Skip to Main Content

Renaissance Art Project (Ahlborn, Laffey, Lytle, Michel, Thomas)

Ninth grade history project on Renaissance art and artists.

Terminology

  • chiaroscuro—the use in paintings or drawings of contrasting light and shade to show depth

  • classicism—a style of art and architecture based on Greek and Roman models or principles, characterized by regularity of form and restraint of expression

  • composition—the use of “lines” to lead your eye around the painting and to the center of attention

  • contrapposto—representation of a figure in a natural stance, e.g., with weight resting primarily on one leg

    • foreshortening—in two dimensional art, making something appear shorter than it actually is in order to create a three dimensional effect based on the laws of perspective

    • “grounds”—foreground: “closest” part of the picture; middleground: middle part of the picture; background: farthest “away” part of the picture

    • linear perspective—representing closer objects as larger than farther objects (both one- and two-point techniques)

    • atmospheric perspective—representing greater distances by decreasing the intensity of colors and tending towards a uniform color

  • realism—lifelike representations based on close observation of people, their work (usually without idealization), and nature

  • sfumato—a painting technique in which the subject seems to be softened as if seen through smoke

    • And as defined by you...