Painting, woodcut or sculpture behind the altar in a church or chapel. Usually part of the retable. It often consists of more than one panel: three (triptych) or more (polyptych). Famous altarpieces: [..]

Also known as 'primer' or 'horae', a Book of Hours would contain a collection of prayers, psalms, scriptural excerpts and devotional texts intended for the use at home. Horae are o [..]

Support made for acrylic and oil paintings, made from linen or cotton and stretched tightly over a wooden frame. Linen is a cloth material made from flax and far superior to cotton for paintings.

Full-size model for a work of art, mostly used for frescoes, mosaics, stained-glass windows and draperies. The artist would draw or paint a sketch on the cartoon, usually paper. He himself or someone [..]

(in French: clair-obscur) A technique using the contrast between a painting's light and dark parts for dramatic effect. In addition, clair-obscur creates an illusion of depth in a flat canvas. Ca [..]

A technique for painting on walls, made popular during the Italian Renaissance. Frescoes are made by painting pigmented water onto a layer of wet plaster. As the plaster dries, the pigments are absorb [..]

A painting in monochrome, i.e. without any prominent colors. Grey and brown are the most used colors for these paintings. Grisailles were often made on the reverse side of the outer panels of triptych [..]

A genre in painting in which a story is depicted, contrary to other paintings such as portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Subjects vary from truly historical to episodes from Greek mythology and fr [..]

Usually an image of Jesus or one or more saints. Popular in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, where icons are seen as bringers of the true message comparable to the gospels. The production of icons is st [..]

(also: miniature) Illustration or decoration, usually alongside the text. The illumination of manuscripts reached its peak in the Middle Ages when masters like the Van Limburg brothers and the Azor ma [..]