An international art exhibition, held every two years, adjudicated by a committee. The earliest, and still the most famous, was the Venice Biennale, first held in 1895 as the 'International Exhibition of Art of the City of Venice'. When this resumed in 1948 following the Second World War it rapidly inspired other biennales, of which those at Sao Paula and Paris and perhaps the best known.
A term which came into use in the later 19th century to denote an artist's characteristic handling of paint, for example 'Manet's sensuous factor'.
An object, such as a picture or art object, presented at a shrine as a votive offering.
A printmakers tool, it is a needle with a bevelled, oval point. In etching it is used to draw lines of different width in the ground (achieved by turning the oval point) and in engraving it is employed to widen lines already engraved with the burin. The lines produced with an echoppe are sometimes referred to as 'swelling lines' and perhaps the best known and most spectacular example is Claude Mellan's engraving of the Sudarium of St Veronica (1642).
The separation in a painting between paint layers, paint and ground layers, or ground and support; it occurs when adhesion between layers has deteriorated, and may often be found where a heavy glue layer has been placed between support and ground.
A vitreous Substance (usually mixed with coolants) that is fused under heat to a metal surface for decorative purposes. It is normally applied ground up as a paste. The colours in enamels are obtained from metal oxides; for example, copper (green), iron or silver (yellow), cobalt (blue), gold (red), manganese (purple). The technique was used by the Romans, Celts and in medieval times. In the 18th century a method of painting in enamels (mixed in powdered form with oil) was widely employed for portrait miniatures and for the decoration of objects such as snuff boxes. Enamel colours were also employed for decorating of porcelain.
A Chinese mythical beast, half dog and half lion, used to guard Buddhist temples and works of art. It was frequently employed as a finial on Chinese porcelain vases and copied on European ceramics of the 17th and 18th centuries.
A picture consisting of two separate panels facing each other and usually joined at the centre by a hinge.
A term employed to describe the courser, less expensive grades of drawing paper; it derives from the use of such papers for making cartridges and wrapping dynamite.
[from the latin cura, 'care'] A custodian of a collection (such as a museum art gallery or library), or section thereof. A curator is often a specialist in a particular subject area and is closely involved in cataloguing, conservation, and interpretation/display.