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Decorative Arts Glossary

This page serves as a guide to Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs 1851-1939, a current exhibition at the Mint Museum Uptown.  This Glossary includes definitions of art terms and techniques for the various forms of decorative arts along with audio files to help pronounce terms originating in other cultures around the world.

 

Metalwork

Enameling

Wood/Furniture

Ceramics

Glass

 

Click the word to hear how it is pronounced.

  • Art Déco-French. A style which achieved popularity through the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes;  the 1925 world's fair in Paris
  • Avant Garde-French: 'Advance Guard.' Used to describe pioneers of art in a particular period. 
  • Art Nouveau-French: 'New Art.' Style developed at the end of the 19th century. Characterized by organic, asymmetric ornamentation.  
  • Champlevé-French. Enamel is applied onto metal background and fired.
  • Cloisonné-French. Metalwork technique; enameling with metal wires. 
  • Découpage-French. Decoration with cut paper. 
  • En Camaïeu-French. Ceramic glazing technique; enamel glaze removed to create designs that resemble cameo. 
  • Galvanoplastie-French: 'Electroplating.' Metalworking technique; process of making a metal coating. 
  • Gouache-French. Type of paint consisting of pigment and gum.
  • Kiritōshi-Japanese fusion of natural and artificial dimensions.
  • 蒔絵 (Maki-e)-Japanese: 'Sprinkled Picture.' Applying lacquer that is combined with gold or silver powder.

  • Marqueterie (Marquetry)-French: 'Inlay.' Technique in which material is inlaid piece by piece into a wood surface.
  • Marqueterie sur verre-French: 'Inlay on glass.' 
  • 紋 (Mon)-Japanese family crest 
  • Mokume (or Mokume Gane)-Japanese: 'Wood grain metal.' Heating various metals to create a fused look, similar to a topographic map.
  • Niello-Italian. A black substance containing silver, copper, lead, and sulfur and is used in metalwork decoration.
  • Objet D'Art-French: 'Art Object.' 
  • Oeuvre-French: 'Work,' referring to an artist's body of work.  
  • Papier Mâché-French: 'Mashed Paper.' Material used for sculpture and craft. 
  • Pâte Nouvelle-French: 'New paste.' Firing paste at lower temperature than hard paste, allowing for more glazed decoration.
  • Pâte-sur-Pâte-French: 'Paste on Paste' Porcelain decoration where relief is created on unfired work, working atop wet slip.
  • Pâte de Verre-French: 'Glass Plate.' 
  • Pietra Dura-Italian: 'Hard Stone.' Creating designs with cut stone; a mosaic.
  • Plique-à-Jour-French: 'letting in daylight.' Enameling technique similar to cloissone that creates look of stained glass.
  • Sparterie-French. Riveted leather straps.
  • 浮世絵 (Ukiyo-e)-Japanese: 'Pictures of the floating world.' Japanese woodblock prints.
  • Verre églomisé-French: 'Glass gilded.' Process where gold or silver leaf is applied to the back side of glass.

 

 

 

 

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Created by Rachel Dressel, Intern-Mint Museum Library