whole earth was of
one language, and of one speech ... Come, let us build us a city
and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven ... And the Lord came
down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built
... Come, let Us go down, and there confound their language, that
they may not understand one another's speech." So the Lord
scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth,
and they left off building the city" ("Babel" that
is "Confusion"). Bruegel,
"The Tower of Babel",
1563
|
| baldachin |
a canopy of e.g. silk over a crypt,
an altar, or throne. These are often seen in portable forms for
the purpose of processions. Examples of baldachins: H. C. Andersen's "The
Emperor's New Clothes": "And so the Emperor
set off under the high canopy, at the head of the great
procession", the "Sede
Vacante"-stamps issued in
the occasion of the dead of His Holiness Pope John Paul II
and Bernini's
Baldachin in St. Peter's Basilica,
Rome.
|
| Bauhaus |
in Germany, 1919-33,
school of art and architecture founded in 1919 in
Weimar by Walhter Gropius, in 1925 the school moved to Dessau and
later to Berlin, where it was closed by the Nazis, and in 1937 the
school was re-created as New Bauhaus in Chicago.
|
| B.C.
and BCE |
B.C. = before Christ. BCE
= before common era.
|
| Biennale |
art exhibition every two years. The
most important Biennale takes place in
Venice - other Biennales are e.g. the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Krakow
Biennale and the Sydney Biennale.
|
Blaue
Reiter, der
1911-14 |
the Blue Rider,
German Expressionist group established in Munich in 1911. The
members of the group were Gabriele Münter, Wassily
Kandinsky, Franz
Marc, August
Macke, Paul
Klee and Alexey
Georgievich Jawlensky. The
movement took its name from a painting by Kandinsky, "Le
cavalier bleu", 1903. The paintings had tendencies towards
abstraction.
|
Brücke,
die
1905-13 |
the Bridge, a German Expressionist
group established
in Dresden in 1905 and followed by the group Dresdner Sezession. The
members of die Brücke were Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner, Erich
Heckel, Karl
Schmidt-Rottluff, Otto Mueller, Oskar
Kokoschka, Emil Nolde, Max
Beckmann,
Fritz Bleyl and Max Pechstein.
Die Brücke wanted to show the connection (the bridge) between
different art styles. The artist felt that their work was related
to the work of Edvard
Munch. The name "Die Brücke" was
suggested by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and derived from a quotation in
"Also sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), a
book by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883-85.
|
|
|
| c |
| campanile |
latin "campana,"
bell, a free-standing bell tower, e.g. St
Mark's Square,
Venice.
|
| Cecrops |
The Greek myth of Cecrops, The first
king of Attica who was half man half snake, he was believed to
have been born out of the earth. He had three daughters Aglauros,
Pandrosos and Herse. Cecrops was considered to be the founder of
Greek civilization and the city of Athens.
Erichtonius, mythical king of Athens, born out of the earth and
had a snake's tail. He was the son of The Earth Mother Gaia, and
was given to Athena, who hid him in a basket, and she took the
basket to the daughters of Cecrops, warning them not to open it,
which they still did, and they saw a child intertwined with a
snake. Athena then took Erichthonius to her temple, the snake
became holy to her. "Daughters
of Cecrops Finding the Infant Erichthonius", 1616, painting
by Rubens.
|
| Charlottenborg |
a
palace on Kongens Nytorv in
Copenhagen built 1672-83. Charlottenborg houses The Danish Royal
Academy of Fine Arts and the Exhibition Building.
|
| chiaroscuro |
"light-dark",
painting technique used by e.g. the Italian baroque painter Caravaggio.
|
| COBRA 1948-51 |
an art movement established in 1948,
named after the home cities of the members Copenhagen,
Bruxelles
and Amsterdam.
The art movement began in Denmark. The Danish founders were Asger
Jorn, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Egill
Jacobsen, Henry Heerup, Ejler Bille, Mogens Balle and Erik
Thommesen. The artistic expression was spontaneous
and imaginative and influenced of folk art, ancient Nordic art,
Danish murals and African masks.
In
Belgium the founders were Pierre Alechinsky, Christian Dotremont
and Joseph Noiret and in the Netherlands Constant, Karel Appel and
Corneille.
|
| contrapposto |
a sculptural
technique in which the artists illustrates the natural
counterbalance of the body through the bending of the hips and
legs.
|
|
|
| d |
| Darmstadt
Artists' Colony at Matildenhöhe in Darmstadt, Germany |
Künstlerkolonie Mathildenhöhe,
founded
in 1899 by Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, who patronised
German artists,
architects and sculptors. Exhibitions
of furniture, art and applied arts were held and had a significant
impact on the promotion of Art Nouveau in Germany and abroad.
Until the outbreak of World War I, Darmstadt was the center for
the Jugendstyle or Art Nouveau and ushered in the beginning of
modern art. Darmstadt is famous for its Jugendstyle
buildings, several buildings survived the massive destruction of
Darmstadt in September 1944.
|
| decoupage |
art produced by decorating a surface
with cutouts from magazines or the like, and then
coating it with several layers of varnish or lacquer.
Matisse made decoupages, and the Danish Queen Margrethe has
executed 25 decoupages for H. C. Andersen's fairytale "The
Snow Queen".
|
| del. |
latin delineavit,
drawn by.
|
| De
Stijl |
De
Stijl, aka Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement, founded in
Leiden in 1917 by Theo
van Doesburg and Piet
Mondrian. Van Doesburg edited the periodical entitled
De Stijl (The Style).
|
|
|
| e |
| Ecce
Homo |
Saint
John's Gospel 19:1-7: Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged
him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his
head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him,
saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck him with
their hands. Pilate went out again, and said to them, "See, I
am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime
in him." So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and
the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the
man!" [Ecce Homo] "When the chief priests and the
officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify
him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and
crucify him, for I find no crime in him. "The Jews answered
him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because
he has made himself the Son of God. "Rubens,"Ecce
Homo".
|
| Entartete
Kunst |
or Degenerate Art was
the Nazi's name for work of art, which did not fit into their art
appreciation (or the lack of same).
|
| Environmental
Art |
school of art,
particularly known from the 1960s, the work of art was spatial
built up to involve the spectators.
Environments could be in the nature of assemblage including
figures made by the artist or objects of everyday Life
|
| Evangelist
symbols |
Lion (Mark), ox
(Luke), eagle (John), angel/man
(Matthew)
|
|
|
| f
g
h |
| Funkis
|
the
Scandinavian name for Functionalism.
|
| gargoyle |
a waterspout
intended to carry rainwater away from the roof. The gargoyle was a protection against evil,
its grotesque form frightened away evil spirits. Gargoyles were
very common in Gothic architecture e.g Notre Dame Cathedral,
Paris.
The
Mintmasters Mansion, The Old Town, Aarhus.
|
| genre
paintings |
showing scenes from everyday life
often containing anecdotes and critical aspects of social
life.
|
| Gesamtkunstwerk |
total work of art, the synthesis of
all branch of art, architecture, painting, sculpture etc. Versailles,
the palace of the Sun King Louis 14, is an example of a
Gesamtkunstwerk.
|
| golden
ratio, the |
or
golden mean, golden section,
golden number, divine proportion
- a line which has been divided into two segments
the larger of which has a ratio to the smaller of
approximately 1,618:1. Shapes defined by the golden ratio
have been considered aesthetically pleasing in western cultures,
reflecting nature's balance between symmetry and asymmetry. The
golden ratio has been used over the centuries (and is still used
frequently in art and design) by architects, musicians,
mathematicians and artists (e.g. Botticelli "The Birth of Venus", 1485).
|
| Habemus
Papam |
we have a Pope.
|
|
|
| i |
| IHS |
according to a medieval tradition
IHS means Jesus Hominum Salvator, our Saviour. A monogram of the
name of Jesus Christ.
|
| icon |
a religious painting on wood. In
particular referring to Russian
icons or Greek icons.
|
iconography/
iconology |
the study and interpretation of
figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious
or secular. Erwin Panofsky "Studies in Iconology, Humanistic
Themes in the Art of the Renaissance" originally
published in 1939 by Oxford University Press.
|
| Icarus |
the Greek myth about Icarus, who tried to
fly from Crete wearing a pair of wax wings, created by his father
Daedalus. Icarus flew too close to the sun, and the wax wings
melted and he fell into the Aegean Sea and drowned. In 1947 "Jazz"
was published - written and illustrated by
Matisse,
most known is probably "Icarus".
|
|
|
| j
k |
Jeune Peinture Belge
1945-48 |
Belgian group of avant-garde artists, the group got great influence
on Belgian art. Jan
Cox was one of the founders
of "La Jeune Peinture Belge".
|
| kinetic
art |
has its roots in the Russian
avant-garde and stands for art working with motion, real or apparent,
e.g. Alexander
Calder's mobiles.
|
|
|
| l |
| Lacerba |
Florentine Futurist
periodical, 1913-14.
|
| l'art
pour l'art |
latin, Ars Gratia Artis, art for arts sake, invented by the
French poet Théophile Gautier, a slogan used about non-religious,
non-moral, non-political or non-literary art.
|
Les
Vingt/Les XX
1883-93 |
The Twenty. A Belgian artist group
founded in 1883. James Ensor was one of the founding members. Avant-garde artists exhibited together with Les
Vingt,
e.g. the Impressionists, Pointillists and Symbolists.
|
|
|
| m |
| Madonna |
Vigrin Mary, the mother of Jesus.
|
| mandorla |
An almond shaped halo surrounding
Christ and Virgin Mary.
|
|
|
| n |
| Nazi
art |
the art in Hitlers Germany, the Third Reich,
1933-45. Naturalistic paintings showing the Nazi's glorification
of the German people - e.g. plump women with red cheeks and muscular
men, the warrior and of course Der Führer himself. Also
landscapes were idealized visions the Third
Reich. Scenes
from Greek and Roman mythology were often used.
|
| Nike |
the goddess of victory, Greek
Mythology.
|
| nonfigurative
art |
objectless art.
|
| Notre
Dame |
Our Lady, about a church dedicated
to Virgin Mary.
|
|
|
| o
p
q
r |
| obelisk |
a tall, thin, four-sided, tapering
which ends in a pyramidal top.
The obelisk
in Place de la Concorde in Paris.
|
| Pinx
|
latin pinxit, he/she
painted it.
|
| Purism |
created by the architect Le
Corbusier and the painter Amedée
Ozenfant to liberate Cubism from decorative elements, they wrote
the manifesto "Après le Cubisme".
|
| quattrocento |
mille quattrocento, the 15th
century.
|
| ready-mades |
or
Objet
Trouvé, mass-produced objects exhibited as work of art - a label given by
the Dadaist painter Marcel Duchamp to a series of works he created
in the early 20th century - the Dadaists provoked debates about
the purpose of art.
|
|
|
| s |
| Salon d’Automne |
in Paris, Autumn
exhibition.
|
| Salon des Indépendants |
in Paris, the Independent's Exhibition.
|
| Salon des
Refugees |
in Paris, exhibition
of work of art refused by the official Salon.
|
| sc.
|
latin sculpsit, he/she
engraved it.
|
| Sede
Vacante |
latin while
the See is vacant/empty seat,
the interregnum between a Pope's death or the election of his
successor.
|
| synthetism |
simplified
Symbolism, flat areas of colours and strong contours.
|
|
|
| t
u
v
w
x
y
z |
| tabernacle |
a canopy-like
superstructure over a pulpit, a font, an image of a saint or an
altar, e.g. St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Bernini's
Baldachin (Bernini's Tabernacle)
|
| Venus |
The Roman Venus
or the
Venus of Cyprus,
Roman Goddess of love and beauty.
|
| XP |
A monogram of the name of Jesus
Christ.
|
| Zeus |
the ruler of the Olympian
gods, Greek
Mythology.
|
|
|
