Art Glossary
A comprehensive glossary of art terms, techniques, movements, and materials. From chiaroscuro to creative coding, find clear definitions for every art concept.
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Binder: The Substance That Holds Pigment Together and Makes Paint Stick
A binder is the substance that holds pigment particles together and adheres them to a surface. From animal glue to linseed oil to acrylic, learn binder history and types.
Bone Black (Ivory Black): The Charred-Bone Pigment That Painted the Shadows
Bone black, or ivory black, is a carbon pigment made from charred animal bones. Used since antiquity, it remains one of the oldest and most enduring black pigments in art.
Bronze: The Copper-Tin Alloy That Defined Sculpture for 5,000 Years
Bronze is a copper-tin alloy used for casting sculpture since 3000 BCE. From the Riace Warriors to Rodin, bronze has been the premier metal for figurative sculpture.
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Fixative: The Spray That Keeps Drawings From Smudging
Fixative is a spray applied over charcoal, pastel, and pencil drawings to prevent smudging. From Loriot's 18th-century secret to modern acrylic sprays, learn its history.
Fugitive Color: The Pigments That Fade and Disappear Over Time
Fugitive color is pigment that fades over time when exposed to light. From Van Gogh's geranium lake to cochineal reds, learn why some pigments vanish and how conservators fight back.
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Lightfastness: Why Some Pigments Survive Centuries and Others Vanish in Months
Lightfastness measures how well a pigment resists fading under light. Learn how the Blue Wool scale, ASTM ratings, and microfade testing protect art from irreversible color loss.
Linseed Oil: The Binder That Made Oil Painting Possible
Linseed oil is the drying oil that binds pigment in oil paint. From Van Eyck to Rembrandt to modern conservation science, learn how it works and why it matters.
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Marble: The Metamorphic Stone That Defined Western Sculpture
Marble is a metamorphic limestone used for sculpture since ancient Greece. Its translucency and workability made it the preferred material for carving from the Parthenon to Michelangelo's David.
Medium (Painting): The Substance That Changes How Paint Behaves
A painting medium is any substance added to paint to change its properties. From stand oil and dammar to modern alkyd gels, learn how mediums shape oil painting.
Mummy Brown: The Pigment Made from Ground Egyptian Mummies
Mummy brown was a brown pigment made from ground Egyptian mummies, used by European painters from the 16th to the 19th century. Discontinued in 1964 when the supply of mummies ran out.
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Paint Tube: The Tin Container That Changed Painting Forever
The collapsible paint tube, patented in 1841, made plein air painting practical. From Rand to Renoir to Monet, learn how a tin tube reshaped art history.
Pigment: The Colored Substance That Makes Paint Paint
Pigment is the colored substance used in paint, from prehistoric ochre to synthetic cadmiums. Learn its history, chemistry, types, and why some pigments last centuries.
Plaster: The Casting and Modeling Material That Shaped Sculpture History
Plaster is calcium sulfate used for casting sculpture and making molds since ancient Egypt. From death masks to Renaissance reliefs to Rodin's models, plaster is sculpture's most versatile intermediate.
Plein Air Easel (French Easel): The Portable Studio That Took Painting Outdoors
The plein air easel, or French easel, is a portable box easel with built-in storage that made outdoor painting practical. From the Barbizon School to today, learn its history.
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Sap Green: The Buckthorn Berry Pigment That Faded from the Palette
Sap green is a yellow-green pigment made from buckthorn berries, used in medieval manuscripts and 18th-century watercolors. Its poor lightfastness led to its replacement by modern pigment mixtures.
Sizing: The Sealant Layer That Protects Canvas and Paper From Oil
Sizing is the sealant applied to canvas or paper before gesso or ground to prevent oil penetration. Learn the history of rabbit skin glue sizing and why PVA size replaced it.
Solvent: The Liquid That Thins and Cleans Paint
Solvents thin paint, dissolve resins, and clean brushes. From turpentine to mineral spirits to citrus solvents, learn the history and science of painting solvents.
Support: The Physical Surface Every Painting Is Made On
The support is the physical surface a painting is made on, from wood panels to canvas to copper. Learn its history, types, and why it matters for conservation.
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Terracotta: Fired Clay Sculpture from Ancient Greece to Canova
Terracotta is fired unglazed clay, used for sculpture from the Nok culture to Renaissance Italy. Its versatility and affordability made it the most widely used sculptural medium in history.
Tooth: The Surface Roughness That Grabs Pigment and Holds It
Tooth is the surface roughness of paper, canvas, or panel that grips pigment. Learn why pastelists, watercolorists, and oil painters depend on tooth for adhesion and layering.
Turpentine: The Painter's Solvent From Pine Resin to Modern Alternatives
Turpentine is the traditional solvent distilled from pine resin, used to thin oil paint and clean brushes. From Old Masters to modern safer alternatives, learn its history.
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Varnish: The Protective Coating That Defines a Painting's Surface
Varnish is the transparent coating applied over finished paintings to protect and saturate the surface. From mastic to dammar to synthetic resins, learn its history.
Vehicle: The Liquid That Carries Pigment and Makes Paint Possible
The vehicle is the liquid that carries pigment in paint, combining binder and solvent. From linseed oil to gum arabic to acrylic polymer, learn how vehicles define paint types.
Why an Art Glossary?
Art has always had a language problem. Walk into any gallery and you will hear terms like chiaroscuro, impasto, sfumato, and pentimento thrown around as if everyone knows what they mean. Most people do not. They nod along, afraid to ask, and miss half of what the painting is actually doing.
This glossary exists to fix that. Every entry is written in plain English with real examples: specific paintings, specific artists, specific dates. When we explain plein air, we point you to Monet working beside the Seine in 1873, not a generic definition copied from a dictionary. When we cover creative coding, we start with Casey Reas and Ben Fry at MIT in 2001, not a vague paragraph about "art and technology."
The terms here span centuries and disciplines. You will find Renaissance techniques sitting next to digital art movements, printmaking terminology next to motion graphics concepts. That mix is intentional. Art does not stay in neat historical boxes, and neither does the vocabulary we use to talk about it. A painter working today might need to understand glazing just as much as a 3D animator needs to know what kinetic typography means.
Each definition is a starting point, not a finish line. We write them to be specific enough that you can recognize the technique the next time you see it, but short enough that you can read one in under five minutes. If a term leads you to a painting you had not considered before, or sends you down a rabbit hole about a movement you had never heard of, the glossary is doing its job.
New terms are added regularly. If there is a concept you keep running into but cannot find here, that is a gap we want to fill. The best art terminology does not stay still. It grows as artists invent new ways of working, and the language has to keep up.