cabinet

    A small, private room where works of art, valuables and curiosities were kept and contemplated at leisure; over time the term was used for the collections themselves. Renaissance cabinets played an important role in the development of museums and art galleries.

cabinet painting

    A small painting which was intended to be viewed closely and at leisure in a Renaissance cabinet, a fact usually reflected in a highly finished style and the subject matter, which was often allegorical. Cabinet paintings and pieces first occur in the 15th century and are associated with the development of private collections.

caduceus

    A rod entwined with a pair of snakes, an attribute of Mercury and a symbol of healing and of peace.

caisson (Fr. casson, "a chest, box")

    In architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling or vault.

camera obscura

    Ancestor of the photographic camera. The Latin name means "dark chamber," and the earliest versions, dating to antiquity, consisted of small darkened rooms with light admitted through a single tiny hole. The result was that an inverted image of the outside scene was cast on the opposite wall, which was usually whitened. For centuries the technique was used for viewing eclipses of the Sun without endangering the eyes and, by the 16th century, as an aid to drawing; the subject was posed outside and the image reflected on a piece of drawing paper for the artist to trace. Portable versions were built, followed by smaller and even pocket models; the interior of the box was painted black and the image reflected by an angled mirror so that it could be viewed right side up. The introduction of a light-sensitive plate by J.-N. Niepce created photography.

campanile

    Bell tower, usually built beside or attached to a church; the word is most often used in connection with Italian architecture.

candelabra, sing. candelabrum (It. candela, "candle")

    A large, usually decorated, candlestick, usually with several branches or arms.

cantoria, pl. cantorie (It.)

    A gallery for singers or musicians, usually in a church. Two outstanding examples are those by the sculptors Andrea della Robbia and Donatello in Florence cathedral, both of which have richly carved marble panels.

canvas

    A woven cloth used as a support for painting. The best-quality canvas is made of linen; other materials used are cotton, hemp, and jute. It is now so familiar a material that the word 'canvas' has become almost a synonym for an oil painting, but it was not until around 1500 that it began to rival the wooden panel (which was more expensive and took longer to prepare) as the standard support for movable paintings (the transition came later in Northern Europe than in Italy). Canvas is not suitable for painting on until it has been coated with a ground, which isolates the fabric from the paint; otherwise it will absorb too much paint, only very rough effects will be obtainable, and parts of the fabric may be rotted by the pigments. It must also be made taut on a stretcher or by some other means.

capital (Lat. capitellum, "little head")

    The head or crowning feature of a column or pillar. Structurally, capitals broaden the area of a column so that it can more easily bear the weight of the arch or entablature it supports.

Caravaggists

    The term 'Caravaggisti' is applied to painters - both Italians and artists from other countries - who imitated the style of Caravaggio in the early 17th century.

Cardinal Virtues (Lat. cardinalis, "hinge")

    the four principle virtues of Temperantia (Temperance), Fortitudo (Fortitude), Prudentia (Prudence) and Justitia (Justice) that were adopted from Plato (427-347 BC) in Christian ethics. Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) added the three so-called Theological Virtues of Fides (Faith), Spes (Hope) and Caritas (Love/Charity). At the height of the Middle Ages, this Christian system of Virtues was further extended.

Carmelites (Lat. Ordo Fratrum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo)

    "Brothers of Our Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel", a Roman Catholic order of contemplative mendicant friars. Founded in Palestine in the 12th century, the Carmelites were originally hermits. In the 13th century the order was refounded as an order resembling the Dominicans and Franciscans. An order of Carmelite sisters was founded in the 15th century; in the 16th century reforms introduced by St. Teresa of Ávila led to the creation of the Barefoot (Discalced) Carmelites.

cartellino, pl. cartellini

    In a painting, a simulated piece of paper that carries an inscription bearing the artist's signature, the date of the painting, details of the subject, or a motto.

Carthusian Order (Lat. Ordo Cartusiensis

    strict Catholic monastic order founded in 1084 by Bruno of Cologne (1032-1101) in the Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble. The order combines reclusive and community life. New Charterhouses, monasteries containing separate hermitages, were built in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the order became receptive to late medieval mysticism, and humanism, the endeavour to attain true humanity.

cartoon (It. cartone, "pasteboard")

    A full-scale preparatory drawing for a painting, tapestry, or fresco. In fresco painting, the design was transferred to the wall by making small holes along the contour lines and then powdering them with charcoal in order to leave an outline on the surface to be painted. In the 19th centurry designs submitted in a competition for frescos in the Houses of Parliament in London were parodied in the magazine Punch. From this the word has acquired its most common meaning today - a humorous drawing or parody.

cartouche

    An ornate painted panel on which an inscription can be written.

caryatid (Gk. "priestess")

    A carved female figure used in architecture as a column to support an entablature.

Cascina, battle of

    The Florentines defeated a Pisan force here on 28 July 1364, taking some of them by surprise while they bathed in the Arno. The engagement is best known as the subject of a fresco commissioned for the Palazzo Vecchio from Michelangelo. Worked on at intervals 1504-06, this remained unfinished and is known (partly)only from a somewhat later copy of the cartoon, and from the contemporary fame the cartoon acquired for its treatment of the abruptly alerted bathers.

cassone (It. chest)

    Usually used as a marriage chest, and the most elaborately decorated piece of furniture of the Renaissance. Cassoni traditionally were made in pairs and sometimes bore the respective coats of arms of the bride and groom. They contained the bride's clothes, linen, and many other items of her dowry. In the 15th century, when the greatest importance was attached to suitable marital alliances between Florence's wealthiest families, the cassone reached great heights of artistic achievement. Florentine artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Paolo Uccello, and Donatello were employed to decorate cassoni with paintings set in an architectural framework. Battle scenes and classical and literary themes were especially popular. A number of paintings from cassoni of this period have been preserved.

    Sixteenth-century cassoni were elaborately carved with mythological and grotesque figures, decorated with gilt gesso, putti (cupids), and swags of fruit and flowers, or enriched with intarsia (mosaics of wood). Although the finest marriage chests came from Italy, they were also used in other countries.

castello (It.)

    "castle", palace.

cathedral (cathedra, seat or throne)

    The principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed.

Catholic reform

    Attempts between the 15th and 16th centuries to eliminate deficiencies within the Roman Catholic Church (such as financial abuses, moral laxity in the clergy and so on).

central perspective (Lat. centralis, "in the centre", and perspicere, "see clearly')

    a scientific and mathematical method of three-dimensional representation developed by Filippo Brunelleschi (1376 -1446) at the beginning of the 15th century. Relative to the observer, all the converging lines lead toward a single vanishing point at the centre of the composition. An illusion of depth is created on two-dimensional picture surfaces by precise foreshortening and proportioning of the objects, landscapes, buildings and figures that are being depicted, in accordance with their distance from the observer.

chalice

    A cup used in the celebration of the Christian Eucharist. Both the statement of St. Paul about "the cup of blessing which we bless" (1 Corinthians 10:16) and the accounts of the institution of the Eucharist in the first three Gospels indicate that special rites of consecration attended the use of the chalice from the beginning. It was not until the recognition of Christianity by the Roman Empire in the 4th century that silver and gold became the usual materials for the chalice. In the Middle Ages the legend of the Holy Grail surrounded the origins of the eucharistic chalice with a magical aura.

    The precious stones and elaborate carvings employed for the embellishment of chalices have made them an important part of the history of ecclesiastical art.

champlevé (Fr. 'raised ground')

    A technique dating from Roman times or earlier, in which grooves cut in the surface of a thick metal plaque (usually of bronze or copper, but sometimes of gold) are filled with enamel and fired. The glass powder melts filling the carved areas with solid glass.

cherub (plural cherubim)

    In Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literature, a celestial winged being with human, animal, or birdlike characteristics; a throne bearer of the deity. Derived from ancient Near Eastern mythology and iconography, these celestial beings serve important liturgical and intercessory functions in the hierarchy of angels. Old Testament descriptions of the cherubim emphasize their supernatural mobility and their cultic role as throne bearers of God, rather than intercessory functions. In Christianity the cherubim are ranked among the higher orders of angels and, as celestial attendants of God, continually praise him.

chiaroscuro (It. "light dark")

    In painting, the modelling of form (the creation of a sense of three-dimensionality in objects) through the use of light and shade. The introduction of oil paints in the 15th century, replacing tempera, encouraged the development of chiaroscuro, for oil paint allowed a far greater range and control of tone. The term chiaroscuro is used in particular for the dramatic contrasts of light and dark introduced by Caravaggio. When the contrast of light and dark is strong, chiaroscuro becomes an important element of composition.

chiaroscuro woodcut

    A printing technique in which several printing blocks are used, each producing a different tone of the same color so as to create tonal modeling. Hans Wechtlin experimented with the process in Strassburg between 1504 and 1526, but Ugo da Carpi's claims to have invented it in Venice in 1516 were generally accepted. North of the Alps, various painters experimented with using blocks of different color to produce novel artistic emphases, notably Lucas Cranach (1506), Hans Burgkmair (1510), and Albrecht Altdorfer (1511/20).

chivalry

    The knightly class of feudal times. The primary sense of the term in the European Middle Ages is "knights," or "fully armed and mounted fighting men." Thence the term came to mean the gallantry and honour expected of knights. Lastly, the word came to be used in its general sense of "courtesy."

    In English law "chivalry" meant the tenure of land by knights' service. The court of chivalry instituted by Edward III, with the lord high constable and earl marshal of England as joint judges, had summary jurisdiction in all cases of offenses of knights and generally as to military matters.

    The concept of chivalry in the sense of "honourable and courteous conduct expected of a knight" was perhaps at its height in the 12th and 13th centuries and was strengthened by the Crusades, which led to the founding of the earliest orders of chivalry, the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitalers) and the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Templars), both originally devoted to the service of pilgrims to the Holy Land. In the 14th and 15th centuries the ideals of chivalry came to be associated increasingly with aristocratic display and public ceremony rather than service in the field.

choir (Gk. choros, "group of singers and dancers")

    the part of a church interior, usually raised and set apart from the rest of the church, reserved for the clergy to pray together, or for choral singing. Since Carolingian times, "choir" has been the word for the part of the central nave of the church extending over the crossing (the place where nave and transept intersect), and including the apse (a niche in the wall, roofed with a half dome) that often stands at the end of this area.

Christus Patiens and Christus Triumphans

    are the names given to the two main types of the very large painted crucifixes which normally stood on the rood-screens of medieval churches. Very few still exist in their original positions, most of the surviving examples having been cut down in size and transferred to chapels or sacristies. The Christus Patiens (Suffering Christ) represents Christ as dead on the cross, whereas the Triumphans type represents Him with open eyes and outstretched arms standing on (rather than hangign from) the Cross. The dramatic emphasis of the Patiens type is certainly to be connected with the influence of St Francis of Assisi. An early example is provided by the work of Giunta Pisano.

Churrigueresque

    Spanish Churrigueresco, Spanish Rococo style in architecture, historically a late Baroque return to the aesthetics of the earlier Plateresque style. In addition to a plethora of compressed ornament, surfaces bristle with such devices as broken pediments, undulating cornices, reversed volutes, balustrades, stucco shells, and garlands. Restraint was totally abandoned in a conscious effort to overwhelm the spectator. Although the name of the style comes from the family name of José Benito Churriguera, an architect, the Churriguera family members are not the most representative masters of the style.

    The Transparente (completed 1732), designed by Narciso Tomé for the cathedral in Toledo, is among the masterpieces of Churrigueresque. Tomé created an arrangement in which the Holy Sacrament could be placed within a transparent vessel that was visible from both the high altar and the ambulatory, seen both by the congregation and the pilgrim. Sculpted clouds, gilded rays, a massing of carved angels, and architecturally directed natural light combine to produce a mystical and spiritual effect.

    In the sacristy of the Cartuja of Granada (1727-64), Luis de Arévalo and Francisco Manuel Vásquez created an interior that, if not as delicate or as ingenious as that designed by Tomé, is as typically Churrigueresque. The architects drew from other sources for the thick moldings, undulating lines, and repetition of pattern.

    In Spanish America tendencies from both the native art of the Americas and the ever-present Mudéjar (Moorish art) have been incorporated, further enriching the style, and the Churrigueresque column, which was shaped like an inverted cone, became the most common motif. The Mexico cathedral (1718), Santa Prisca at Taxco (1758), and San Martín at San Luis Potosí (1764) are excellent examples of Churrigueresque in Mexico.

ciborium

    A term applied to both a liturgical vessel used for holding the consecrated Host and an altar canopy supported on columns, popular particularly in Italy in the Romanesque and Gothic periods. In the latter sense the word is not easily distinguished from baldacchino.

Cinquecento

    Designations such as Cinquecento (1500s, High Renaissance), Quattrocento (1400s, Early Renaissance) and the earlier Trecento (1300s, the interval falling between the Gothic and Renaissance periods) are useful in suggesting the changing intellectual and cultural outlooks of late- and post-medieval Italy. The Cinquecento delimits a period of intense and violent changes in the whole fabric of Italian culture. It refers to the century of the Protestant Reformation, of Spanish and Habsburg political domination, and of the uneasy transition to Mannerism in the visual arts.

ciompi

    Ciompi was the name given to the most numerous class of day-labourers (dismissible without notice) in 14th century Florence's chief industry: those employed in the manufacture of woollen cloth as weavers, beaters, combers, etc. They were forbidden to form a trade association, as also were those in the associated, but self-employed, craft of dyeing. Without being members of a guild, none could seek redress save from the Arte della Lana, the manufacturers' corporation which employed them, or achieve political representation.

ciompi, revolt of the

    Insurrection of the lower classes of Florence in 1378 that briefly brought to power one of the most democratic governments in Florentine history. The ciompi ("wool carders") were the most radical of the groups that revolted, and they were defeated by the more conservative elements in Florentine society.

    A struggle between factions within the major ruling guilds triggered the uprising. Members of the lower classes, called upon to take part in the revolt in late June, continued to agitate on their own during the month of July. They presented a series of petitions to the Signoria (executive council of Florence) demanding a more equitable fiscal policy and the right to establish guilds for those groups not already organized. Then, on July 22, the lower classes forcibly took over the government, placing one of their members, the wool carder Michele di Lando, in the important executive office of gonfaloniere of justice. The new government, controlled by the minor guilds, was novel in that for the first time it represented all the classes of society, including the ciompi, who were raised to the status of a guild.

    But the ciompi were soon disillusioned. Their economic condition worsened, and the new government failed to implement all their demands. Conflicting interests of the minor guilds and the ciompi became evident. On August 31 a large group of the ciompi that had gathered in the Piazza della Signoria was easily routed by the combined forces of the major and minor guilds. In reaction to this revolutionary episode, the ciompi guild was abolished, and within four years the dominance of the major guilds was restored.

cithara (Gk.)

    An ancient musical instrument, resembling a lyre, on which strings were plucked. They were often used to accompany a singer or someone reciting poetry.

clair-obscur (Fr. "light-dark")

    woodcut technique based on the reproduction of light and dark in drawings, where the effect depends on using the base of the drawing in the design of the image. In clair-obscur prints the light areas are carved out of the printing plate, in order to allow the white of the paper to take effect. In coloured prints the coloured areas are printed with clay plates, the black contours usually with a special line plate, except in cases where - as in Italy these were dispensed with.

classical

    Relating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration.

clerestory

    A row of windows in the upper part of the wall of a basilicas nave (main aisle).

cloisonné (French: partitioned)

    A technique dating from the 6th century AD, in which the various colours are separated by metal wire or strips soldered to the plaque.

cloth of honour

    a cloth of valuable material held up behind a distinguished person to set them apart visually from others (a custom deriving from classical antiquity).

coffering

    An ornamental system of deep panels recessed into a vault, arch or ceiling. Coffered ceilings, occasionally made of wood, were frequently used in Renaissance palaces.

cognoscenti, sing. cognoscente (It. "those who know")

    Connoisseurs of art, literature or music; those with refined tastes.

colonnade

    Row of columns with a straight entablature and no arches.

Compagnia de San Luca (Guild of St. Luke)

    The painters' guild in Florence (named after St. Luke because he was believed to have painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary).

complementary colours

    Pairs of colours that have the maximum contrast and so, when set side by side, intensify one another. Green and red, blue and orange, and yellow and violet are complementary colours.

compline (Lat. [hora] completa, "completed [hour]")

    The last prayers of the day; the church service at which these prayers are said.

concetto, pl. concetti (It. "concept")

    In Renaissance art theory, the intellectual or narrative program behind a work; a work's underlying theme. Concetti were often taken from the literature and mythology of Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as from the Bible.

condottiere, pl. condottieri (It. "leader")

    Leader of a band of mercenaries engaged to fight in numerous wars among the Italian states from the mid-14th to the 16th century. The name was derived from the condotta, or "contract," by which the condottieri put themselves in the service of a city or of a lord.

    The first mercenary armies in Italy (often called free companies) were made up of foreigners. The earliest (1303) was composed of Catalans who had fought in the dynastic wars of the south. In the mid-14th century the Grand Company, composed mainly of Germans and Hungarians, terrorized the country, devastating Romagna, Umbria, and Tuscany. It was one of the first to have a formal organization and a strict code of discipline, developed by the Provençal adventurer Montréal d' Albarno. The Englishman Sir John Hawkwood, one of the most famous of the non-Italian condottieri, came to Italy in the 1360s during a lull in the Hundred Years' War and for the next 30 years led the White Company in the confused wars of northern Italy.

    By the end of the 14th century, Italians began to raise mercenary armies, and soon condottieri were conquering principalities for themselves. The organization of the companies was perfected in the early 15th century by Muzio Attendolo Sforza, in the service of Naples, and his rival Braccio da Montone, in the service of Perugia. Muzio's son, Francesco Sforza, who won control of Milan in 1450, was one of the most successful of all the condottieri.

    Less fortunate was another great condottiere, Carmagnola, who first served one of the viscounts of Milan and then conducted the wars of Venice against his former masters but at last awoke the suspicion of the Venetian oligarchy and was put to death before the palace of St. Mark (1432). Toward the end of the 15th century, when the large cities had gradually swallowed up the small states and Italy itself was drawn into the general current of European politics and became the battlefield of powerful armies--French, Spanish, and German--the condottieri, who proved unequal to the gendarmery of France and the improved Italian troops, disappeared.

    The soldiers who fought under the condottieri were almost entirely heavy-armoured cavalry and were noted for their rapacious and disorderly behaviour. With no goal beyond personal gain, the armies of the condottieri often changed sides, and their battles often resulted in little bloodshed.

confraternities

    Confraternities, often called compagnie or, in Venice, scuole, were religious associations of lay persons devoted to specific pious practices or works of charity, often under the direction of, or with the spiritual assistance of, clergy. Guilds 'qua' religious associations had the character of confraternities.

    Several major historic waves of foundations can be distinguished. (1) Compagnie dei disciplinati or dei laudesi, i.e. flagellant confraternities, which were conformist offshoots of the partly heterodox flagellant movement of 1260. The Venetian scuole grandi were especially prestigious examples. By the 16th century, although flagellant practices were retained in some cases, these functioned more as mutual aid societies and as administrators of charitable funds. (2) Confraternite del Rosario, which spread in the 15th century, being primarily promoted by the Dominicans. (3) A group of confraternities which spread from the mid-15th century, commonly called either Compagnia di S. Girolamo or Compagnia del Divino Amore ('Company of Divine Love'; perhaps the first example was the Florentine Buonuomini di S. Martino), associated with certain specialized charitable enterprises, in the first place relief of the poveri vergognosi or 'shamefaced poor', i.e. respectable people who had to be aided discreetly. In the 16th century they also promoted hospitals of the incurabili, primarily for syphilitics, convents of convertite, i.e. reformed prostitutes, and refuges for maidens. To this movement belonged the famous Roman Company or Oratory of Divine Love, founded c. 1514 in S. Dorotea in Trastevere. This recruited some leading churchmen and papal officials (as a confraternity it was unusual in its heavy clerical membership), but many ascriptions of leading church reformers to it are without sound foundation and there is no basis for its reputation as a seminal body in the Catholic reform movement. The new congregation of the Clerks Regular called Theatines was, however, an offshoot and these took the lead in propagating Compagnie del Divino Amore in Italy. Other types of confraternity were those of the buona morte, which accompanied condemned prisoners, and those which aided imprisoned debtors, e.g. the Florentine Neri.

    Confraternities commonly had chapels in parish churches or in the churches of religious orders, but sometimes had their own premises, e.g. the splendid ones of the Venetian scuole grandi; in Florence, the hall of Orsanmichele housed a devotional and almsgiving confraternity as well as being a grain dispensary. Great confraternities might exercise public functions: certain Florentine ones concerned with welfare became effectively state magistracies, while the Venetian government, in addition to giving them a ceremonial role, relied upon the scuole grandi to distribute funds. Confraternities, notwithstanding their location, tended to be manifestations of lay piety independent of ecclesiastical institutions, or at least outside the framework of the parish and the diocese.

congregation

    A close community of monasteries within the same monastic order.

Consiglio dei Dieci (Ital. "Council of Ten")

    established in 1310, the highest political decision-making body in Venice. Its members were elected for a fixed term by the Senate, the Venetian parliament of noblemen. While the Doge ranked above the Council, he had to use considerable personal power if he wanted to win against them.

contour (Fr. contour, "outline")

    a line around a shape in a work of art, its nature depending on the artist's concept and intention. In medieval painting, contours were initially regular, flat outlines; in the course of the 14th century they acquired more sense of spatial effect, and appear to be alternately more and less emphatic. Later, the effect of contour in painting and graphic art became particularly important to artistic movements in which line and draughtsmanship was a prominent factor.

contrapposto (It. "placed opposite")

    An asymmetrical pose in which the one part of the body is counterbalanced by another about the body's central axis. Ancient Greek sculptors developed contrapposto by creating figures who stand with their weight on one leg, the movement of the hips to one side being balanced by a counter movement of the torso. Contrapposto was revived during the Renaissance and frequently used by Mannerist artist, who developed a greater range of contrapposto poses.

conventicle (Lat. conventiculurn, "meeting place")

    A religious meeting or society.

Copperplate engraving (late Lat. cuprum; Lat. aes cyprium, "ore from the island of Cyprus")

    A method of printing using a copper plate into which a design has been cut by a sharp instrument such as a burin; an engraving produced in this way. Invented in south west Germany during the 1430s, the process is the second oldest graphic art after woodcut. In German art it was developed in particular by Schongauer and Dürer, and in Italian art by Pollaiuolo and Mantegna.

corbel

    In architecture, a bracket of stone, brick or wood that projects from a wall to support an arch, large cornice or other feature. They are often ornamented.

Cosmati work

    A type of coloured decorative inlay work of stone and glass that flourished mainly in Rome between c. 1100 and 1300. It is characterized by the use of small pieces of coloured stone and glass in combination with strips of white marble to produce geometrical designs. The term derives from two craftsmen called Cosmas, whose names are inscribed on several works, but there were several families of 'Cosmati' workers and many individual craftsmen. Cosmati work was applied to church furnishings such as tombs and pulpits and was also used for architectural decoration. The style spread as far as England, for example in the tomb of Henry III in Westminster Abbey (c. 1280), executed by imported Italian craftsmen.

Counter-Reformation

    Term in ecclesiastical history referring to the reform of the entire Church which was widely believed to be necessary as early as the late Middle Ages. Reform programs, such as those passed by the Councils of Constance (1414-1418) and Basle (1431-1437 and 1448) or the 5th Lateran Council (1512-1517), did not achieve any lasting results. Not until the Protestant Reformation were the Pope and Roman Curia forced to take specific action against abuse of position, declining moral standards, the selling of indulgences and excesses in the worship of saints and relics. With the Laetere Jerusalem (1544) bull. Pope Paul III (1534-1549) was responsible for the convocation of the Council of Trent which, in three separate sessions between 15445 and 1563, started the process of inner reform in the Church.

craquelure

    The pattern of fine cracks in paint, due to the paint shrinking and becoming brittle as it ages.

crozier

    The crook-shaped staff carried by a bishop. The crook is intended to resemble a shepherd's crook, i.e. it symbolizes the shepherd (the bishop) looking after his flock.

crucifixion

    An important method of capital punishment, particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Jews, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished it in the Roman Empire in AD 337, out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion.

    There were various methods of performing the execution. Usually, the condemned man, after being whipped, or "scourged," dragged the crossbeam of his cross to the place of punishment, where the upright shaft was already fixed in the ground. Stripped of his clothing either then or earlier at his scourging, he was bound fast with outstretched arms to the crossbeam or nailed firmly to it through the wrists. The crossbeam was then raised high against the upright shaft and made fast to it about 9 to 12 feet (approximately 3 metres) from the ground. Next, the feet were tightly bound or nailed to the upright shaft. A ledge inserted about halfway up the upright shaft gave some support to the body; evidence for a similar ledge for the feet is rare and late. Over the criminal's head was placed a notice stating his name and his crime. Death, apparently caused by exhaustion or by heart failure, could be hastened by shattering the legs (crurifragium) with an iron club, so that shock and asphyxiation soon ended his life.

crumhorn

    A wind instrument popular throughout Europe in 16th and 17th centuries. An ancestor of the oboe, the crumhorn was a double-reed instrument that produced a soft, reedy sound.

cupola (Lat. cupula, "small vat")

    In architecture, a small dome, usually one set on a much larger dome or on a roof; a semi-circular vault.