Your very own art history cheat sheet
Everything you need to know in 5 minutes
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I’ve always thought the real barrier to art history isn’t the paintings themselves, no, they welcome us, they look at us in the eye. It’s the language around it that seems to overwhelm and intimidate, at least for me. So today, let’s do away with that, shall we?
(The in-depth definitions of the terms, with accompanying artwork examples are available in their respective posts found at the bottom of each section.)
Light & Shadow
Chiaroscuro: From the Italian chiaro (light) and scuro (dark), this is when there is a strong contrast between light and shadow in a painting, which in turn creates drama and a sense of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional canvas.
Tenebrism: A pronounced version of chiaroscuro where darkness takes over, and light cuts through sharply—think Caravaggio.
Sfumato: Meaning “to evaporate” or “smoke,” this is the technique of softening the edges of elements (through meticulous shading) in a painting to mimic how our eyes actually see.
Luminism: Both a Movement (from the 1850s) and a style of painting where the light itself is the focus of the canvas, and the artist’s brushwork is so polished that they often disappear entirely.
Space & Scale
Scale and Proportion: Scale is simply how big a painting, or any element within it, feels compared to its neighbors or the real world, while proportion refers to the size relationships within a single object—like how large a head is compared to the rest of the body.
Hieratic Scale: This is where figures’ sizes are painted according to their importance rather than how they would appear in reality.
Linear Perspective: A mathematical system of lines used to create a focal point and the illusion of three-dimensional depth on a flat two-dimensional canvas.
Foreshortening: Compressing or expanding an object or parts of a subject in a painting, to produce the illusion of projection or extension in space.
Atmospheric Perspective: Also known as aerial perspective, this is a technique of creating the illusion of depth by making distant forms in a painting less “sharp”, with softened edges and weaker hues.
Positive and Negative Space: Positive space refers to areas on a canvas that are occupied by subjects or elements, while negative space is the “empty” area surrounding them. This empty space is used deliberately to balance the composition, create visual clarity or provide us with a place for our eyes to rest.
Grammar of the Canvas
Canon: When we speak about the history of art, we usually mean a small selection of works—the names and works that appear again and again. That is the canon.
Provenance: This is the recorded ownership and chronology of a work of art—tracing who has owned it, where it has been shown, and how it has traveled through the world, which often informs the estimated price of a piece.
Figurative vs. Abstract: When an artwork represents subjects that exist in the world that we can see—like a town, a group of people, or a bowl of fruit—it is figurative (as is most artwork before the 20th century). Conversely, abstract art refers to images that do not reproduce the visible world exactly as we see it, instead simplifying or rearranging elements into studies of shape, form, color, and line.
Iconography & Allegory: Iconography is “image writing,” the idea that a picture can tell a story through the symbols it contains (like a lamb representing Christ). An allegory takes this further, where the entire scene is essentially a metaphor for a larger moral, religious or political idea.
Memento Mori & Vanitas: Memento mori (Latin for “remember you must die”) refers to themes designed to remind us of our mortality through symbols like skulls, burning candles, unplayed musical instruments, and decaying flowers and foods. Vanitas is a related sub-genre that pushes this further, using wealthy still-life scenes to show the worthlessness of worldly possessions against the brevity of our one life.
The Physical Techniques
Medium: This refers both to the category of art (painting, sculpture, printmaking etc.) and the specific materials used to create it (oil, watercolor, marble, bronze).
Diptych/Triptych: These are paintings comprised of multiple panels—two for a diptych and three for a triptych—traditionally joined by hinges. This helps make a painting portable (since you can close it like a briefcase), preserve the painting from the elements, and support the artist in building out their narrative through sequences.
Fresco: From the Italian for “fresh,” this is a mural painting technique where water-based pigment is applied directly onto wet plaster, and as it dries, it becomes a permanent part of the wall (think The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci in Milan).
Glazing: A technique of applying very diluted, almost transparent layers of paint to build color slowly.
Alla Prima (Wet-on-Wet): Meaning “at first attempt,” this is a method where the painting is completed quickly—often in a single sitting—by applying wet paint directly onto wet layers. This was popular with the Impressionists.
Impasto: Applying paint so thickly that it comes out from the surface of the canvas, which creates a three-dimensional texture that catches the light in the room (think Vincent van Gogh’s bold brushstrokes).
If you want to know the full story behind the Mediums that make up these terms, my “Mediums of Art” series traces the comprehensive history of drawing, oil painting, pastel, sculpture, and photography—and that's what paid subscribers get.
Where was this during my college art history classes. Such a great refresher, thank you!
A great “ refresher” 👏