icon (Gk. eikon, "likeness")

    a small, portable painting in the Orthodox Church. The form and colours are strictly idealized and unnatural. The cultic worship of icons was a result of traditionally prescribed patterns of representation in terms of theme and form, for it was believed that icons depicted the original appearances of Christ, Mary and the saints.

iconoclasm

    the destruction of works of art on the grounds that they are impious. During the 16th century, Calvinist iconoclasts destroyed a great many religious art works in the Netherlands.

iconography ((Gk. eikon, "likeness", and graphein, "description")

    The systematic study and identification of the subject-matter and symbolism of art works, as opposed to their style; the set of symbolic forms on which a given work is based. Originally, the study and identification of classical portraits. Renaissance art drew heavily on two iconographical traditions: Christianity, and ancient Greek and Roman art, thought and literature.

ignudi, sing. ignudo (It.)

    Male nudes. The best-known are the male nudes on Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling.

illuminated manuscripts

    Books written by hand, decorated with paintings and ornament of different kinds. The word illuminated comes from a usage of the Latin word 'illuminare' in connection with oratory or prose style, where it means 'adorn'. The decorations are of three main types: (a) miniature, or small pictures, not always illustrative, incorporated into the text or occupying the whole page or part of the border; (b) initial letters either containing scenes (historiated initials) or with elaborate decoration; (c) borders, which may consist of miniatures, occasionally illustrative, or more often are composed of decorative motifs. They may enclose the whole of the text space or occupy only a small part of the margin of the page. Manuscripts are for the most part written on parchment or vellum. From the 14th century paper was used for less sumptuous copies. Although a number of books have miniatures and ornaments executed in outline drawing only, the majority are fully colored. By the 15th century illumination tended more and more to follow the lead given by painters, and with the invention of printing the illuminated book gradually went out of fashion. During the 15th and 16th centuries illuminations were added to printed books.

illumination

    The decoration of manuscripts, one of the most common forms of medieval art; because of its monastic origins, usually of religious texts. The practice extends from heavy decorations of initial letters and inter-woven margin patterns (as in Celtic examples) to miniatures and and full-page illuminations, often of a formal and grandiose kind (as in Byzantine manuscripts). Rich colors are a common feature, in particular a luxirious use of gold and silver. Illuminations survived the advent of printing for some time and only died out with the rise of printed illustration in the 16 century.

illusionism

    The painting techniques that create the realistic impression of solid, three-dimensional objects (such as picture frames, architectural features, plasterwork etc.)

imago pietatis (Lat. "image of pity")

    A religious image that is meant to inspire strong feelings of pity, tenderness, or love; specifically, an image of Christ on His tomb, the marks of the Passion clearly visible.

imitato (It. "imitation")

    In Renaissance art theory, the ability to imitate, to depict objects and people accurately and convincingly. Derived from classical literary theory, imitato was one of the key concepts of Renaissance art theory.

impasto

    Paint applied in thick or heavy layers.

impost

    In architecture, the horizontal moulding or course of stone or brickwork at the top of a pillar or pier.

impresa

    An emblem, used as a badge by rulers and scholars during the Renaissance, that consisted of a picture and a complementary motto in Latin or Greek.

indulgence

    In the Roman Catholic Church, the remission of punishment for sins. It dates back to the 10th-century practice of doing penances, from which the Church drew much practical benefit (foundation of churches, pilgrimages). In the early 16th century, the sale of letters of indulgence was an important source of income for the Church. Its degeneration into commercial trafficking became the subject of overt dispute between Martin Luther and Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz in 1517, and consequently became the focal issue leading to the Reformation.

initial (Lat. initialis, "at the beginning")

    the first letter of the text in medieval manuscripts and early printed books, made to stand out emphatically by its colour, size, and ornamentation.

ink

    Coloured fluid used for writing, drawing, or printing. Inks usually have staining power without body, but printers' inks are pigments mixed with oil and varnish, and are opaque. The use of inks goes back in China and Egypt to at least 2500 BC. They were usually made from lampblack (a pigment made from soot) or a red ochre ground into a solution of glue or gums. These materials were moulded into dry sticks or blocks, which were then mixed with water for use. Ink brought from China or Japan in such dry form came to be known in the West as 'Chinese ink' or 'Indian ink'. The names are also given to a similar preparation made in Europe.

Inquisition Lat. inquisitio, "examination, investigation")

    Medieval ecclesiastical institution for hunting down heretics and criminals; from 1231 papal Inquisitors (mainly Dominicans and Franciscans) were appointed. Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) and the collection of decrees published in 1234 made the Inquisition a papal institution ("Sanctum Officium"), and it was later extended to include other offenses such as magic, witchcraft and fortune-telling.

insignia

    the distinguishing marks or symbols of state or personal offices or honours.

instruments of the Passion of Christ (Lat. arma Christi, "weapons of Christ")

    the term for the items central to the Passion of Christ (the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the Crucifixion). They include the Cross; the spear of Longinus (the staff with the sponge soaked in vinegar) and the bucket containing the vinegar; the nails used to fasten Jesus to the Cross; the crown of thorns; and the inscription on the Cross. From the 13th century onwards, at the time of the Crusades, and particularly after the looting of Constantinople in 1204, countless relics of the Passion made their way to the Western world, and were the objects of special veneration. In art, Christ is shown as the man of sorrows surrounded by the instruments of the Passion, and they are also depicted on their own, with many further details added. For instance, there are representations of the bundle of rods, the scourge that was used in the scourging; the cloak and reed scepter that were part of the crowning with thorns; the rooster of Peter's denial; Judas' thirty pieces of silver; the pincers, the hammer, and the ladder; the veil of St. Veronica; as well as the heads and hands of Christ's tormentors.

intercession

    a pictorial theme showing the intervention of the Virgin Mary, or of other saints, with God the Father or with Christ on behalf of individuals or whole families, usually the donors of a work of art.

International Gothic

    European art was characteristic of a rare uniformity for 60-70 years around 1400. Art historians have still not been able to come to an agreement on an appropriate name for it. The term "art around 1400" suits the style best which, because of its prevalence is referred to as international Gothic. The terms court style, soft style, beautiful style, trecento rococo and lyrical style, etc. are also used in art literature.

    Elements of style which were generally wide-spread, did not belong to any particular country and were characteristic of art in courts. In the second half of the 14th century, models appeared in court art in the circle of French-Flemish artists serving at French courts and Bohemian regions of the Emperor's Court which determined works of art all over Europe at the end of the century. Human figures, landscapes and spaces in a realistic approach were accompanied by a peculiar quality of dreams, decorative dynamism and deep emotional charge. It is called as a soft style on the basis of lyrical expressions and drapes: it is more than a simple system of formal motifs, it denominates a kind of behaviour. Artists of the period were engaged in learning the human soul until their attention was attracted to the world (e.g. Donatallo, Masaccio and Jan van Eyck).

intonaco

    The final layer of plaster on which a fresco is painted.

inventio (It. "invention")

    In Renaissance art theory, the ability to create; invention, originality. Derived from classical rhetoric, inventio was one of the key concepts of Renaissance art theory; because it was seen as being based on the use of reason, it gave art a far higher status than a craft and helped to establish the intellectual respectability of painting and sculpture.

investiture

    Process by which an ecclesiastical or secular dignitary is appointed to his office.

Ionic order

    One of the classical order of columns that was used during the Renaissance; its characteristics are a capital with curled volutes on either side.

Italianate painters

    Group of 17th-century northern European painters, principally Dutch, who traveled in Italy and, consciously adopting the style of landscape painting that they found there, incorporated Italian models and motifs into their own works. Chief among the Italianates were Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Andries and Jan Both, Nicolaes Berchem, and Jan Asselijn. The Both brothers, of Utrecht, were to some degree rivals of the Haarlem-born Berchem. Andries painted the figures that populated Jan's landscapes. Berchem's own compositions were largely derived from the Arcadian landscapes of the French painter Claude Lorrain; a typical scene would contain shepherds grazing their flocks among classical ruins, bathed in a golden haze. Upon his return to Holland, Berchem occasionally worked in cooperation with the local painters and is said to have supplied figures in works of both Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema.

Italianizers

    Northern artists, generally Dutch or Flemish, who adopt as far as possible a style based on Italian models or who import Italian motives into their repertory. The word is often used of 17th-century Dutch landscape painters like Asselyn, Both and Berchem, but is also used of 16th-century Flemings like Mabuse or van Orley, although they are usually called Romanists.