A category of paintings whose subjects are individual art

elements like color, line, and composition or the painted surface itself

rather than representations of things in the real world.

blue, green, and violet

A color made by mixing two primary colors...

green, purple, orange

Sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors; red, yellow, and blue

colors such as black, white, tan, and beige, which have neither a warm nor a cool effect in painting.

A work that uses symbols, often human forms, to stand for ideas

or to convey messages.

The artistic ingredients painters use to create a painting.

That part of a painting that seems farthest away from the

viewer.

A period of art history, approximately 1600-1750. Important

historical events of the period included scientific discoveries by Galileo

and Isaac Newton, the growth of the Protestant religion, and ordinary

citizens becoming patrons of the arts, particularly in the Netherlands.

These paintings usually are formal, show tiny details of scenery and

costume, have a great sense of energy and movement, and often include

sharp contrasts between light and dark areas of the paintings.

A painting; treated fabric, stretched over a frame, to

which paint is applied.

A type of landscape painting that features scenes of streets,

buildings, and other city features.

Pairs of colors that are farthest away from each

other on the color wheel, and are most different from each other (for

example, red and green or orange and blue).

How individual art elements, like light, color, lines, and

shapes, work with each other and as a whole to form a complete painting.

Light and shade make us see a three-dimensional image instead of just

two dimensions. Color helps set the mood, and suggests relationships

between the parts of a painting. Lines and shapes organize space and

create structure.

A comparison that draws attention to the differences between

things. Artists use many different elements to create this, for

example: color (warm and cool, or bright and dull), light (light areas

of canvas and dark areas), lines (straight and curved, vertical and di

agonal), textures (hard and soft, rough and smooth), sometimes even

the subjects of the painting (an old man and a baby).

A style of painting developed in France early in the Twentieth

Century period of art history. Artists took familiar objects from every-

day life, broke them up into geometric figures like cubes and triangles,

then put them back together, forcing viewers to see familiar objects

in unfamiliar ways.

A style of painting practiced briefly at the beginning of the

Twentieth Century period of art history, with shockingly bright colors

and often strange or twisted forms of human figures and other objects.

That part of a painting that seems closest to the viewer.

The three-dimensional shape of an object, shown traditionally

in painting through variations of light and dark paints or by gradual

shadings of color.

A painting of ordinary people engaged in common, everyday activities.

A painting that tells a story about important

people or important events.

A style of painting developed in France late in the Mod-

ern period of art history, by artists who wanted to create impressions

of light and color that, when seen as a whole, would form pictures in

viewers' minds. These artists placed different colors side-by-

side very close together on the canvas, letting viewers' eyes blend the

colors together. Blue and yellow, for example, from a distance blend

into green. They used short, broad brush strokes that created

a rough texture on the surface of the canvas. This art contains

very few drawn lines, shadows, or dark colors.

A painting of an outdoor view that features large areas

of natural scenery; the outdoor view itself.

The source of light in a painting, like the sun or a lamp; the

lightness or darkness of different areas of a painting.

Drawn by an artist to mark the edges of something, or

outline it, like the lines that form the outer edges of a building;

these are formed where objects touch or overlap, so that different colors or

shapes come together, like what our eyes see at the horizon where

the earth and sky meet.

A period of art history, approximately 1750-1900. Important

historical events included democratic political revolutions in France

and the American colonies and the Industrial Revolution in science

and technology. Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, and

Pointillism were among the art styles that developed during this

period of art history.

The feelings or emotions an artist wants viewers to experience when

we look at a painting.

A style of painting, developed during the Modern period

of art history, which imitated the style of ancient Greek and Roman

sculpture and architecture. These paintings usually have grand

themes from history and legend as subject matter. They generally include formal, balanced compositions, use strongly drawn lines to define

forms, and have smooth, polished canvases.

The illusion of depth or distance. Artists use many different

elements and techniques to make pictures on a flat surface seem to

have space and distance. For example, objects painted in cool colors

seem farther away than objects painted in warm colors. Lines that

narrow from foreground to background make objects like roads and

rivers seem to stretch into the distance. Using soft edges instead of

sharply drawn lines, or leaving out details in background objects, makes

the objects seem farther away. Painting objects smaller at the top of

a painting makes them seem farther away than objects painted larger

near the bottom.

The position from which the viewer sees objects in a paint-

ing. Looking at the objects on a table while sitting in a chair drawn up

to the table is one point of view. Looking at those same objects while

standing across the room is another of this.

A style of painting that developed late in the Modern period

of art history, in which the picture is composed of tiny dots, or points,

of color placed very close to one another on the canvas. The individual

dots of color create a shimmering effect in the completed image.

A painting of a person, usually one formally posed and looking

outward from the painting.

Paintings that feature more than one person.

A period of art history, approximately 1400-1600. Artists

studied the styles of ancient Greece and Rome. It was an age of ex-

ploration and discovery in science, philosophy, and art. Techniques

of showing perspective and methods of painting with oil-based paints

were developed. The Catholic Church continued to be an important

patron of the arts, but the rise of a wealthy middle class led to new

interest in nonreligious paintings. This art is remarkable for

its bright, pure colors, its use of symbols, and its very formal approach

to subject matter and to composition.

Something that repeats, and creates a kind of pattern. Artists

use elements like colors, lines, and shapes to create this thing that helps

create the mood of a painting, or that move our eyes to different parts

of a painting.

A decorative style of painting that developed in France near the end

of the Baroque period of art history. The subjects of these paintings

usually are wealthy people, often engaged in activities of recreation or

amusement. This style emphasizes curved lines and usually light

colors, especially white, gold, silver, rose-pink, and sky-blue.

A style of painting that developed during the Modern period

of art history. Not all of these artists painted alike or chose the same

kinds of subjects for their art, but they all believed that painting should

express emotions about man in the modern world. They valued truth

and sincerity in art above classical harmony and conventional beauty.

These artists often pictured nature as wild and powerful, beyond

man's ability to control. For others, the permanence of nature was an

anchor for man in a world where everything else was changing rapidly.

A type of landscape painting that features large expanses of

water, usually the ocean or the sea, but occasionally a large lake.

A painting of objects that do not move. Most, but not all, of these are close-up views of carefully arranged groups of objects, shown

in an indoor setting, often on a tabletop.

Something that stands for or suggests an idea. For example, a halo

or the color blue might suggest holiness, flags might suggest patriotism,

a pocket watch might suggest the passage of time.

The way an object feels on its surface when you touch it. These may be hard or soft, rough or smooth. Paintings themselves have

smooth or rough of this, depending on how the artist applies the paint.

A period of art history, approximately 1900-2000.

This art includes many styles, but is different from other

periods of art history in the freedom artists felt to move away from the

physical world as their subjects and paint what they felt or imagined,

whether it was recognizable to viewers or not. The period includes

Fauvism, Cubism, and many other styles of semi-abstract and abstract

art. But many of these artists also continued to paint in the

more traditional, realistic styles that have been popular throughout the

history of Western art.