Art Glossary

Abstract Expressionism made New York the center of the art world. From Pollock's drip paintings to Rothko's color fields, learn how gesture and scale changed painting forever.

Acrylic painting uses synthetic polymer emulsion as a binder. Learn how Pollock, Rothko, and Hockney adopted a mid-20th-century medium that dries in minutes and resists water.

Action painting is the gestural, physical application of paint pioneered by Pollock and de Kooning. Learn its history, key artists, and how to spot it.

Alla prima is wet-on-wet painting completed in a single session. From Frans Hals to Monet to Sargent, learn the history and technique of direct painting.

Atmospheric perspective creates depth by making distant objects paler, bluer, and less detailed. Learn how Leonardo da Vinci codified it and how painters use it today.

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.

Broken color places pure, unmixed strokes side by side to blend in the eye. Learn how Monet, Van Gogh, and Seurat used this technique for brighter, vibrating color.

The artist's brush applies paint to surface. Learn brush types (round, flat, filbert, fan), hair types (hog, sable, synthetic), and the history from ancient Egypt to today.

Camaieu is painting in shades of a single color other than gray. From ancient Pompeii to Renaissance palaces to porcelain decoration, learn this monochrome technique.

A canvas panel is primed canvas glued to a rigid backing like MDF or hardboard. Learn its history from Impressionist plein air studies to modern mass-produced panels.

Canvas is the woven fabric surface used for oil and acrylic painting. Learn its history from 15th-century Venice to modern cotton duck, types, weights, and how to choose canvas.

Carbon black is the pigment from burnt organic matter, used in cave paintings for 40,000 years. Learn its history, types from charcoal to lamp black, and how artists used it.

Casein is paint made from milk protein, used since ancient Egypt. Learn how Klimt, Warhol, and Native American artists used a fast-drying medium that dries hard and matte.

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.

Chinese landscape painting (shanshui) uses ink and brush to depict mountains and water as a meditative practice. Learn about Fan Kuan, Guo Xi, and the art of emptiness.

Cold pressed paper is watercolor paper with a lightly textured surface, the most popular choice for watercolor. Learn how it works, its history, and why 80% of painters prefer it.

Color Field painting uses large expanses of flat color as the subject itself. Learn how Rothko, Newman, and Still pioneered this Abstract Expressionist style.

Concept art is visual development art for games, film, and animation. Learn its history from Disney's Snow White to AI-assisted workflows in 2026.

A diptych is a two-panel painting, hinged or paired. From Byzantine ivory carvings to the Wilton Diptych to Warhol's Marilyn Diptych, learn how this format shaped art history.

Divisionism is Seurat's theory of separating colors into individual strokes for optical mixing. Learn its history, key artists, and how it shaped modern art.

Dreamtime is the Aboriginal Australian concept of creation, when Ancestral Beings shaped the land. From rock art to Papunya paintings, learn how Dreaming stories become images.

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.

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.

The easel is the upright support that holds a painting while the artist works. Learn its history from ancient Egypt to modern studio designs, types, and how to choose one.

Encaustic is painting with pigmented hot beeswax, an ancient technique used for Egyptian mummy portraits. Learn how the Fayum painters and Jasper Johns used molten wax as paint.

Fat over lean is the oil painting rule that each layer should contain more oil than the one beneath. Learn the science behind why it prevents cracking and delamination.

Fresco is painting on wet plaster so the pigments bond with the wall. Learn how Michelangelo, Raphael, and Giotto used this ancient technique.

Genre painting depicts scenes of everyday life. From Dutch taverns to Vermeer's interiors, learn how this underrated genre shaped art history.

Gesso is the white primer applied before painting to seal and prepare the surface. Learn its history from medieval gypsum grounds to modern acrylic gesso and how to use it.

Glazing is the application of thin transparent oil paint layers over dry paint to create luminosity and depth. From Van Eyck to Rembrandt, learn how it works.

Gold leaf is the application of thin gold sheets as surface or background in painting. Learn gilding techniques from medieval icons to Renaissance altarpieces.

Gouache is opaque watercolor made with heavier pigment and chalk filler. Learn how Durer, Goya, and Matisse used a medium that lets you paint light over dark on paper.

Grisaille is painting entirely in shades of gray, often to simulate stone sculpture. From Van Eyck to Goya, learn how this monochrome technique shaped Western art.

The ground is the preparatory layer applied to a painting support before painting. From medieval gesso to modern acrylic primer, learn its history, types, and function.

Halation is the optical glow that appears where light meets dark in a painting. Learn how Baroque painters used dark halos and warm edges to make light appear to radiate.

Hard-edge painting features abrupt transitions between flat color areas. Learn how Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, and California painters defined this style.

History painting depicts significant human events: battles, myths, biblical scenes. From Raphael to Gericault to Picasso's Guernica, learn the genre that topped the academy.

Hot pressed paper is watercolor paper pressed through heated rollers for a smooth surface. Learn how it works, its history, and why botanical illustrators and realists prefer it.

The Hudson River School was America's first art movement, painting wilderness from the Catskills to the Andes. Learn about Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and Bierstadt.

Illuminated manuscripts are hand-decorated texts with gold leaf from the medieval period. Learn how they were made, from parchment to burnished gold.

Illustration board is paper mounted to a rigid backing, creating a warp-resistant surface for drawing and painting. Learn its history, types, and why illustrators and plein air painters use it.

Impasto mediums are additives that thicken oil and acrylic paint for visible texture. Learn what they contain, how they work, and how Rembrandt and Van Gogh used them.

Impasto is paint applied so thickly it catches light and casts shadows. Learn how Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Auerbach used this textured technique in oil painting.

Impressionism was the movement that shattered academic painting by capturing fleeting light with broken brushstrokes outdoors. From Monet to Renoir to Morisot, learn how it worked.

Imprimatura is a thin toned layer applied to a painting support before painting begins. Learn its history from the Renaissance to Rubens and why it matters.

Indigenous Australian art spans 65,000 years from rock art to dot painting. Learn about the Papunya Tula movement, Emily Kngwarray, and the Dreamtime tradition.

Ink wash is painting with ink diluted in water to create tonal gradations. Learn how Wang Wei, Sesshu Toyo, and contemporary artists use a medium where every stroke is permanent.

Landscape painting depicts natural scenery as a subject in its own right. From Song Dynasty shanshui to Constable and Turner, learn how nature became art.

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 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.

A mahl stick is a padded stick that steadies a painter's hand while working on detail. Learn its history from 16th-century studios to Vermeer and why some painters still use one.

Marouflage is the technique of adhering a painted canvas to a wall or ceiling using adhesive. From Renaissance murals to modern conservation, learn how it works.

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.

Mughal painting fused Persian, Indian, and European traditions in the imperial workshops of Akbar and Jahangir. Learn about the Hamzanama, Mansur, and Abu'l-Hasan.

Naples yellow is lead antimoniate, one of the oldest synthetic pigments known. First used in Egyptian glass around 1500 BCE, it shaped painting from the Renaissance to the 19th century.

Neo-Expressionism brought raw, figurative painting back to the art world. From Basquiat's street-sourced icons to Schnabel's plate paintings, learn how it dominated the 1980s.

Nihonga is modern Japanese-style painting using mineral pigments and animal glue. Learn about Yokoyama Taikan, Uemura Shoen, and Higashiyama Kaii.

Ochre is the oldest known pigment, used by humans and Neanderthals for 300,000 years. Learn its history from prehistoric caves to modern painting, how it is made, and why it endures.

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 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.

Orientalism is the Western depiction of Eastern cultures. From Ingres' odalisques to Said's critique, learn how Europe painted the East and why it matters today.

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.

The palette knife is a flat-bladed tool for mixing and applying paint. Learn its history from medieval amassettes to Van Gogh, Courbet, and contemporary impasto painting.

The palette is the flat surface where painters mix colors before applying them. Learn its history, shapes, materials, and how artists from Vermeer to Monet arranged their paints.

A painting panel is a rigid wood or composite surface for painting, the dominant support before canvas. Learn its history from Byzantine icons to modern MDF, types, and how to choose one.

A pentimento is a visible trace of a changed composition beneath a painting's surface. Learn how X-ray and infrared imaging reveal artists' revisions from Rubens to Ensor.

Photorealism is painting that mimics photography with extreme precision. Learn how Chuck Close, Richard Estes, and Ralph Goings defined this American movement.

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.

Plein air is painting outdoors directly from nature. Learn how the paint tube, Valenciennes, Constable, and Monet turned outdoor observation into a revolution in painting.

Pointillism is Seurat's technique of applying small dots of pure color that blend in the viewer's eye. Learn its history, key artists, and how to spot it.

A polyptych is a multi-panel painting, usually an altarpiece with hinged wings. From the Ghent Altarpiece to the Isenheim Altarpiece, learn how these complex works functioned.

Post-Impressionism was not a single style but four artists who pushed beyond Impressionism in different directions. From Van Gogh's emotion to Cezanne's structure to Seurat's science.

A predella is the narrow base panel of an altarpiece, painted with small narrative scenes. From Duccio to Signorelli, learn how these overlooked panels shaped Renaissance art.

Realism was the 19th-century movement that rejected Romantic drama and painted ordinary people doing ordinary things. From Courbet's burials to Millet's gleaners, learn how it worked.

Rock art is the oldest art on Earth. From Lascaux to Sulawesi, learn how cave paintings and petroglyphs reveal the origins of human image-making and what new science tells us.

Rough paper is watercolor paper with the heaviest texture, left to dry with minimal pressing. Learn how it creates dramatic granulation, its history, and why landscape painters prefer it.

The rule of thirds divides the frame into nine equal rectangles and places key elements along the lines or intersections. Learn its history, how artists use it, and what research says.

Scumbling is dragging thin broken layers of opaque paint over a darker dry layer for texture, haze, and soft light. From Titian to Turner, learn how it works.

Secco is painting on dry plaster using organic binders. Less durable than buon fresco but more flexible. Learn its history, techniques, and key examples.

Sfumato is Leonardo da Vinci's technique of gradual tonal blending with no visible lines. Learn how he used it in the Mona Lisa and Virgin of the Rocks.

Sgraffito is scratching through a surface layer to reveal a contrasting color beneath. Learn its history from Renaissance facades to pottery to contemporary painting.

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.

Solvents thin paint, dissolve resins, and clean brushes. From turpentine to mineral spirits to citrus solvents, learn the history and science of painting solvents.

Stained glass is colored glass assembled in lead frames to create images in windows. From Chartres to Tiffany, learn how this 1,000-year-old art form works.

Sumi-e is Japanese ink wash painting using black ink, brush, and paper. Learn its history from Chinese origins through Sesshu to contemporary mindfulness practice.

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.

Tempera is paint made with egg yolk as a binder, the dominant medium in European painting before oil. Learn how Botticelli, Fra Angelico, and Andrew Wyeth used this ancient technique.

Tenebrism is Caravaggio's extreme chiaroscuro, where darkness dominates and light cuts through like a spotlight. Learn its history, artists, and how to spot it.

A tondo is a circular painting or relief, popular in Renaissance Florence for domestic devotional art. From Michelangelo's Doni Tondo to Botticelli, learn its history.

A triptych is a three-panel painting, usually hinged, with a central panel and two wings. From Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights to Bacon, learn its history and artists.

Trompe l'oeil is the art of visual deception, painting objects so realistically they appear to exist in real space. From Pompeii to Pere Borrell del Caso, learn how it works.

A tronie is a Dutch character study of a head, not a portrait. Learn how Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals used this genre to study expression, light, and costume.

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.

Ultramarine is the deep blue pigment ground from lapis lazuli, once worth more than gold. Learn its history, how artists used it, and why synthetic versions changed painting.

Underpainting is the foundational layer beneath a painting's surface. Learn about grisaille, verdaccio, dead coloring, and how Vermeer and Rembrandt used it.

Vanitas is the Dutch still life genre symbolizing the transience of life through skulls, hourglasses, and wilting flowers. Learn its history and key painters.

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.

Verdaccio is a greenish underpainting used to create lifelike flesh tones. Learn how Renaissance painters from Giotto to Michelangelo used green earth beneath warm skin colors.

Vermilion is the brilliant red pigment made from cinnabar, a mercury ore mined for 9,000 years. Learn its history, toxicity, and how artists from Pompeii to Rothko used it.

A viewfinder is a frame artists use to isolate and compose a scene. From Klimt's cardboard cutout to modern adjustable tools, learn how viewfinders shape composition.

Watercolor paper is thick, absorbent paper designed for water media. Learn its history, cotton vs. wood pulp fibers, weights from 90 lb to 300 lb, and how to choose the right surface.

Watercolor is transparent paint made of pigment and gum arabic, applied with water on paper. Learn how Durer, Turner, and Homer used a medium that rewards directness and punishes hesitation.

Wet-on-dry is applying fresh paint over a dried layer for sharp edges and controlled building. Learn how oil and acrylic painters use it for glazing and detail work.

Wet-on-wet is painting into still-wet paint so colors blend on the surface. Learn how oil paint's slow drying made this technique central to alla prima and plein air.

WPA murals were public artworks created under the Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1943. From Ben Shahn to Philip Guston, learn how the US government put artists to work painting America.