The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (21 page)

(1754–1817).
Italian painter. He was the leading Italian painter of the
Neoclassical
period, but more on account of the lack of native competition than because of the quality of his work, which generally looks like a rather tired imitation of
David
. Most of his career was spent in his native Milan, where he did large decorative schemes at Sta Maria presso S. Celso (1792–8) and the Palazzo Reale (1808). He also painted numerous portraits, which are generally more accomplished than his decorative work.

 
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applied art
.

Term describing the design or decoration of functional objects so as to make them aesthetically pleasing. It is used in distinction to
fine art
, although there is often no clear dividing line between the two terms.

 
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(d. 1532).
German painter, the best-known member of a family of artists. He worked in Augsburg, where he is recorded from 1481, painting altarpieces, portraits, and in 1516 a series of wall-paintings in Augsburg Town Hall in collaboration with his pupil Jörg
Breu
.

 
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aquarelle
.

The French term for true
watercolour
painting in transparent washes of colour, as distinct from opaque
gouache
.

 
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aquatint
.

An engraving method related to
etching
but producing finely granulated tonal areas rather than lines. The term applies also to a print made by this method. There are several variants of the technique, but in essence the process is as follows. A metal plate is sprinkled with acid-resistant varnish, which is fused to the plate by heating, and when the plate is immersed in an acid bath the acid bites between the tiny particles of resin and produces an evenly granulated surface. The design is created by drawing on the plate with acid-resistant varnish, and great variety of tone can be obtained by immersing in acid and varnishing in turn (the longer the acid bites, the darker the tone). Aquatint was invented around the middle of the 18th cent., and in the late 18th and early 19th cents. was highly popular in England for reproducing water-colours (colour could be added by hand or by using several plates with different coloured inks). It has also been used as an original creative medium (sometimes in conjunction with other graphic techniques) by many distinguished artists, including
Goya
,
Degas
,
Picasso
, and
Rouault
.

 
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Archaic art
.

Term applied to Greek art in the period before the
Classical
period, roughly from about 650 BC until about 480 BC (the date of the Persian sack of Athens). The Archaic period is marked by the development of the life-size stone statue (the
kouros
and
kore
) and by the change from
black-figure vase-painting
to
red-figure
.

 
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