Fathers of the Church

    A title given to those leaders of the early Christian Church whose writings had made an important contribution to the development of doctrine. Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great were often considered the four principal Fathers of the Church.

faun

    Ancient Roman god of nature, protector of shepherds, farmers, fields and livestock. Equated with the Greek god Pan, he is frequently depicted with a goats legs and horns.

festoni (It. "festoons)

    Architectural ornaments consisting of fruit, leaves, and flowers suspended in a loop; a swag.

fête champêtre (French: "rural feast")

    In painting, representation of a rural feast or open-air entertainment. Although the term fête galante ("gallant feast") is sometimes used synonymously with fête champêtre, it is also used to refer to a specific kind of fête champêtre: a more graceful, usually aristocratic scene in which groups of idly amorous, relaxed, well-dressed figures are depicted in a pastoral setting.

fluted

    of a column or pillar, carved with closely spaced parallel grooves cut vertically.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

    the Four Horsemen in the Revelation of St John (Rev 6, 2 - 8), which contains the description of the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. The Horsemen personify the disasters about to happen to mankind, such as plague, war, famine and death. Their attributes are the bow, sword and set of balances. In some sculptures the first rider is identified as Christ by a halo. The colour of his horse is white, that of the others red, black and dun.

Franciscans

    A Roman Catholic order of mendicant friars founded by St. Francis of Assisi (given papal approval in 1223). Committed to charitable and missionary work, they stressed the veneration of the Holy Virgin, a fact that was highly significant in the development of images of the Madonna in Italian art. In time the absolute poverty of the early Franciscans gave way to a far more relaxed view of property and wealth, and the Franciscans became some of the most important patrons of art in the early Renaissance.

fresco (It. "fresh")

    Wall painting technique in which pigments are applied to wet (fresh) plaster (intonaco). The pigments bind with the drying plaster to form a very durable image. Only a small area can be painted in a day, and these areas, drying to a slightly different tint, can in time be seen. Small amounts of retouching and detail work could be carried out on the dry plaster, a technique known as a secco fresco.

frescos in Italy

    Save in Venice, where the atmosphere was too damp, fresco painting was the habitual way of decorating wall surfaces in Italy, both in churches and in private and public palaces. During the 16th century a liking for the more brilliant effect of large canvases painted in oils, and to a lesser extent for tapestries, diminished the use of frescoes save for covering upper walls, covings and ceilings. The technique of buon fresco, or true fresco, involved covering the area with a medium-fine plaster, the intonaco, just rough enough to provide a bond (sometimes enhanced by scoring) for the final layer of fine plaster. Either a freehand sketch of the whole composition (sinopia) was drawn on the wall, or a full-scale cartoon was prepared and its outlines transferred to the intonaco by pressing them through with a knife or by pouncing - blowing charcoal dust through prickholes in the paper. Then over the intonaco enough of the final thin layer was applied to contain a day's work. That portion of the design was repeated on it either by the same methods or freehand, and the artist set to work with water-based pigments while the plaster was still damp; this allowed them to sink in before becoming dry and fixed. (Thus 'pulls' or slices of frescoes could be taken by later art thieves without actually destroying the colour or drawing of the work.) It is usually possible to estimate the time taken to produce a fresco by examining the joins between the plastered areas representing a day's work. Final details, or effects impossible to obtain in true fresco pigments, could be added at the end in 'dry' paints, or fresco secco, a technique in which pigment was laid on an unabsorbent plaster; the best known example of an entire composition in fresco secco is Leonardo's Last Supper.