Glossary
C
Camera obscura
Derived from the latin words meaning “darkened room,” the camera obscura dates back to ancient Greece. The original camera obscura was a large, walk-in room pierced with a single, small hole in one of its four walls. Light rays from a bright object outside of the camera obscura enter the small hole and an inverted image appears on the opposite wall. Portable versions of the camera obscura were eventually created and used as an artist aid.
Caption
A short description or title accompanying an illustration or photograph in a printed text.
Chac-Mool
Pre-Columbian Mexican sculptures, usually carved in stone, in semireclining positions, with their heads turned to one side.
Characteristic
A special quality or appearance that makes an individual or group different from others.
Circle
A line segment that is curved so that its ends meet and every point on the line is equally far away from a single point inside.
Cloison
A cell made of metal wire or a narrow metal strip soldered edge-up to a metal base to hold enamel or other decorative materials.
Cloisonné
A process of enameling employing cloisons.
Close-up
Placement of a camera close to the subject; used especially for a person’s face.
Collage
A
technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various
materials not normally associated with one another, for example newspaper
clippings, theater tickets, fragments of a brochure, etc.
Color
The visual connections depending on the reflection or absorption of light from a given surface. The three characteristics of color are hue, value, and intensity.
Complementary colors
Colors opposite one another on the color wheel. Red/green, blue/orange, and yellow/violet are examples of complementary colors
Composition
Arrangement of the elements within the frame-the main subject, the foreground and background, and supporting subjects.
Conceptual movement
An American avant-garde art movement of the 1960’s that asserted that the “artfulness” of art lay in the artist’s idea rather than its final expression.
Cone
A solid figure that slopes evenly to a point from a usually circular base.
Constructivism
An
early 20th century Russian art movement that stressed the building of new forms
and the use of non-traditional materials.
Contact-print
A photographic image produced from a film, by the means of a negative or multiple negatives. A contact print is made by exposing photographic paper while it is held tightly against the negative. It allows you to see all of your images clearly on one piece of paper and is used for editing images.
Contemporary art
The
art of late 20th century and early 21st century.
Contour
The outline of a figure, body, or surface.
Contrapposto
In figural sculpture, a balanced but asymmetrical attitude in which a figure stands posed with most of its weight on one leg and with the vertical axis of the body in a slight “s” curve.
Contrast
Difference between two or more elements (e.g., value, color, texture) in a composition; juxtaposition of dissimilar elements in a work of art; also, the degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture.
Cool colors
Colors suggesting coolness: blue, green, violet.
Cube
A solid body having six equal square sides.
Cubism
An early-20th century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring compositions of geometric shapes and forms abstracted from the conventionally perceived world.
Cuirass
A military breastplate.
Culture
The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.
Cyanotype
The cyanotype (sunprint) was one of the first photographic printing processes. The process dates back as early as the year 1841 and became quite popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
