Art Glossary of Terms
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Art Glossary of Terms - Art Lexicon DA to DZ

  • d - An abbreviation for penny, which is derived from the "denarius" — a Roman coin. This abbreviation is also used in referring to sizes of nails: a "3 d nail" for instance is a "3-penny nail." See numismatics.

  • dabber - A soft pad holding the wax ground used in etching.

  • dado - A square groove, cut, or depression. Also see bevel, chamfer, corrugate, flute, and mortise.

  • daho - In Japanese art tradition, a calligraphy technique, literally the "pressing method."

  • damar - A coniferous resin used as a varnish, and sometimes as part of mixed media.

  • dapping block or dapping die - A concave form used for forming metal. Pictured is one example. Dapping blocks vary in the number and form of their concavities. Also see die, manipulate, and mortar.

  • dark, darkness - A shade; a color having low lightness and low saturation, and reflecting only a small fraction of incident light. When prepared by mixing pigments, a dark color may be achieved by mixing a large amount of black with little or no amout of one or more hues — only to the degree that it remains very neutral in color. Opposite to dark colors in saturation — highly saturated, but just as low in lightness — are called deep colors. The opposite of dark colors in their value — much lighter in value, but just as low in saturation — are called pale colors. Opposite to dark colors in both value and saturation are brilliant colors.

  • darkroom - Light-tight room used for processing or printing photographic materials. Also see dark.

  • dawning realism stage - The third of the Stages of Artistic Development named and described by Victor Lowenfeld, it typically occurs in children during the ages of 9 to 11. This stage is typically preceded by the schematic stage (6-9) and followed by the pseudorealistic stage (11-13).

  • day for night - The common name for a cinematic filter used to make a daylit scene appear to be a nighttime dark one. It is charmingly known to the French as a Nuit Américaine. Also see night blindness (nyctalopia) and nocturne.

  • day-glo colors or DayGlo colors - Also called fluorescent colors and neon colors, day-glo colors are especially bright, clean materials which can be much brighter than conventional colors. They were first developed in the 1930s, finding their way into magic shows, stage shows, and movie promotion posters. They contain certain dyes and resins that produce colors far brighter than traditional pigments, and that had the unique effect of "glowing" under ultraviolet or black light. Day-glo colors are exceptionally bright under many different conditions, including indoor lighting, low light outdoors, and in limited visibility areas. Studies have shown that day-glo colors are noticed first. They grab the attention of the observer. Fluorescent colors are widely used to get attention, focus attention on an object, warn people of a potentially hazardous situation, get an object, person or situation noticed, etc. They are commonly used for traffic cones, detergent packaging, tennis balls, fishing lures, etc., and can be found in a wide range of media, including oil and acrylic paints, inks, dyes, markers, crayons, etc.

  • deaccession - To remove an artwork from a museum's collection, or the artwork that is removed. Works are typically deaccessioned through sale or exchange in order to acquire other works; rarely to support any other financial needs. During the art market of the 1980s, when prices were driven up by speculators, some museums resorted to the sale of what were considered secondary or redundant pieces in order to raise funds to acquire others. This is a controversial practice, raising questions as to whether such decisions reflect current tastes and will stand the test of time. Criticism is especially harsh against the deaccessioning of donations. (pr. dee´ak-sesh"en) Also see accession, bad-debt art, commodification, gallery, and registrar.

  • deadline - The time or date by which something must be accomplished. For an artist, typical examples are: the hour by which works must be delivered to a patron or employer, or an application must be submitted to an exhibition committee. Agreeing to meet a deadline is usually considered a serious promise. Depending upon the objective, failure to meet a deadline can result in a lowered grade, exclusion from a competition or other opportunity, or even in a damaged reputation or loss of income. Chronic failure to meet deadlines can devastate a career.

  • death mask - A cast of the face of a dead person, a record of an important person's face for posterity. Usually such casts have been made from a mold produced by placing gesso or plaster on the face. Such a mold can usually be of one piece, since the face is generally sufficiently flexible to enable removal of the hardened mold, as long as a release agent has been applied to the hair and skin. A life mask is very similar, except that a passage must be provided for breathing through the mold.

  • debubblizer - A chemical brushed on wax models to prevent bubbles from forming during casting. Also see feathering.

  • début de siècle - French for "beginning of the century." Also see fin de siècle.

  • decagon - A closed two-dimensional polygon bounded by ten straight-line segments. The formula with which to find an equilateral decagon's area is 7.6942 times the length of one side squared. Also see mathematics, radial, and shape.

  • decagram or dekagram - A unit of weight measurement equal to 10 grams. To convert decagrams into ounces (US), multiply them by 0.3527. Abbreviated dag and dkg.

  • decahedron - A polyhedron with ten polygon faces. The plural can be either decahedrons or decahedra.

  • decal and decalcomania - Decalcomania is the process of transferring images from specially prepared paper to the surface of a material such as canvas, glass, or metal. "Decal" is short for decalcomania, and is now more popularly used, often for a sticker, many either decorative or advertising. "Decalcomania" came to English from a similar French word meaning "a craze for transferring a tracing," when the process was very popular, first in France, then in England in the mid-19th century. (pr. d?-kal' and d?-kal'k?-may"nee-?h)

  • Decalcomania was adopted as a surrealist art process in 1936 by Oscar Dominguez (Spanish, born Tenerife, 1906-1957), who described his technique as "decalcomania with no preconceived object." It involved applying gouache to paper or glass, then transferring a reversal of that image onto canvas or some other material. Max Ernst (German, also lived in the USA, 1891-1976) also practiced decalcomania, as did Hans Bellmer (German, 1902-1975) and Remedios Varo (Spanish, also lived in France and Mexico, 1908-1963).

  • deckle - In papermaking, the upper frame that encloses the wet pulp on the mold. Unlike the mold, the deckle is a frame which is entirely open.

  • deckle edge - The rough edge of handmade paper formed in a deckle. Also called featheredge.

  • declivity - A downward slope, as may be observed on a hill or a boss. A slope described as declivitous is an especially steep one. The adjectival form of declivity is declivous. (pron. deh-kli'vi-tee, and deh-kly'ves) Also see fold, kerf, molding, pleat, repoussé, and rugosity.

  • decollage - The tearing away of parts of posters or other images which were adhered to each other in layers, so that portions of the underlayers contribute to the final image. (pr. de'coh-lahzh") Decollage should not be confused with collage — which is its opposite — or with décolletage — which is another subject altogether.

  • deconstruction - A method of literary criticism that assumes language refers only to itself rather than to a reality outside of a text, that asserts multiple conflicting interpretations of a text, and that bases such interpretations on the philosophical, political, or social implications of the use of language in the text rather than on the author's intention.

  • decoration - Something which adorns or embellishes; an ornamentation. Also see banausic, bookplate, decorative arts, découpage, egg-and-dart, festoon, frieze, gewgaw, hooptedoodle, molding, plaque, and tchotchke.

  • decorum - Conventions in matching a subject of an artwork to a style or tone appropriate to it. A kind of etiquette expected in the treatment of an artwork's content.

  • decoupage or découpage - The technique of decorating surfaces by adhering cutouts, most commonly of paper, and then coating with one or more coats of a transparent (or translucent) finish, usually a lacquer or varnish. Or, work produced by this technique. From French. (pr. day'coo-pahzh")

  • decumanus - The east-west road in an Etruscan or Roman town, intersecting the cardo at right angles. (pr. deck-yoo-MAN-?s) Also see Etruscan art and Roman art.

  • deduction - Reaching a conclusion only when it follows necessarily from stated facts or proposals; reasoning from the general to the specific. One cannot contradict such a conclusion without questioning one or more of the premises from which it followed. Also see induction and syllogism.

  • deed of gift - A contract that transfers ownership of an object or objects from a donor to an institution. It should include all conditions of the donation.

  • deep, depth - A color is deep or has depth when is has low lightness and strong saturation. The opposite of deep colors in their value — much lighter, but just as high in saturation — are called brilliant colors. Opposite to deep colors in saturation — little saturated, but similarly very low in lightness — are called dark colors. Opposite to deep colors in both value and saturation are pale colors. Depth can also refer to the third dimension, either as actual space or as its illusion. Also see black, brightness, chiaroscuro, darkroom, day for night, night blindness (nyctalopia), nocturne, pastel, reflecting, shade, tenebroso or tenebrism, three-dimensional, and tone.

  • deesis - A Greek work, literally meaning an instance of "calling on God to witness." In art, it is traditionally a representation in Byzantine art of Christ enthroned and flanked by the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, and angels, often found on an iconostasis. (pr. dee-EE-s?s)

  • deface - To destroy, disfigure, or mar a surface.

  • definition, define, defining - Definition is the act of conveying fundamental character, while being very specific, clear, and concise. Although it may be a statement expressing the essential nature of something, as in a statement of the meaning of a word, a sign or symbol. In visual terms, definition is the action making definite and clear, as in distinctness of outline or detail, sharp edges or limits, providing clear focus and contrast, as well as high resolution. Also see ambiguity, analysis, art criticism, description, different and difference, gestalt, implied, jaggies, knowledge, limit and limitation, optical mixing, optics, and perception.definition

  • deform - To distort or change form.

  • deformalism - A postmodern tradition of burlesque painting with a tendency toward bad taste and mayhem. In the United States, examples include the late works of Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980), Peter Saul (American, 1934-), Carroll Dunham (American, 1949-), Matthew Ritchie (American, born Britain, 1964-), Inka Essenhigh (American, 1969-), and Takashi Murakami (Japanese, 1962-). The name apparently comes from the works' anti-formalist content, and from its often cartoonishly surreal deformations. Also see bad art, distortion, fantastic, style, and ugly.

  • degenerate - Being in decline; having fallen to an inferior or undesirable state, especially in mental or moral qualities. Also, a depraved, corrupt, or vicious person. Because modernism was so counter to the fascist aesthetic, Adolf Hitler (German, 1889-1945) branded modernist art entartete — degenerate or degenerative. The fascists favored a strongly classical style in contrast to the prevailing artworld styles of Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Dadaism, and modernism in general. Rather than censor modernist art, the Nazis confiscated it. In 1937 they removed more than 20,000 such works from the collections of German individuals and museums — works by more than 200 artists, including Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Pablo Picasso, and Kurt Schwitters. With 650 such works, they mounted an exhibition titled Degenerate Art ("Entartete 'Kunst'"). The exhibit opened in Munich and traveled to eleven other cities in Germany and Austria. In each installation, the works were poorly hung and surrounded by graffiti and hand written labels mocking the artists and their creations. Over three million visitors attended making it the first "blockbuster" exhibition. The Nazis expected Germans to recognize these works as presenting "negativity and the incomprehensibility of the world," which pitted modernist aesthetics against what fascists characterized as their own positivism, progressive goals, and noble ideals — an ostensibly hopeful Weltanschauung (world-view) that led to their ruthlessly forcing their "solutions" on the world. (pr. adjective: d?-JE-nr-?t, verb: d?-JE-nr-AYT)

  • déjà vu - French for "already seen; previously seen." An impression of great familiarity with a place or event which one has never experienced before. The illusion of having already experienced something actually being experienced for the first time. Sensations of this sort have been cited by Plato (Greek, c. 427 - c. 348 BCE) and many others as evidence of reincarnation — that these feelings of familiarity are based on partial memory of a previous life. Contemporary psychologists describe them as startling revivals of actual, but forgotten memories.

  • delineate - To depict by drawing with a tool which leaves a linear trail behind the drawer's gesture. May also mean, more loosely, to describe. (pr. d?-LIN-ee-AYT)

  • deltiology and deltiologist - Deltiology is the collecting of picture postcards. A deltiologist is a collector of them. Short of framing them, a preferred means of storing and displaying postcards is in polypropylene sheet protectors.

  • density - May refer to the variations perceived in the sight of objects near and far due to atmospheric variations — gases, moisture, dust, smoke, and temperature — as well as to seeing through such potentially translucent materials as glass and plastic. Another way to refer to aerial perspective.

  • dent - A depression in a surface made by pressure or a hit. Also see carve, concave, dapping block, declivity, ear, fluted, hammers (ballpein hammer, bush hammer, claw hammer, mallet, manipulate, mortise, relief, repoussé, rugosity, subtractive, and toreutics.

  • dente di cane - A type of claw chisel having six or so fine notches in its carving edge. Italian for "dog's teeth." (pr. den'teh dee cah'neh)

  • deoxidize - To remove oxides. Barium is an example of a deoxidizing substance, because it is used to deoxidize copper, bronze, and some other alloy. Flux is used to deoxidize surface in the process of soldering.

  • depict - To make an image of, in two or more dimensions. Also see abstraction, likeness, represent, signify, simulacrum, and trompe l'oeil.

  • De Ploeg - A twentieth century European art movement.

  • depth - The third dimension. The apparent distance from front to back or near to far in an artwork. When depth refers to an object's smallest dimension, then this distance can also be called its thickness. When an object or space is principally viewed from above, its depth can also be its height. If an objects's depth is its greatest dimension, then this distance can also be called its length. Techniques of perspective are used to create the illusion of depth in paintings or drawings. Examples of these techniques are: controlling variation between sizes of depicted subject, overlapping them, and placing those that are on the depicted ground as lower when nearer and higher when deeper. Also see aerial perspective, chiaroscuro, direction, herringbone perspective, linear perspective, push and pull, shadow box, sphere, and width.

  • depth of field - In photography, the distance between the nearest point and the farthest point in the subject which is perceived as acceptably sharp along a common image plane. For most subjects it extends one third of the distance in front of and two thirds of the distance behind the point focused on.

  • Der Blaue Reiter - A group of German artists based in Munich from 1911 to 1914, mostly expressionist painters, but their works ranged from pure abstraction to romantic imagery, attempting to express spiritual truths. Common to the group was a philosophical spirit and certain approaches to technique. The name, meaning "blue rider", was taken from the name of a painting by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), and was also the title of the almanac and the exhibition on which he collaboration with others. Some of the important members of the group were Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941; worked in Germany and Switzerland), Gabrielle Münter (1877-1962), Franz Marc (1880-1916), Paul Klee (1879-1940), and August Macke (1887-1914). (pr. der BLOU-? RI:tr)

  • derivative - Unoriginal. Owing too much to one or more other artists' work(s). This term is almost always used disparagingly, even though it must be admitted that a high percentage of the art we see is derived from images their producers have seen. Newness is a quality particularly highly prized by adherents to Modernism. Also see academic, art, banausic, bland, brainstorming, brummagem, buckeye, calendar painting, camp, confection, creativity, decoration, decorative, decorative arts, derived image, kitsch, low art, mediocre, paint-by-number, ornament, picturesque, popular culture, quotations, taste, tchotchke, and ugly.

  • derived image - In digital imaging, an image that is obtained from another one, usually by eliminating part of it. Common techniques used to create a derived images include taking a detail, subsampling to a lower resolution, using lossy compression, or using image-processing techniques to alter an image. Also called derivative image.

  • desco da parto - Italian for "commemorative birth tray."

  • description - A statement creating a mental image of something experienced, or the act of making such a statement. Not to be confused with interpretation, description is identifying the literal qualities or realistic presentation of subject matter, along with the elements of art found — analyses that can help to make complicated things understandable by reducing them to their component parts. It demands only the facts of what can be seen, often in one or more works of art; and partly two or more works can be described by comparing them to each other.

  • desensitize - A process in which repeated sensory or cognitive stimulation results in a decreased awareness of those stimulations. To art teachers of special education students, desensitization is the process in which materials or methods are gradually introduced to those who may have an aversion to them. As acceptance begins, quantity and exposure time are increased. This technique is particularly useful in with tactually defensive students.

  • design qualities - In art criticism, how well an artwork is ordered or put together. See design, principles of design, and quality.

  • destroy and destruction - To break up, ruin, spoil, wreck, or demolish. The opposite of creating, destruction may not seem to be an artistic act, however creation is impossible without a simultaneous destruction, as a painter destroys a tube or jar of paint, a sculptor destroys a rock or a tree, and a jeweler destroys an ingot of gold. Willful or malicious destruction is antithetical to art however, and is often called vandalism.

  • detail - An individual, minute, or subordinate part of a whole. A distinctive feature of an object or scene which can be seen most clearly close up. Also, a small part of a work of art, enlarged to show a close-up of its features. It can also refer to finely or carefully designed, crafted, or finished portions (passages) of any composition, as when one pays "attention to the details" — even the little things. (pr. DEE-tayl or d?-TAYL)

  • detergent - A water-soluble wetting agent — cleansing substance — made from chemical compounds rather than the fats and lye used to make soaps. Also see solve, solvent, and stain and stain removal.

  • detournement - A turning around, essentially the act of pulling an image out of its original context to create a new meaning. A French word.

  • detritus - Loose fragments that nature or carving has worn away from rock. Often, by extension, the material or debris resulting from the making of any work of art; the disintegrated or eroded material left behind by past civilizations. An example is the granite rubble which sculptor Gutson Borglum (American, 1867-1941) produced as he carved Mount Rushmore National Monument (completed Oct. 31, 1941). For aesthetic and practical reasons he decided to leave the detritus where it fell rather than remove it. (pr. d?-TRI:t?s) Also see clay, cleaning art, Collyers' Mansion, fragment, living rock, monument, palimpsest, rhopography, sand, shard, and stone.

  • diagonal - Having a slanted direction. Any straight edge or line that is neither horizontal nor vertical is diagonal. On fabric, diagonal is said to be "on the bias."

  • Venn diagramdiagram - A sketch, drawing, outline,or plan designed to demonstrate or explain how something works. Not necessarily representational, it outlines, explains, or clarifies the arrangement of and relationship between the parts of a whole. Or to make such an image.

  • diameter - A straight line segment passing through the center of a figure, especially of a circle or sphere, and terminating at its edge.The length of such a line. Also, thickness or width. Half of the diameter — the distance from the center to the edge -- is the radius.

  • diaper - An all-over repeat pattern or design, usually on fabric or walls, usually composed of clearly defined geometric elements, often of diamond-shaped figures. (Some of us even wear them.)

  • didactic - Something which is intended to instruct. Sometimes, to be morally instructive. "Didaktikos" is a Greek word that means "apt at teaching." It comes from "didaskein," meaning "to teach." Something didactic does just that: teaches or instructs. Didactic conveyed that neutral meaning when it was first borrowed in the 17th century, and still does; a didactic piece of work is one that is meant to be instructive as well as artistic. Genre painting and sculpture -- narrative and often allegorical — is apt to be didactic, especially when its aim is to teach a moral lesson. Didactic now often has negative connotations, because something didactic can be over burdened with instruction to the point of being dull. Or it might be pompously instructive or moralistic. (pr. die-dac'tic) One synonym for teacher is didact. Also see diagram, graph, heuristic, and map.

  • die - A device used for cutting out, forming,or stamping material. Most common types include: a metal piece with a surface having a relief design used for impressing that design onto a softer metal, as in striking coins; each of the cutting elements of a die stock used to cut threads on screws or bolts; a part on a tool that punches shaped holes in, cuts, or forms sheet metal, cardboard or another material; a metal block which has small conical holes through which plastic, metal, or other ductile metal is extruded or drawn. The plural form is dies. Also see dapping block, dye, intaglio, numismatics, punch, stamp, template, and trussel.

  • different and difference - Not the same, various, diverse (diversity). One of modernism's most pervasive characteristics is its embrace of what's new. While postmodernism's expectations of newness are not as intense, difference remains an attribute we crave. Nevertheless, one of the most shallowly used terms used in art criticism, "different" is too often the only reaction of a viewer who has discerned nothing else about a work than its variation from some norm. Faint praise.

  • differential focus - A photographic technique in which everything in the foreground shows clearly, while everything in the background is less distinct, or visa-versa.

  • diffraction grating - Sheets of glass, plastic, or metal inscribed with grids whose lines or dots diffract any light directed at the gridded surface and break this light up into its color spectra so that the rays may be measured accurately.

  • digital camera - A camera that directly captures a digital image without the use of film.

  • digital image - An electronically processed image composed of bits and bytes, usually coming from use of a computer.

  • digital photography - See computer graphics, digital camera, digital image, photography, and photomechanical graphic.

  • digitizing - To convert an image into binary code. Visual images are digitized by scanning them and assigning a binary code to the resulting vector graphic or bit-mapped image data. Also see bit-mapped image, CAD, computer graphics, digital image, monitor, new media, photomechanical graphic, scanner, vector graphic, and wireframe.

  • dikka - Important in Islamic tradition, a dikka is a platform in a mosque, often made of wood, in line with the mihrab, that holds muezzins who chant in unison with the Imam (prayer leader) as he prays.

  • dilettante - Originally, an admirer or lover of the arts, a connoisseur. Or, a dabbler in an art or a field of knowledge; an amateur. Today, "dilettante" is more likely to be used in the latter sense, and taken by many — by the listener, even if not by the speaker — as an insult. It was more innocent in its original uses, as derived from the Italian word "dilettare," meaning "to delight." In the 18th century, a dilettante was simply a person who delighted in the arts. Later, the term came to refer to an amateur — someone who cultivates an art as a pastime without pursuing it professionally. From this meaning developed the pejorative meaning the word carries now: a person who dabbles in an art, but is not truly devoted to it. (pr. dih'leh-tahnt)

  • dimensions - A measure of spacial distance. The dimensions of three-dimensional spaces or objects are given as height by width by depth, and they are conventionally listed in that order.

  • ding - A three-legged ritual vessel in Chinese tradition whose origins predate the Shang dynasty (c.1523-1028 BCE). It was used to hold food offered to ancestral spirits, and was also a ground ornament. Fantastic creatures, symbols, even written characters recording ritual procedures were cast into it's surface's design. In its typical Shang form, the ding was a sturdy, lidless vessel mounted on straight legs. In vernacular English, a ding might be a dent. Also see Chinese art.

  • dingbat of purple leavesdingbat - In graphic design, dingbats are decorative or pictorial characters, most of which might also be called glyphs, icons, ideograms, or 41 assorted dingbatspictographs, not corresponding to any of the letters, numerals, punctuations or other figures used in any written language or mathematics. Sets of dingbats are availableas fonts designed by many typographers. Also called a flubdub. Also see babyspot, calligraphy, clip art, foliate, font, fontography, -graph, leading, letterhead, lettering, logo, palmette, petroglyph, pica, text, typeface, and vignette.

  • diodes - Light-sensitive electronic components used in image capture. They function as one-way valves that sense the presence or absence of light and create a digital signal that the computer converts into pixel values. Also see digital camera, digital image, and digital photography.

  • diorama - A three-dimensional representation of a scene, either full-scaled or miniature. It may have a background painted to merge with elements nearest it by means of aerial and linear perspective. It may be made on a platform with or without a clear glass front, set into an illuminated niche, and viewed from a darkened area. In miniature form, it may be entirely enclosed, and viewed through a peephole. It has been used for life-size scene in which figures, stuffed wildlife, and other objects are arranged in a naturalistic setting, exhibits of engineering and industrial projects, and advertising displays. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a popular form of didactic entertainment, often containing a scene reproduced on cloth transparencies with various lights shining through the cloths to produce changes in effect, intended for viewing at a distance.

  • diorite - An igneous rock, extremely hard and usually black or dark gray in color.

  • diptych - A picture or bas-relief made of two panels hinged together, often an altarpiece. Also, any picture consisting of two individual surfaces. Also, an ancient Roman or Early Christian two-hinged writing tablet, or two ivory memorial panels. (pr. dip'tik)

  • direct carving - A carving technique in which the form of the sculpture evolves as the artist works into the block, or is suggested by the shape of the block.

  • direct casting - In lost-wax casting, a technique in which the original model is lost — melted out of the mold. If the work is hollow, the wall of metal is generally heavy — the wax model having been modeled thickly over a core of very simple shape. Also see indirect casting.

  • direction - This may refer either to actual or implied movement, or to an angle or a point of view. Demonstrating how much we take direction for granted, some of the following examples depict places where up and down — fundamental directions upon which we orient ourselves to the world — are impossible to determine consistently:

  • director - Among those in art careers, the person in a museum who is in charge of its administration, fund-raising, and public relations. Also see conservator, curator, docent, preparator, and registrar.

  • directrix - The fixed curve traversed by a generatrix in generating either a cone or a cylinder. (pr. de-rek'triks) The plural may be either directrixes or directrices.

  • disc grinder - A grinder composed of one or two discs. When there are two discs, one is stationary and one moving, and grind the material between them. Also see abrasive.

  • discipline-based art education (DBAE) - An approach to art education integrating content from four distinct disciplines, or branches of knowledge: art production, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics. This approach, formulated in the late 1980's, differs significantly from the "creative self-expression" approach that dominated the field during the previous forty years. The content of that earlier approach was exclusively the making of art for self-expression, in a personal exploration of a variety of art materials and methods. DBAE is a more holistic, comprehensive, and multifaceted approach to art education. Not only do teachers incorporate painting, drawings, sculpture, and architecture into their lessons, but they also include fine, applied, craft, and folk arts, such as ceramics, weaving and other textile arts, fashion design, and photography. Students work with and study a variety of visual images and objects that carry unique meaning for human beings from all cultures and times. Although there are DBAE curricula, DBAE itself is an approach to instruction and learning in art and not a specific curriculum; though it should have sequential, cumulative, and articulated implementation. It exists in many forms to meet the needs of the community in which it is taught. Examples of variation include selecting one or more of the disciplines as a central or core discipline(s) for helping students understand works of art; featuring settings such as art museums or community centers and the original artworks they collect or display; integrating the arts with other subject areas; and pursuing newer technologies. DBAE requires content derived from valid information and practices within the professional art world, much as content for the study of mathematics, history and literature is derived from those professional fields.

  • discoloration - A stain. Also see art conservation, fugitive colors, patina, permanent pigment, and solvent.

  • discovery - To find, learn of, or observe; gaining knowledge of something not known before. Special credit goes to one who is the first to do these things. More important in practice, discovery is an early stage in the creative process, involving investigation or research into what others have found, learned or observed.

  • discrimination - To recognize differences and act upon that awareness. Also see attitude, lookism, political correctness, praise, stereotype, taste, xenophilia, and xenophobia.

  • discussion - An earnest conversation of a subject by a group.

  • disfigure - To deform, damage, or spoil the appearance or shape of an object.

  • disordered stage - Of Victor Lowenfeld's Stages of Artistic Development, the disordered stage is the first sub-stage of the first stage, the scribble stage. The Scribble stage typically occurs at 2-4 years old. The disordered stage is characterized by uncontrolled markings that could be bold or light depending upon the personality of the child. At this age the child has little or no control over motor activity. Also see preschematic stage (4-6), schematic stage (6-9), dawning realism stage (9-11), and the pseudorealistic stage (11-13).

  • di sotto in sù - A techniqueof representing perspective in ceiling painting. Literally, "from below upwards." Also see bird's-eye view and worm's-eye view.

  • display type - In typography, type used to attract attention. Letters are usually 18 points (1/4 inch) or larger in height. Also see font.

  • dissonance - Lack of agreement, consistency, or harmony. A harsh, conflicting, and disagreeable combination of sounds; discord. In music, a combination of tones conventionally considered to suggest unrelieved tension and require resolution. Also see frisson, grotesque, incongruity, juxtaposition, ugly, and variety.

  • distance learning - Various methods for taking courses, inservices, and other forms of instruction via television, e-mail, the World Wide Web (WWW), and other electronic technology.

  • distemper - A water-soluble paint using egg-yolk or glue size as a binder. Used mostly for flat indoor wall decoration.

  • distort, distortion - To change the way something looks — sometimes deforming or stretching an object or figure out of its normal shape to exaggerate its features — making it more interesting or meaningful. El Greco's (Greek-Spanish Mannerist painter, 1541-1614) elongated figures are examples of moderate distortion.

  • distress, distressed - Distressed material that is nicked and scratched, or in other ways shows signs of age, received through use, abuse, exposure to the weather, etc., or through artifice. Also see abrasive, antiquing, carve, dent, discoloration, disfigure, distort, fragment, lacuna, palimpsest, patina, permanence, stain, stress, and time.

  • diversity - See difference, multiculturalism, and xenophilia.

  • divisionism - A system of painting in small dots of color placed in relation to each other based on certain color theories. Also see neo-impressionism, pointillism, and Segantini stitch.

  • docent - A trained volunteer who provides educational tours for museum visitors.

  • documentary art - Any artwork the purpose of which is to present facts objectively, without inserting fictional matter, recording and/or commenting on some content, often political or social, by accumulating factual detail. Many conceptual art installations of the 1970s were overtly documentary — e.g., Post-Partum Project by Mary Kelly (American), the various Reading Rooms by Joseph Kosuth (American, 1945-), Guggenheim Trustees by Hans Haacke (German, 1936-). More common examples: documentary films. Not to be confused with documentation.

  • documentation - Textual and/or photographic information that describes a work of art or image, recording its physical characteristics and placing it in context, as in records of works of conceptual art, earth art, or performance art.

  • dodecagon - A closed shape bounded by twelve straight-line segments. The formula with which to find an equilateral dodecagon's area is 11.1961 times the length of one side squared. Also see circle, dodecahedron, mathematics, polygon, radial, shape, and vertex.

  • dodecahedron - A polyhedron with twelve pentagonal faces. The regular dodecahedron is one of the five Platonic solids (along with the tetrahedron, hexahedron (cube), octahedron, and icosahedron. The faces of a regular dodecahedron are all regular pentagons. (pr. doh´dek-e-hee"dren) The plural form can be either dodecahedrons or dodecahedra.

  • dolly - A low platform on wheels used to move sculpture or heavy materials. Also see banker and gantry.

  • dolmen - Large stones aerial view of Stonehenge(megaliths) standing upright with a horizontal stone balanced upon them (post and lintel). Numerous such structures have survived from Stone Age France and England — for example, at see thumbnail to right Stonehenge, c. 2,500-1,500 BCE, stone, 162 inches high, and located 330 feet above sea level on the chalk downland of Salisbury Plain, about 80 miles west of London near the town of Amesbury. About half of the original monument is missing, but enough remains to provide an idea of what it was once like. It was built in three phases. The first phase saw the digging of the "henge" that encloses the main area in about 2800 BCE, and the first arrangement of stones erected c. 2100 BCE. Once on site, a "sarsen stone" was prepared to accommodate stone lintels along its top surface. It was then dragged until the end was over the opening of the hole. Great levers were inserted under the stone and it was raised until gravity made it slide into the hole. At this point, Stonehengethe stone stood on about a 30° angle from the ground. Ropes were attached to the top and teams of men pulled from the other side to raise it into the full upright position. It was secured by filling the hole at its base with small, round packing stones. At this point, the lintels were lowered into place and secured vertically by mortice and tenon joints and horizontally by tongue and groove joints. It was begun by people of the late Neolithic period and completed by a Celtic people called Beaker Folk for their use of pottery drinking vessels, began to use metal implements and to live in a more communal fashion than their ancestors. The popular story has been that Stonehenge was built by the Druids, but they were Celts present during the much later time of Roman occupation.

  • dome - In architecture, a hemispherical [like half a ball] vault or ceiling over a circular opening. Theoretically, it is an arch rotated on its vertical axis. It rises above the central part of a building. Usually it is elevated further by being placed on a circular or many-sided base.

  • dominant - The part of a composition that is emphasized, has the greatest visual weight, the most important, powerful, or has the most influence. A certain color can be dominant, and so can an object, line, shape, or texture. Also see contrast and focal point.

  • donation and donor - A donation is a voluntary transfer of an object from an individual or a business — a donor — to an institution. Every museum seeks donations. Because U.S. government funding for the arts has been under siege lately, many nonprofit institutions have become more reliant upon the financial support of individual and corporate donors. Also see bad-debt art, collection, deaccession, motivation, patron, posterity, and registrar.

  • Doric - The earliest of the orders of classical architecture.

  • dot - May refer to the most fundamental mark, one level more fundamental than a line. And it may refer to a particular point, or location. Something having many dots has been said to be "punctuated." When an area is occupied by dots, spots or speckles of many colors, it may be described as variegated. Also, "dot" is a computer term for either a pixel or that punctuation also called a period or point.

  • dotaku - In Japanese tradition, a ceremonial bronze bell which was kept buried in hillside santuaries away from everyday village life, and brought out only for use in certain agricultural rituals. Dotaku and their molds have been found in the Kinai (Kyoto-Osaka) district and the coastal region of the Inland Sea. Dotaku are classified chronologically into four groups, according to the styles of their handles. Though originally made to suspend the bells, handles became less functional and more ornamental in later years.

  • double-exposure - In photography, a technique that combines images made at different moments in time.

  • double loading - Also called side loading; loading a brush with two colors side by side. This is a technique typical of tole and other kinds of decorative painting. In order to double load, use a paint of creamy consistency, and drag one edge of the brush through the lighter color as many times as needed to fill that edge with color; then stroke the clean edge of the brush through the darker color in the same manner. Once the brush is loaded this way, blend the colors at the center of the brush by stroking on the palette. Using this technique, each brushstroke (application of color) deposits a gradation of the two blended colors.

  • dovetailed - A means of joining two pieces of wood or a thickness of some other rigid material. The pieces are shaped in such a way that they resemble doves whose rows of tails interlock.

  • dowel or doweling - A length of round wood, either as it might naturally be formed or as it can be turned. Also, to insert such round lengths of wood as pegs into drilled holes in place of nails, bolts or screws to secure a joint between pieces of material. In ancient architecture, a wooden or metal pin placed between stones of different courses to prevent shifting. Also see circle, clamp, cylinder, and masonry.

  • DPI or dpi - Dots per inch. A measurement of the scanning resolution of an image or the quality of an output device. Expresses the number of dots a printer can print per inch, or monitor can display, both horizontally and vertically. A 600-dpi printer can print 360,000 (600 x 600) dots on one square inch of paper.

  • draftsman - An artist who draws sketches and plans drafting tableof buildings, machinery, and manufactured products. Most contemporary drafting is done digitally, using computers, but for generations, draftsmen drew upon see thumbnail to rightdrafting tables, using such analog tools as rulers, T square, triangles, compasses, and French curves.

  • draftsmanship - Skill in drawing. Also see draftsman and pencil.

  • dragging - Applying relatively dry oil paints lightly over a surface, creating an area of broken color — the new color having attached to the high spots but not to the low, so that irregular portions of the undercolor remain exposed. Also known as scruffing. Also see cissing, dry brush painting, and overpainting.

  • drape mold - A mold in which the outside shape of a form is used. An example: use a hemisphere as a drape mold to make a bowl from a slab of clay. Let a sheet of tissue paper between the two act as a release agent. If such a bowl were made by pressing a slab into the inside of a hemispheric form, that form could be called a drape mold, a slump mold, or a press mold.

  • drapery - Cloth or a representation of cloth arranged to hang in folds. This may be a curtain or a costume, or fabric used as a cover or as an object arranged as a passage in a composition. Just as the study of various means to representing the human figure is essential in the development of an artist's skills, so is the study of ways to represent drapery. Each is composed of curving surfaces reflecting gradations of colors. Each is essentially a set of loose folds of varying sizes, among which are occasional creases. Drapery varies amongst fabrics of different weights, textures, colors, and patterns, either hanging straight, disturbed by wind, or by parts of a body or an object in some relationship to it.

  • drawknife or drawtool - A metal blade with a wooden handle at both ends used to strip wood. Draw knives are made in various sizes and can be obtained with curved as well as the more common straight blades. Also see spokeshave.

  • dress - To give the final texture to a hard medium, especially wood or stone, with chisels, hammers, points, etc. Also see costume, drove, and tooth.

  • drill - A tool that bores a hole when revolved. In the most primitive examples it is revolved between the palms; then it was operated by means of a bow, and later also with a brace. The cutting is generally achieved by a metal point or bit, but in some cases the point of the drill is used with abrasives. There are many types of contemporary drills, including those that bore holes by both rotating abrasion and repeated blows. A drill press is a powered vertical drilling machine in which the point is pressed to the work by hand lever or automatically. See twist drill and wood.

  • droit moral - This French term for "moral right" refers particularly to certain rights which all civilizations should recognize are held by those who create intellectual properties -- artists (or their estates). These are artists' rights to:

  • drove - In carving stone, a flat chisel with a broad head generally used only for rough hewing. Also, a stone surface dressed with such a chisel. Also see claw chisel and tools.

  • drum scanner - A high-quality image-capture device. The image to be captured is wrapped around a drum that spins very fast while a light source scans it to capture a digital version of the image. Also see scanner.

  • dry brush - Applying relatively dry inks or waterpaints lightly over a surface, creating an area of broken color — the new color having attached to the high spots but not to the low, so that traces of the paper or undercolor remain exposed. This may be done by holding the brush so that the side of its bristles lie flat against the paper, or by pulling it rapidly across the surface. In oil painting, dragging stroke or scruffing is the name given to this effect. In Japanese art tradition, kasure are calligraphic dry brush strokes. Also see gouache, marbling, scumble, tempera, and watercolor.

  • dry foot - The foot of a piece of ceramic work that has been cleared of glaze.

  • dry mount - A mounting technique in which film is applied in a pressing machine with heat in order to adhere one flat surface to another. Also see photography and temperature.

  • dry transfer graphics - A medium primarily for graphic designers, dry transfer graphics are manufactured graphic elements a designer can transfer — remove — from a transparent backing sheet, and reattach to a paper or other smooth surface by pressing and rubbing them, either wholly or in pieces — thus earning the nickname "rub-downs." Dry transfer graphics offer a complete system, providing a way to produce high quality artwork in minutes. The kinds of dry transfer graphics available include lettering, lines, colors, shades, textures, patterns, symbols, and signs. These sheets can be purchased from local art supply dealers, and online. Letraset, one of the major manufacturers of dry transfer graphics, offers them online. Letraset currently offers about twenty stock typefaces and a custom service for three-dimensional work, mockups, etc., along with drawing and charting tapes, adhesive backed vinyl lettering, and other products. This technology was much more commonly used in the twenty years before the arrival of computer graphics, but these design tools can still provide creative solutions to graphic designers. Also see font, graphic design, logo, lorem ipsum, and pasteup.

  • Duco or DUCO - A trademark of DuPont (E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company) for a number of products, including paints and adhesives. Artists including David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexican, 1896-1974) have used an industrial paint product called Duco, also known as pyroxilin. In 1924, DuPont introduced Duco — also described as a fast-drying nitrocellulose lacquer — DuPont calls it "the first sprayable automobile body topcoat." Before DuPont introduced Duco, "it used to take weeks to paint a car by brush." [Ed. note: Duco may also refer to other DuPont products, including the adhesive trademarked as Duco Cement. Do you know about Duco? Send info.]

  • duecento - Italian, literally "two hundred," it refers to the 1200s — the thirteenth century, especially in Italian art. (pr. doo-ay-chayn'toh)

  • dummy - A hammer with a rounded head, usually of iron, for striking stone carving tools. Also see greeking, mannequin, model, and placeholder.

  • dun - Dull grayish brown; dust-colored.

  • duodecimo -A book or manuscript of the next size smaller than an octavo. Duodecimoo is abbreviated 12mo, sometimes pronounced "twelve-mo." The next smaller size is sextodecimo. Also see bookbinding, folio, quarto, sextodecimo, signature, tricesimo-segundo, and vicesimo-quarto.

  • DWM - Dead white male. This is a derogatory reference to the study of the humanities as a Eurocentric canon made up only of the privileged and the powerful. People oppose this by calling for the inclusion of women, non-whites and the dispossessed. Sometimes referred to as dead white European male. Also see feminism and feminist art, gender issues, multiculturalism, xenophilia, and xenophobia.

  • dye and dyestuff - A dye is a colorant or pigment that dissolves completely, and is translucent. Textile fibers and fabrics are typically dyed in vats of the stuff. Because dyes are mixed with liquids just before their use, commercially produced dyes are highly concentrated. Natural dyes have been derived from a wide range of plant and animal sources, and are sometimes referred to as dyestuff. POISONOUS!Dyes color by penetrating substances, in contrast to drawing and painting colors, which must simply adhere to surfaces. There are many types of dyes, varying in their effects, the means of their use, and permanence.

  • dynamic range - The color depth (or possible pixel values) for a digital image. The number of possible colors or shade of gray that can be included in a particular image. 8-bit images can represent as many as 256 colors; 24-bit image can represent approximately 16 million colors.

  • dyslexia - A lack of ability to read, often characterized by reversals. To a dyslexic person, a printed page may appear to be a jumble of incoherent data. Dyslexia is a common learning disability. (pr. diss-leck'see-uh)

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