Abstraction
The process of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others
Acid-free Paper or Canvas
Paper or canvas treated to neutralize it’s natural acidity in order to protect fine art and photographic prints from discoloration and deterioration.
Adumbration
A sketchy, imperfect or faint representation
Alabaster
A fine-grained, slightly translucent stone with a smooth milk-white surface.
Albumen
Eggwhite. Used on glass as a medium for light-sensitive emulsions to make finely detailed negatives albumen positive prints are made on paper coated with eggwhite and salt solution and sensitized with silver nitrite solution. The print is made by exposure to sunlight through a negative.
Altarpiece
A painted or carved screen placed above and behind an altar or communion table
Aquatint
A print produced by the same technique as an etching, except that the areas between the etched lines are covered with a powdered resin that protects the surface from the biting process of the acid bath. The granular appearance that results in the print aims at approximating the effects and gray tonalities of a watercolor drawing.
Art Deco
Style of art characterized by repetitive, ornamental and highly finished, curvilinear and geometric designs, (1920’s-1930′).
Artist’s Proof
An Artist’s Proof is one outside the regular edition, but printed at the same time or after the regular edition from the same plates without changes. By custom, the artist retains the A/Ps for his personal use or sale. Typically, 10% of the edition total is designated as A/P, or in the case of a small edition, five graphics are usually so designated.
Art Nouveau
A style of decoration and architecture emphasizing fluid, biomorphic lines and swirling motifs.
Atelier
French term for “printer’s workshop.”
Avant-Garde
A group active in the invention and application of new ideas and techniques in an original or experimental way. A group of practitioners and/or advocates of a new art form may also be called avant-garde. Some avant-garde works are intended to shock those who are accustomed to traditional, established styles.
Baroque
An elaborate ornamentation in decorative art & architecture that flourished in Europe in the 17th century
Bon a Tirer (B.A.T.)
When the artist is satisfied with the graphic from the finished plate, he works with his printer to pull one perfect graphic and it is marked “Bon a Tirer,” meaning “good to pull.” The printer then compares each graphic in the edition with the BAT before submitting the graphic to the artist for approval and signature. There is typically one BAT which becomes the property of the printer or workshop printing the edition.
Blind
Printing using an uninked plate to produce the subtle embossed texture of a white-on-white image, highlighted by the shadow of the relief image on the uninked paper. This technique is used in many Japanese prints.
Bronze
An alloy of copper and tin, sometimes containing small proportions of other elements such as zinc or phosphorus. It is stronger, harder, and more durable than brass, and has been used most extensively since antiquity for cast sculpture. Bronze alloys vary in color from a silvery hue to a rich, coppery red. U.S. standard bronze is composed of 90% copper, 7% tin, and 3% zinc.
Buon fresco
Sometimes called “true fresco.” A painting technique in which pigment suspended in water is applied to wet plaster. This method is very durable.
Carte-de-Visite
A mounted photographic print measuring 4 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches popular in the late 19th century, usually as a portrait.
Carver
An artist who creates sculpture.
Cartoon
A full-size preparatory drawing, sometimes colored, from which an original work such as a fresco or tapestry is copied.
Ceramics
The art making of objects of clay and firing them in a kiln. Wares of earthenware and porcelain, as well as sculpture are made by ceramists. Enamel is also a ceramic technique. Ceramic materials may be decorated with slip, engobe, or glaze, applied by a number of techniques, including resist, mishima, and sanggam. Pots made be made by the coil, slab, or some other manual technique, or on a potter’s wheel.
Certifies the authenticity
Certifies the authenticity of an individual piece in an edition and states the current market value.
Charcoal
Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances. Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks used as a drawing implement.
Chiaroscuro
(Ke-ära-skooro)In drawing, painting, and the graphic arts, the rendering of forms through a balanced contrast between light and dark areas. The technique which was introduced during the Renaissance, is effective in creating an illusion of depth and space around the principal figures in a composition. Leonardo Da Vinci and Rembrandt were painters who excelled in the use of this technique.
Chine colle
(sheen coal lay) Process of taking thin paper, like rice paper, dampened with water and glue, placed on another paper, then placed in the etching press, before the etching is done.
Chop
Also called dry stamp or seal. A mark impressed on a print by a workshop or a printer. Some artists and publishers also use their own chop to identify authentic prints.
Chromalith Replica
A continuous tone reproduction with hand drawn touch colors, using both serigraphy and lithography.
Chromist
“One who works with color”. An artist craftsman who separates paintings or drawings into individual colors, used to print.
Classical
Style with emphasis on symmetry, proportion and harmony of line and form.
Collograph
A print that uses a build-up of applied surfaces, such as glue, mat board, cloth, sand, etc. It is then inked by hand and printed on an intaglio press.
Collotype
Also called photo gelatin print or heliotype, a reproduction process using gelatin-coated glass or metal plate that produces a continuous tone print.
Commission
To order an original work of art from the artist
Condottiere
Until the mid-fifteenth century, condottieri were mercenary leaders in the employ of Italian city-states.
Conservation Framing
Using materials and techniques in the framing process to ensure framing do not damage artwork. Hinging the artwork instead of mounting it, using high-quality acid-free boards and mats, using no staining paste, and glazing with conservation glass or acrylic are generally accepted procedures used to help preserve artwork. The same procedures are sometimes referred to as “preservation framing.”
Contrapposto
The principle of weight shift in the visual arts. It is commonly used to depict a figure in a relaxed stance, one leg weight-bearing, the other bent, the torso slightly shifted off axis.
Copperplate
An engraving consisting of a smooth plate of copper that has been etched or engraved.
Craquelure
Network of small cracks in painted or varnished surface of an old painting.
Crosshatching
Shading consisting of multiple crossing lines
Daguerrotype
Invented in 1838, this was the first practical photographic process, in which an image is formed on a copper plate coated with highly polished silver. Following exposure, the image is developed in mercury vapor, resulting in a unique image on metal that cannot be used as a negative for replication.
Deckle
The natural rough edge on a sheet of paper in hand made paper.
Del
(Latin, delineavit) He(she) drew it. Generally inscribed next to the artist’s signature.
Diptych
(dip-tic) Two paneled altarpiece, carving or painting.
Display
Something shown to the public; a visual representation of something
Distort
To twist and press out of shape
Documentation
A certificate that identifies techniques and materials used to produce an edition, as well as total number of prints plus proofs, signed by both printer and artist.
Dry mount
The process of using dry adhesive substances to mount paper artwork or photographs to a board, using high heat and a dry mount press.
Dye Transfer
A high quality color photographic printing technique involving the transfer of dyes from three separately prepared images onto a single sheet of paper.
E.A.
(French, epreuve d’ artist) an artist’s proof.
Ecce Homo
A representation of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns
Edition
Number of prints made from an original. This number generally does not include any artist proofs or any special editions.
Enamel
When painting, used upon a ground of metal, porcelain, the colors afterward being fixed by fire.
Encaustic
Painting done with pigment mixed with beeswax and blended with heat.
Engraving
Making engraved or etched plates and printing designs from them
Etching
Technique where a soft ground is laid on a copper or tin metal plate, and using a sharp etching tool, the artist draws through the ground, exposing the metal plate. The lines of exposed metal are then “bitten” in an acid bath. The strength of the acid and the length of time the plate is bathed determines the depth of the lines. After the ground is removed the artist inks the plate, making sure that the etched lines are filled with ink. The excess ink is wiped away, the plate placed, face up on the press and the paper face down. The pressure of the heavy rollers on the press is so great it leaves the impression of the plate on the paper and pushes the ink onto the surface.
Exc or Imp
(Latin, exudit) He(she) executed it. The meaning is synonymous with he(she) printed it.
Fauvism
An art movement launched in 1905 with work characteristic of bright, non-natural colors and simple forms. This influenced Impressionists.
Fillet
A thin moulding used as an accent in framing inside another moulding, liner or mat.
Fine Art
The products of human creativity; works of art collectively
Folk Art
Genre of art of unknown origin that reflects traditional values of a society.
Foreshortening
The term foreshortening refers to the artistic effect of shortening lines in a drawing so as to create an illusion of depth.
Fresco
The art of painting on freshly spread plaster before it dries, or in any manner.
Fresco secco
In this technique, pigment is mixed with a binding agent and painted on dry plaster. This method is not as durable as true fresco painting.
Fugitive
In reference to ink it means the pigment is not stable or will fade at a fast rate. Fugitive pigments are synthetic based and made of cheap components.
Futurism
Style of glorifying modern technology, speed and the machine age, (Italy, early 20th Century).
Gelatin Silver
A high-quality, black-and-white photographic printing technique in which a natural protein is used as a transparent medium to hold light-sensitive silver halide crystals in suspension, binding them to the printing paper or film, yet allowing penetration of processing solutions.
Genre
(zhan-re) Realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. Also, a type or class like a certain “genre” of painting.
Gesso
Plaster of Paris used as white primer for painting surface, esp. canvas.
Giclee
(Zhee-clay) Computer controlled, fine art print making process. Similar to the look of a serigraph but no screens are used. It uses a very fine spray of ink, 15 microns in size, about 4 times smaller than a human hair. The microscopic jet-stream is controlled by a crystal frequency. The print is then coated with up to 15 layers of waterproof U.V. varnishes.
Glaze
A glossy finish on a surface, to varnish
Gold leaf
Very thin leaves of real gold that are burnished onto a wood frame that has been coated with several layers of other material in preparation. The process is expensive because of the use of precious metal.
Gothic
Style emphasizing Christian imagery, brilliant color and strong verticality in composition.
Gouache
(gwash) Opaque watercolor paint bound with gum.
Grisaille
Chiaroscuro painting in shades of gray imitating the effect of relief
High Renaissance
The artist style of early 16th century painting in Florence and Rome ; characterized by technical mastery, heroic composition and humanistic content.
Hors de Commerce
Also known as HC prints. Prints not equal in quality to the edition that may have minor flaws. These usually aren’t signed and are canceled in some way, such as a hole in the corner or a stamp indicating they are not for sale. These are used by sales people to show potential clients.
Hue
Color or shade of a color
Humanism
Humanism is the movement of the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries when all branches of learning, literary, scientific and intellectual, were based on the culture and literature of classical Greco-Roman antiquity.
Idiom
The style of a particular artist, school or movement
Illustration
A general term used for a drawing or an original work of art
Illusionism
A style of painting which makes two-dimensional objects appear to be three-dimensional.
Image
A visual representation of an object, scene or person produced on a surface.
Image Size
The size of the work reproduced on a print, not the overall paper size.
Impasto
Thick application of paint that forms an opaque relief surface, so that brush or palette knife marks are visible.
Impression
A print on paper from a wood block, metal plate, linoleum, etc.
Impressionism
An art movement founded in France in the last 3rd of the 19th century. The artist’s sought to break up light into its component colors and render its emphemeral play on various objects. The artist’s vision was intensely centered on light and the way it transforms the visible world The short brush-strokes of bright color are chosen to represent light which is broken down into its spectrum components and re-combined by the eyes into another color when viewed at a distance.
Inc. or Sculp
(Latin, incidit) He(she) cut it or carved it. These abbreviations refer to the individuals who engraved the master plate.
Intaglio
Derived from the Italian, “cut in”, or engrave. It stands for any or several print making methods — engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint, soft-ground etching or mezzotint. These all have this in common: The areas which print on the paper have been cut, scratched or chemically bitten.
Inv. or Invent
(Latin, invenit). He(she) designed it. Generally inscribed next to the artist’s signature.
Landscape
A painting depicting an expanse of natural scenery
Laquer
A varnish consisting of a solution of shella in alcohol, often used for varnishing metals
Lithography
The process of putting designs or writing, with a greasy material, on a stone, and of producing printed impression there from. The original painting is photographed and the image is burned into four plates for a full color printing process. The ink comes from a roller on a printing press. High quality lithographs use a very fine dot screen on acid free paper with fade resistant inks.
Manifesto
In art, a public declaration or exposition in print of the theories and directions of a movement. The manifestos issued by various individual artists or groups of artists, in the first half of the twentieth century served to reveal their motivations and raisons d‚etre and stimulated support for or reactions against them.
Mannerism
A style developed during the Late Renaissance gaining popularity in much of Europe and northern Italy, Mannerism featured the use of distorted figures in complex, impossible poses, and strange artificial colors.
Maquette
In sculpture, a small model in wax or clay, made as a preliminary sketch, presented to a client for his approval of the proposed work, or entered in a competition for a prize or scholarship. The Italian equivalent of the term is bozzetto, meaning small sketch.
Master Printer
A printer who has studied and practiced all processes, including serigraphy, lithography, intaglio and relief printing. Advanced techniques must be mastered in each process. Generally 100 editions must be produced to earn the title.
Medium
A liquid with which pigment is mixed by a painter
Mezzotint
Print produced by an engraving that has been scraped to represent light or shade
Model
The act of representing something
Modernism
Style that breaks with traditional art forms and searches for new modes of expression (early 20th century).
Monochrome
Painting done in a range of tints and tones of a single color.
Monoprint
Sometimes used interchangeably with monotype, a one-of-a-kind print made by painting or inking on a sheet of metal or glass and transferring the still wet painting to a sheet of paper by hand or with an etching press. If enough paint remains on the master plate, additional prints can be made, however, the reprint will have substantial variations from the original image. Monotype printing is not a multiple-replica process since each print is unique.
Montage
A picture made up of various proportions of existing pictures, such as photographs or prints, arranged so they join, overlap, or blend with one another.
Monotype
A one-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either printed by hand or transferred to paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press.
Mural
A painting that is applied to a wall surface.
Neo-classicism
Style modeled after proportion and restraint of Greek and Roman classical antiquity (late 20th c.).
New Wave
Combination of cartoon, graffiti and performance art in a minimalist, unsophisticated style. (Late 20th c.).
Numbered
A numbered print is designed to show the limit or size of a print edition. The number is generally placed over the size of the edition. For example 12/500 indicates that the print is number twelve out of an edition of 500. Lower numbers used to mean a sharper image, but with modern printing, the last print should be as sharp as the first “off the press”.
Offset Lithograph
A special photo-mechanical technique in which the image to be printed is transferred to the negative plates and printed onto papers.
Oil paint
A paint made by grinding a coloring substance in oil.
Op art
Style with graphic abstraction and pattern-oriented optical effects (mid. 20th c).
Open Edition
The print produced has an unlimited size. The print may or may not be signed by the artist. An unsigned, unnumbered print is basically just a poster.
Original
Buying an original means you have the only one. It is the actual painting or work of art done by the artist. Most times, no reproductions are made of a painting. When a print has been made, the original painting is what was photographed for the reproduction. This makes the original to a limited edition print more valuable in that the piece becomes well known and more appreciated. Usually the original is larger than the print.
Original Print
One-of-a-kind print in which artist personally conceived the image, created the master plates, and executed the entire printing process.
Painting
The work of a painter; a painted representation of any object or scene; a picture.
Palette
The range of color characteristic of a particular artist, painting, or school of art
Pastel
A colored crayon that consists of pigment mixed with just enough of a aqueous binder to hold it together; a work of art produced by pastel crayons; the technique itself. Pastels vary according to the volume of chalk contained…the deepest in tone are pure pigment. Pastel is the simplest and purest method of painting, since pure color is used without a fluid medium and the crayons are applied directly to the pastel paper. Pastels are called paintings rather than drawings, for although no paint is used, the colors are applied in masses rather than in lines.
Patina
A film or an incrustation, usually green, that forms on copper and bronze after a certain amount of weathering and as a result of the oxidation of the copper. Special chemical treatments will also induce different colored patinas on new bronzes. Bronzes may be painted with acrylic and lacquer.
Pencil
A slender cylinder or strip of black lead, colored chalk, slate, graphite used for drawing.
Perspective
The representation of three-dimensional objects on a flat surface so as to produce the same impression of distance and relative size as that received by the human eye. In one-point linear prespective, developed during the fifteenth century, all parallel lines in a given visual field converge at a single vanishing point on the horizon. In aerial or atmospheric perspective, the relative distance of objects is indicated by gradations of tone and color and by variations in the clarity of oulines.
Pigment
Dry coloring matter; especially an insoluble powder to be mixed with a liquid to produce paint.
Pinx
(Latin, pinxit) He(she) painted it. Generally inscribed next to the artist’s signature.
Pochoir
A stencil and stencil-brush process for making muticolored prints, and for tinting black-and-white prints, and for coloring reproductions and book illustrations, especially fine and limited editions. Pochoir, which is the French word for stencil, is sometimes called hand-coloring or hand-illustration. Pochoir, as distinguished from ordinary stencil work, is a highly refined technique, skillfully executed in a specialized workshop.
Pointillism
A branch of French Impressionism in which the principle of optical mixture or broken color was carried to the extreme of applying color in tiny dots or small, isolated strokes. Forms are visible in a pointillist painting only from a distance, when the viewer’s eye blends the colors to create visual masses and outlines. The inventor and chief exponent of pointillism was George Seurat (1859-1891); the other leading figure was Paul Signac (1863-1935).
Polytych
Altarpiece or painting with 3 or more panels.
Pop Art
An American school of the 1950’s that imitated the techniques of commercial art and the styles of popular culture and mass media
Portrait
Any likeness of a person; a painting of a person’s face and sometimes their body
Post Modernism
Genre of art, literature and architecture in reaction against principles and practices of established modernism or a Style reflecting the exhaustion of modernist experimentation and a partial return to more traditional forms. (Late 20th c.)
Predella
A decorative frieze or border element running along the front of an altarpiece at the foot usually consisting of several pictures.
Presentation Proof
Prints outside the edition that are generally dedicated to an individual as a gift.
A printed picture produced from a photographic negative.
Print Making
A limited edition print is an original image limited to a predetermined print quantity. The edition is often signed and numbered by the artist. The making of limited edition prints is a time-consuming, exacting and collaborative effort the artist and the printer. The choice of paper, printing technique, the size of the edition, the consistent quality of each print art edition are just as critical as the artist’s choice of subject matter and style. Limited Edition Print: (Signed and Numbered) An edition of identical prints, numbered sequentially and individually signed by the artist, having a stated limit to the quantity in the edition. Following publication the printing plates are destroyed. All Limited Editions are authenticated with a Certificate of Authenticity and original signature of the artist.
Printer’s Proof
Also known as BAT. Prints outside the edition that are property of the master printer.
Progressive Proofs
Prints outside the edition that show incomplete states of the edition.
Provenance
Record of ownership for a work of art, ideally from the time it left the artist’s studio to it’s present location, thus creating an unbroken ownership history.
Quattrocentro
The Italian Renaissance art & literature in the 15th century
Rabbet
The groove under the lip of the moulding that allows space for the mat, glass, art and mounting board.
Remarque
A current practice of some artists is the addition of a small personalized drawing or symbol near his pencil signature in the lower margin. The practice is borrowed from Whister’s famous “butterfly” which was added to personalize many of his graphics. A remarqued print is more desirable to many serious art collectors. A remarque adds value to a print in that it then becomes one of a kind with the addition of the original artwork by the artist.
Renaissance
The period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern world; a cultural rebirth from the 14th century through the 17th century.
Renaissance Man
A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences. A “universal man” or polymath.
Repoussoir
From the French verb meaning to push back. A means of achieving perspective or spacial contrasts by the use of illusionistic devices such as the placement of a large figure or object i the immediate foreground of a painting to increase the illusion of depth in the rest of the picture.
Restrike
An etching plate that is reworked and new editions pulled from new plate.
Representation
Creation that is a visual or tangible rendering of someone or something
Rococo
A fanciful asymmetric ornamentation in art and architecture that originated in France in the 18th century
Romanticism
A movement of literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization
Scratch
A depression scratched or carved into a surface
Semblance
Picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing.
Serigraph
Basically a stencil or silkscreen process. Was given the name after WW1, by a noted art historian, Carl Zigrosser. It was established as an art form in the 1950’s. A direct printing process, the image isn’t reversed like in lithography. A screen of silk, nylon or wire mesh is tightly stretched across a frame. A design is made in stencil form on the mesh by blocking out portions. The remaining open areas will let the ink through to the paper below. Another method of stencil making; using tusche and glue, where the artist draws on the screen with tusche, then coats the entire area with a fast-drying glue. The tusche is dissolved and the hard glue forms the stencil. You could also use a series of acetate overlays. One overlay for each color. The artist draws the image on the overlay with a light-blocking substance. Then the printer exposes the image and the light passes through the acetate. This process called, “cutting” the screen leaves the stencil.
Serilith
A process combining hand drawn lithography and serigraphy.
Sfumato
The term sfumato was coined by Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci, and refers to a fine art painting technique of blurring or softening of sharp outlines by subtle and gradual blending of one tone into another through the use of thin glazes to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. This stems from the Italian word sfumare meaning to evaporate or to fade out. The Latin origin is fumare, to smoke. The opposite of sfumato is chiaroscuro.
Sgraffito
Technique in which surface layer of paint is scratched through to reveal color underneath.
Sketch
A preliminary drawing for a later elaboration
Signature
Sometimes refers to the signature on the plate itself but is generally the artist’s actual signature on the print after printing.
Signed Only
The artist signs the print only. It is not numbered and is sometimes referred to as an “open edition”.
Signed and Numbered
Refers to an artist’s signature (generally in pencil) and the numbering of the edition.
2nd ed
Second Edition: prints of the same image as the original edition but altered in some way (as a change in color, paper or printing process).
2nd st
Second state: prints of proofs which contain significant changes from the original print.
Sold Out
A limited edition print is no longer available at issue price and is being sold at secondary market prices.
Still life
A work of art depicting inanimate objects such as fruit, flowers, bottles.
Stipple
In painting, to apply small dots of color with the point of the brush; also to apply paint in a uniform layer by tapping a vertically held brush on the surface in repeated staccato touches.
Stone Lithograph
Invented in the late 1700’s by Aloys Senfelder. The image is printed on a flat surface. The chemicals don’t eat away at the plate like they do in etchings, they simply change the surface to accept or reject the ink. The artist draws directly on the plate or stone with a greasy pencil and after a chemical process will accept ink and repel water. Lines can be drawn thick or thin and at times it is hard to distinguish a lithograph from an actual drawing.
Surrealism
Style using subconscious mental activity as it’s subject matter, characterized by dreamlike, hallucinatory imagery. (Early 20th c.) See artists: Miro, Dali, Magritte and Ernst.
Synthetism
A genre of French painting characterized by bright flat shapes and symbolic treatments of abstract ideas.
Terribilita
A term applied typically to the art of Michelangelo describing the heroic and awe-inspiring power and grandeur of his work.
Tirage
Document that provides backgraound information on the graphic edition such as edition size, printer, technique, year of execution.
Triptych
A painting or carving consisting of three panels
Trompe L’oiel (Pronounced ‘Tromp-Loy’)
(Trick of the Eye) A style of painting in which architectural details are rendered in extremely fine detail in order to create the illusion of tangible and spatial qualities. This form of painting was first used by the Romans, thousands of years ago in frescoes and murals.
Vignette
A small illustrative sketch or painting that appears to float suspended on a surface
Virtue
Artistic quality
Wash
Used in watercolor painting, brush drawing, and occasionally in oil painting to describe a broad thin layer of diluted pigment or ink. Also refers to a drawing made in this technique.
Watercolor
A painting produced by using water-soluble pigments
Work
The total output of an artist
