The meaning, message and/or feeling imparted by a work of art. This is not the same thing as the subject matter the work depicts. Content is inextricably linked with form, which refers to the pictorial aspects of art: in a word, its design --including choices about shapes, colors, framing, contrast, soft or hard edges, & many other decisions.
2. Value:How much light things transmit to the eye. Synonym: tonality. Value is monochromatic , i.e., a matter of black and white and gray, as opposed to polychromatic. White and pale grays are high on the value scale, black and dark grays are low on the tonal scale. The difference between values is called contrast. Closely grouped tones like dark gray and black (or pale grays and white) are low contrast situations. A radical difference between values is defined as high contrast.
3.Aerial perspective:Synonymous with atmospheric perspective. Because air exists between our eye and what we see, both contrast and intensity of color diminish as distance increases. ( See item #6 in James J. Gibbson’s Thirteen Different Kinds of Perspective.) Aerial perspective is a natural phenomenon – exaggerated by inclement weather such as snow or fog – offering a clue about spatial location. It’s used to suggest space in the 2-dimensional art of many different cultures & eras.
4.Fluctuating ground: Images which allow us to see the figure as the background, and vice-versa.Figure = positive space = solid forms.
Ground = negative space = the background.
Negative space can be likened to silence in music. Where aerial perspective provides clues that indicate spatial location with relative certitude, fluctuating ground is deliberately ambiguous. (Ambiguity doesn't mean lack of clarity; rather it refers to matters that are open to clear but different {and often opposite} interpretations. High contrast images and closely cropped pictures tend to encourage fluctuating ground. Dazzle camouflage is one practical application of fluctuating ground.
5.Gestalt:Derived from the German word for “pattern,” Gestalt psychology refers to the study of perception. The 2 most prominent practitioners of this discipline are Rudolph Arnheim and James J. Gibbson. Some later Gestaltists (notably Fritz Perls) applied ideas from perceptual psychology to psychoanalysis and “patterns” of human behavior. This field is also dubbed Configurationism.
6.Chiaroscuro:Literally meaning “clear/obscure,” this term refers to the use of strong light and dark values to produce the illusion of solid form. ( See item #13 inThirteen Different Kinds of Perspective.) This device is often associated with Baroque art, typified by the 17th century master Caravaggio.
Synonym: Tenebroso (literally, “in the dark manner”).
7) Medium:The material of which the artwork is made. Like many obvious things, this crucial aspect of art
is often overlooked. The relationship between a work and the material of its making is linked to
the relationship between Form and Content. Concern with the material aspect of painting
and sculpture is central to modern art.
See
Henry Moore
’s remarks about “Truth to Materials” in The Sculptors Aims.
From the French word coller, meaning “to stick” or “to glue down”: a 2-dimensional work that’s made from cut and pasted scraps of various materials, e.g, newspapers, photographs or fabrics.
9.Trompe l’oeil:Literally, “trick the eye,” or “fool the eye,” trompe l’oeil art counterfeits the precise appearance of one’s model so carefully that viewers mistake the painting for what the painting represents. Exactitude about local colors and shadows is necessary to fool the eye. Trompe l’oeil still lifes involve life-size models and shallow space; trompe l’oeil architecture was often used to enhance a building’s spatial grandeur.
10.Mimesis:Imitating natural appearances. This broad term is relative, with trompe l’oeil art being the most mimetic and total abstraction the least mimetic. Compare Archaic Greek sculpture to Classical sculpture to Hellenistic sculpture . Classical sculpture is more mimetic that Archaic sculpture, but less mimetic than statues from the Hellenistic period. Mimesis is one standard for quality --as demonstrated by the legendary competition between Zeuxis and Parrhasios -- but there are others. The Greek philosopher Plato, in his Allegory of the Cave, argued everything we see in the real world is just a shadow of an ideal form, so mimetic art is a feeble imitation of an imitation. Platonic ideals are hard to grasp in term of things we perceive, but they may be envisioned in mathematics. We can conceive of “twoness” without thinking of two apples, two oranges.
11.Photorealism:Art derived from photographs of objects rather than from the models themselves. These careful, labor– intensive copies of photographic information reveal the camera is monocular and quite different from our binocular vision. ( See item #4 in Thirteen Different Kinds of Perspective.) The camera is mindless; it records unfiltered information and every detail. But human vision is selective and very thoughtful, always evaluating what’s seen. One possible exception: individuals with severe autism, the mental problem of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rainman. Prominent contemporary photorealists include Chuck Close, Don Eddy, and Richard Estes. But long before the invention of photography in the early 19th century, artists like the Dutch painter Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) used pre-photographic devices such as the camera obscura and the camera lucida to help construct their paintings.
12.Iconography:The symbolic meaning of images and details in art. Sometimes these symbolic meanings are arcane, but often they are virtually universal; e.g., skulls are conventional memento mori symbols for death and mortality, often appearing in so-called vanitas still lifes. Floral imagery is a widespread pictorial code for Eros and fertility.
Iconology = the study of iconography.
13.Dionysian:In his book The Birth of Tragedy, the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) coined two opposing adjectives that apply to art. Dionysian encompasses passion, imagination, energy, and chaos. The opposite possibility, Apollonian refers to reason, logic and order. In Nietzschean terms, a Romantic French painter like Eugene Delacriox (1798-1863) is Dionysian , and the French Neo-classicist Jacques Louis David (1748-1825) is Apollonian.