Glossary

Aesthetics - (art) the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste (emphasizing the evaluative criteria that are applied to art); "traditional aesthetics assumed the existence of universal and timeless criteria of artistic value"

Antiquing -A painted effect which darkens the surface and creates the appearance of age.

Art Deco - design style between world wars heavily influenced by cubist art and contemporary mechanical forms.

Art Nouveau - late nineteenth century style utilizing sinuous lines; opposed to the classicism of the immediate past.

Artisan -A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson. One trained to manual dexterity in some mechanic art or trade; and handicraftsman; an artist.

Base Coat- Also called ground coat. The first coat of paint applied to a surface after a primer coat.

Baroque - Rich European style popular during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, chiefly characterized by its sweeping curves, dramatic scale, and a theatrical effect of fantastic opulence and grandeur.

Borders- A narrow decorative strip which traditionally has been used as a chair rail or in combination with a chair rail. Borders are also used along ceiling lines, along the baseboard, around doors and windows, and in any manner that a trim could be used.

Breccia - The Italian term for the fragments in marbles that have reformed into new stones. The French term is Breche.

Burnishing- Pressing or polishing the edges of tape so that no seepage will occur. The term derives from the Italian word Burunir (to make brown) When gold is polished it acquires a brown cast and is termed burnished.

Bronze powders - finely ground metal pieces that are added to various mediums as a pigment.

Caen Stone- A type of flat limestone cut into blocks. It has been used for centuries in interior and exterior architecture.

Classical, Classical Style - architectural or decorative stylistic motifs prevalent in the designs of Greek or Roman antiquity. The artistic style of ancient Greek art with its emphasis on proportion and harmony

Coffered ceiling- decoration consisting of sunken squares or polygonal panels, often adorned with moldings, sculpture or painting in a ceiling.

Chroma- The term originated by Albert H. Munsell for the amount of pure pigment in a color.

Commesso - also called Florentine Mosaic, technique of fashioning pictures with thin, cut-to-shape pieces of brightly colored, semiprecious stones. The stones most commonly used are agates, quartzes, chalcedonies, jaspers, granites, porphyries, petrified woods, and lapis lazuli.

Cornice - A horizontal molded projection that crowns or completes a building or wall. An ornamental horizontal molding or frame used to conceal rods, picture hooks, or other devices.

Dado - The wall space between the chair rail and the baseboard. This area is customarily equal to one third of the wall height.

Damask - A rich patterned fabric of cotton, linen, silk, or wool so woven that a pattern is produced by the different directions of the thread, without contrast of color.

Dash - Produced by dipping a whisk broom in stucco and stippling or slapping the wet finish. also called dab or stipple.

Decoupage - Printed paper material, cut, glued down and varnished. imitating inlay.

Dragging - A glazing method for achieving a subtle mixture of fine stripes by pulling a wide long-bristled brush through wet glaze.

Drift or cloud - Areas of minerals, masses of color, maintaining a directional flow.

Eggshell -A type of paint finish with low degree of gloss, resembling that of an eggshell. It is between flat and satin.

Faux -(fo) A French term loosely defined as, a simulation of a real substance. Commonly thought of as a technique where paint and other materials are applied to a surface to resemble a textural appearance.

Faux Bois - A French term for simulating wood with painted media. Some decorative painting techniques used are called graining.

Faux Marbre -A French term for simulating marble with painted media. Also called marbling or marbelizing.

Focal point- The first wall you see upon entering a room, or the wall facing the room's dominant flow of traffic.

Fractal -A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry. Fractals are used specially in computer modeling of irregular patterns and structures in nature such as clouds and trees..

Fresco -A classic method of wall painting where water based color is painted into wet lime plaster.

Frottage -A newspaper or other material is applied to wet paint, rubbed and removed leaving an uneven pattern.

Gilding -Affixing a thin metal coating to a surface to give the effect of solid or inlaid metal.

Glaze - A translucent layer of color made from paint media. Also used to refer to the medium itself.

Glazing - Techniques done by manipulating translucent medium over dry surfaces, creating unlimited visual effects.

High Renaissance - the artistic style of early 16th century painting in Florence and Rome; characterized by technical mastery and heroic composition and humanistic content

Hue - The family name of a color according to its wavelength on the visible spectrum. Corresponds to the common definition of color, e.g. "red", "orange", "violet" etc.

Knocked-down - Produced by drawing a trowel over a partially set texture so that the high points are knocked-down.

M

Marble -Dimension stone that has a variety of compositional types of metamorphic rock, that is capable of taking a polish.

Marmarino - combination of marble dust, pigment and and putty lime plaster with a polished finish. Also known as Venetian plaster, Stucco lustro or Stucco veneziano.

Marouflage -Technique of gluing a canvas to a wall or ceiling.

Marquetry - Decorative veneer of ornate inlaid patterns most often in wood.

Medium - The liquid that binds pigments together and holds them (bonds) to the surface. It is also used to describe a particular liquid substance used in a process or technique.

Metamerism - The change in color when it is seen under different lighting conditions, (eg., incandescent, daylight, fluorescent.)

Modernism - style from early twentieth century, based on a rejection of traditional approaches in favor of more industrial, unornamented genres.

Mosaic - A decorative pattern made with multi-colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by cement or some other binder.

Motif - The recurring design or subject matter of a pattern.

Mottled Spotted or blotched with different shades or colors. A variegated pattern, as on marble.

Mural -A very large image, such as a painting or enlarged photograph, applied directly to a wall or ceiling.

neoclassicism - revival of a classical style (in art or literature or architecture or music) but from a new perspective or with a new motivation

Ombre` - Also called grade. To graduate a color imperceptibly from light to dark or into another color.

Optical Mixes - Visual effects created by the interrelationships of color, scale, and pattern.

Pastiglia - Raised low-relief decoration made with gesso sometimes finished in gold-leaf.

Plaster - A cementitious material that when mixed with water, forms a paste that hardens chemically. When applied to a surface, it adheres and hardens, preserving the form or texture it had when plastic. Some commonly used finishes are:

Primer - Also called sealer or undercoat. The first coat of a media applied to a surface to reduce absorbency and to ensure adhesion.

Quadratura - perspective depictions of architectural elements on walls and ceilings to create the illusion of additional interior space.

Quoin -A brick unit forming the exterior corner of a wall, contrasting with the rest of the wall in shape, material, etc..

Rococo - Exuberant early eighteenth century European style characterized by artificiality and excessive ornamentation, an abundance of foliage, curves, scrollwork and pastel colors.
Sconce A decorative wall bracket. Some have flat tops on which can be placed other decorative objects.

rococo - fanciful but graceful asymmetric ornamentation in art and architecture that originated in France in the 18th century

romanticism - a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization; "romanticism valued imagination and emotion over rationality"

Saturation - Vividness of hue; degree of difference from a gray of the same lightness or brightness. Also called intensity. Color that is free from mixture or dilution with white; its relative purity.

Scagliola - Italian plasterwork imitating marble and certain pietre dure, Using individual colored pats of plaster of Paris are kneaded together creating marble like variegation of color.- highly polished.

Shade -Any hue plus black. The degree to which a color is mixed with black or is decreasingly illuminated; gradation of darkness.

Skip-trowled - Applied in a way that shows the trowel marks, which sometimes form a pattern.

Sponging - A technique for producing dots of color on a surface using natural sponges. While sponging was more popular in recent years, its popularity has declined. Sponging is commonly associated with and mistaken for the definition of faux finish. Faux finishes vary drastically, and very few popular techniques today actually use this technique. (see definition of faux finish)

Strié -Techniques for creating subtle through dramatic stripe effects. Techniques for creating stripe and plaid effects. Also the name for the finished results of these techniques.

Stuccowork - fine exterior or interior plasterwork used as three-dimensional ornamentation, as a smooth paintable surface, or as a wet ground for fresco painting. Most often used to describe the rougher plaster coating of exterior walls.

Style -The distinction, originality, and character in any form of artistic expression.

Spatter-dash - Produced by spattering on the material.
Sprayed - Resembles spatter-dash finish that result from material being applied through a nozzle under pressure.

Travertine - A variety of limestone distinguished by layered structures of pores and cavities producing a open texture.

treatment - a manner of dealing with something artistically; "his treatment of space borrows from Italian architecture"

Tint - A slight coloring. A pale or faint tinge of any color made by adding white to it to lessen its saturation.

Trowled - Smooth or textured finish applied with a trowel.

Trompe l'oeil - (trômp loi) A French term meaning "deceive the eye." Paintings so realistically as to fool the viewer into thinking the objects in the painting are real. Specifically an illusion of depth is created by emplacing highlights and shadows as if an element is seen under a defined light source.

Veined -A layer, seam, or narrow irregular body of mineral different from the surrounding formation of stone.

Verdigris - the bluish green patina formed on copper, brass and bronze thru the corrosive effect of exposure to air or seawater.