acanthus (Lat. acanthus Gk. Akantha, "thorn")

a thistle species very common in the Mediterranean. Its large, jagged leaves, curving in slightly at the tips, have been a favorite ornamental pattern since classical antiquity.

aedicula

A shrine or niche framed by two columns, piers, or pilasters carrying an entablature and pediment (triangular or segmental).

aerial perspective

A way of suggesting the far distance in a landscape by using paler colours (sometimes tinged with blue), less pronounced tones, and vaguer forms.

alb (Lat. alba tunica, "white garment")

the white, ankle-length garment worn by priests during Mass, under the stole and chasuble.

all' antica (It. "from the antique")

(of an art work) based on or influenced by classical Greek or Roman art.

allegory (Gk. allegorein, "say differently")

A work of art which represents some abstract quality or idea, either by means of a single figure (personification) or by grouping objects and figures together. Renaissance allegories make frequent allusions both to both Greek and Roman legends and literature, and also to the wealth of Christian allegorical stories and symbols developed during the Middle Ages.

altarpiece

A picture or sculpture that stands on or is set up behind an altar. The term reredos is used for an ornamental screen or partition, not directly attached to the altar table but affixed to the wall behind it. A diptych is an altarpiece consisting of two panels, a triptych one of three panels, and a polyptych one of four or more panels.

From the 14th to 16th century, the altarpiece was one of the most important commissions in European art; it was through the altarpiece that some of the most decisive developments in painting and sculpture came about.

anamorphosis

Device commonly used in 16th-century paintings and drawings whereby a figure or object is depicted not parallel to the pictorial plane but projected at an oblique angle to it, and so highly distorted. The viewer resolves the optical distortion of form that results by looking at the picture at the same oblique angle.

Anghiari, battle of

A Florentine and papal army defeated a Milanese force under Piccinino outside this town near Arezzo (29 June 1440). Macchiavelli, in his History of Florence, used it shamelessly as an example of the reluctance of mercenaries to risk death in battle: he put the casualties as 'one man killed, and he fell off his horse and was trampled to death', whereas sources available to him put the joint fatalities at some 300. It was a subject of a fresco painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (chosen because it was primarily a cavalry engagement and he could show horses in combat). The fresco rapidly decayed and its composition is best known from the sketch Rubens made of its central part.

Annunciation

the term for the event described in the Gospel according to St. Luke, when the Angel Gabriel brings the Virgin Mary the news that she is to bear her son, Jesus Christ. The Annunciation was among the most widespread pictorial subjects of European art during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Antique, Classical world (Lat. antiquus, "old")

the classical age of Greece and Rome began with the Greek migrations of the 2nd millennium BC, and ended in the West in 476 AD with the deposition of the Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus (c. 475 AD); in the East it ended in 529 AD when the Platonic Academy was closed by Justinian (482 - 565 AD).

Antwerp Mannerists

Group of Antwerp painters of the early 16th century whose work is characterized by Italianate ornamentation and affected attitudes. Unconnected with later Mannerism.

Apelles (c. 330 BC)

one of the most famous painters of ancient Greece, noted above all for his startling realism. Painters of the Renaissance tried to reconstruct some of his compositions, which have come down to us in written accounts only.

Apocalypse (Gk. apokalyptein, "reveal")

the Revelation of St John, the last book of the New Testament. The wrath of God descending upon the earth is depicted in three visions; in the form of terrible natural catastrophes, in the battle between the forces and good and evil, and in the union of a new Heaven and new Earth in the Heavenly Jerusalem. The announcement of the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world was intended to console the persecuted Christians and also prepare them for the horrors connected with the event.

Apocalyptic Madonna

the depiction of the Virgin Mary as the "Apocalyptic Woman" mentioned in the Revelation of St. John (Chapter 12, verse 1). She is "clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars"; she is described as pregnant, and her enemy is a dragon. In the wake of Mariological interpretations of this passage, Gothic art increasingly gave the Woman of the Apocalypse the features of the Virgin Mary, and after the l4th century the devoted relationship of mother and child was emphasized in depictions of the Apocalyptic Madonna, with reference to the Biblical Song of Songs.

Apocrypha (Gk. apokryphos, "hidden")

Jewish or Christian additions to the Old and New Testaments excluded from the Canon.

Apostle (Gk. apostolos, "messenger")

one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, chosen personally by him from amongst his large crowd of followers in order to continue his work and preach the gospels.

applied art

Term describing the design or decoration of functional objects so as to make them aesthetically pleasing. It is used in distinction to fine art, although there is often no clear dividing line between the two terms.

apse (Lat. absis, "arch, vault")

A semicircular projection, roofed with a half-dome, at the east end of a church behind the altar. Smaller subsidiary apses may be found around the choir or transepts. Also known as an exedra. The adjective is apsidal.

aquatint

An engraving method related to etching but producing finely granulated tonal areas rather than lines. The term applies also to a print made by this method. There are several variants of the technique, but in essence the process is as follows. A metal plate is sprinkled with acid-resistant varnish, which is fused to the plate by heating, and when the plate is immersed in an acid bath the acid bites between the tiny particles of resin and produces an evenly granulated surface. The design is created by drawing on the plate with add-resistant varnish, and great variety of tone can be obtained by immersing in acid and varnishing in turn (the longer the add bites, the darker the tone). Aquatint was invented around the middle of the 18th century, and in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was highly popular in England for reproducing watercolours (colour could be added by hand or by using several plates with different coloured inks). It has also been used as an original creative medium (sometimes in conjunction with other graphic techniques) by many distinguished artists, including Goya, Degas, Picasso, and Rouault.

arcade (Lat. arcus, "arch")

A series of arches supported by columns, piers or pillars. In a blind arcade the arches are built into a wall.

Arcadia

A mountainous area of Greece. In Greek and Roman literature, a place where a contented life of rural simplicity is lived; an earthly paradise peopled by shepherds.

arch

The pointed arch is widely regarded as the main identifiable feature of Gothic architecture (distinct from the round arch of the Romanesque period). The three most common Gothic arches are the Equilateral, Lancet and Tudor.

architectonic (Gk. arkhitektonikos, "architectural")

Relating to structure, design, or organization.

architrave (It. "chiefbeam")

In classical architecture, the main beam resting on the capitals of the columns (i.e. the lowest part of the entablature); the moulding around a window or door.

archivolt (Ital. archivolto, "front arch," from Gk. archeiu, "begin, dominate," and Lat. voltus, "turned")

a set of concentric and projecting moldings with which the face of an arch is decorated. In Early Netherlandish art the archivolt is often depicted showing sculpted scenes relating to the central subject of a painting.

Ars Moriendi (Lat. "the art of dying well")

a small book on death; Late Medieval devotional tracts which described the battles between Heaven and Hell for the souls of the dying and recommended to Christians the proper way to behave at the hour of their death.

attribute (Lat. attributum, "added")

A symbolic object which is conventionally used to identify a particular person, usually a saint. In the case of martyrs, it is usually the nature of their martyrdom.

Augsburg confession

A classic statement of Lutheran doctrine, drawn up largely by Philipp Melanchthon and approved by Luther himself. It was presented to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg 1530.

aureole (Lat. aureolus, "golden, beautiful")

a halo or "glory" enclosing the head or sometimes the whole body of a holy person.

autobiography

Autobiography as a distinct literary genre was one of the more original products of the Renaissance; there had been relatively little of it in antiquity and even less in the Middle Ages. The Confessions of St Augustine provided the example of an inward autobiography - the story of the author's search for God - but no imitator was able to approach its level of introspection until Petrarch's Letter to posterity and Secretum. Dante's Vita nuova - and the Comedy - are intensely autobiographical but are not autobiographies.

The roots of the secular autobiography are to be found in the books of ricordanze (memoranda) kept by Italian professional and business men from the late 13th century. From bare accounts of land purchases and marriage settlements, these personal notebooks could develop into family histories which might also contain soul-searching and self examinations, like those of the early 15th century Florentine merchants Goro Dati and Giovanni Morelli, or the Zibaldone quaresimale of Giovanni Rucellai (1457-85). Records of business ventures and public offices were the starting point for autobiographies of external action: while the Cronica of Jacopo Salviati is a fairly wooden account of captaincies and embassies 1398-1411, that of Buonaccorso Pitti is a lively narrative of fortunes won and lost through trading and gambling (written 1412-22). The Commentaries of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pius II) similarly concentrate on events, leaving the character of the author to be deduced from his actions. The supreme example of the (apparently) unconsciously revealing autobiography is the famous Life of Cellini: of the deliberately revealing one, that of Cardano.

Avignon

The decision to move the Papacy here was made in August 1308 by Pope Clement V, who had been residing in France since 1305. The actual move was made in 1309. Six pontificates later, in 1377, the Papacy was brought back to Rome by Gregory XI. All the popes elected at Avignon were French, as were 113 of the 134 cardinals appointed during this time. Yet though the period has been called one of 'captivity' to France, the Avignonese residence was not one of uninterrupted truckling to French kings. The city was not on French territory: it belonged to the Angevin princes of Naples. 'Captivity', like Petrarch's 'unholy Babylon', which he likened to the harlot of the Apocalypse 'full of abominations and the filth of her fornication', was mainly a term of abuse directed at a Papacy that had acquired security enough to revive its legal and financial pretensions and to build lavishly and live well. Between 1100 and 1309 the popes had only spent 82 years in Rome. Avignon gave them a long breathing space to assemble the machinery and the values which characterized the Renaissance Papacy after its final resettlement in Rome.