A method of presenting an illusion of the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface.

A graphic technique in which the design is incised, or scratched, on a metal plate, either manually ( engraving, drypoint )or chemically ( etching ).

The disposition of the human figure in which one part is turned in opposition to another part (usually hips and legs one way, shoulders and chest another), creating a counterpositioning of the body about its central axis. "Weight shift"

The horizontal arrangement of the parts of a building or of the buildings and streets of a city or town, or a drawing or diagram showing such an arrangement.

Italian, “drawing” and “design.”

Italian, “smoky.” A smokelike haziness that subtly softens outlines in painting.

The use of perspective to represent in art the apparent visual contraction of an object that extends back in space at an angle to the perpendicular plane of sight.

 “Greek manner.”

An altarpiece composed of more than three sections.

A painting technique using oilbased pigments that rose to prominence in Northern Europe in the 15th century and is now the standard medium for painting on canvas.

In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas), or sunken.

 line imagined to be behind and perpendicular to the picture plane; the orthogonals in a painting appear to recede toward a vanishing point on the horizon.

A kind of engraving in which the design is incised in a layer of wax or varnish on a metal plate.

Italian, “colored” or “painted.” A term used to describe the application of paint.

Italian, “invention.” One of several terms used in Italian Renaissance literature to praise the originality and talent of artists.

A term describing “poetic” art, notably Venetian Renaissance painting, which emphasizes the lyrical and sensual.

Painting on lime plaster, either dry (dry fresco, or fresco secco) or wet (true, or buon, fresco).

In the Renaissance, an emphasis on education and on expanding knowledge (especially of classical antiquity), the exploration of individual potential and a desire to excel, and a commitment to civic responsibility and moral duty.

A portrait or image; especially in Byzantine churches, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are objects of veneration. 

In drawing or painting, the treatment and use of light and dark, especially thegradations of light that produce the effect of modeling.

The process of incising a design in hard material, often a metal plate

Latin, “vanity.” A term describing paintings (particularly 17th-century Dutch still lifes) that include references to death.

Atmospheric, or aerial, perspective creates the illusion of distance by the greater diminution of color intensity, the shift in color toward an almost neutral blue, and the blurring of contours as the intended distance between eye and object increases.

A shrine to a Christian martyr saint.

A style of later Renaissance art that emphasized “artifice,” often involving contrived imagery not derived directly from nature.

In painting, a full-size preliminary drawing from which a painting is made.