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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Chiaroscuro: Light-Dark Contrast for Volume and Drama
Chiaroscuro is the use of strong light-dark contrast to model form and create drama. From Leonardo to Caravaggio to Rembrandt, learn how it shaped Western painting.
Cross Hatching: Overlapping Line Sets for Darker Values and Deeper Form
Cross hatching is the drawing technique of overlapping sets of parallel lines to build darker values. From Durer to Rembrandt, learn how it creates tone and form.
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Dry Brush: Minimal Paint on Brush for Broken Texture
Dry brush is a painting technique using minimal paint on a dry brush to create broken, textured strokes. From Durer to Wyeth, learn how it works.
Drypoint: The Scratched Plate and the Velvety Line
Drypoint is an intaglio print made by scratching a metal plate with a needle. The burr creates a rich, velvety line that wears out fast. Learn how Rembrandt used it.
Dutch Golden Age: Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Art of Everyday Life (1580-1670)
The Dutch Golden Age (1580-1670) produced Rembrandt, Vermeer, and a revolution in genre painting, landscape, and still life. Learn how Protestant Holland reshaped what art could depict.
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Edition: The Set of Identical Prints From a Single Plate or Screen
An edition is a fixed set of identical prints pulled from a single plate, screen, or digital file. From Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei, learn how editions work and why numbering matters.
Etching: Acid, Metal, and the Print That Changed Art
Etching is an intaglio print made by drawing through wax on a metal plate and bathing it in acid. Learn how Rembrandt, Goya, and Whistler used it to transform printmaking.
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Lead White: The Toxic Pigment That Dominated Painting for 2,000 Years
Lead white was the most important white pigment in European painting for two millennia. Learn its history, why it was so valued, and how its toxicity led to its replacement.
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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Oil Painting: Pigment in Drying Oil, From Van Eyck to the Present
Oil painting is pigment suspended in drying oil, most often linseed. Learn how Van Eyck, Rembrandt, and Monet used the slow-drying medium that dominated European art for 500 years.
Old Master: European Painters of Skill Before 1800
Old Master refers to European painters of exceptional skill who worked before 1800. From Leonardo to Rembrandt to Velazquez, learn what the term means and why it matters.
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Self-Portrait: The Artist as Subject, From Durer to Cindy Sherman
A self-portrait is an artist's depiction of themselves. From Durer's Christ-like self-image to Rembrandt's aging face, learn how painters became their own subjects.
Shade: Color Plus Black, From Navy to Maroon and the Dark Side of the Palette
A shade is a color mixed with black. Navy is a shade of blue, maroon is a shade of red. From Caravaggio's shadows to Rothko's dark fields, learn how shades work.
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.