Looking at Paintings: A Guide to Technical Terms

by Dawson W. Carr, Mark Leonard

Offers definitions for painting terms on styles, textures, techniques, and perspective

Paperback

First published June 25, 1992

Reviews

[AARON · Rating 1 out of 5]

The lexicographical format kills any hope of continuous reading, which is not to be expected from a glossary or dictionary, but the title and foreword promise “a guide for the museum visitor." So, sure, it might be fun at first stumbling upon a term like CHIAROSCURO paired with Caravaggio’s The Supper at Emmaus, and after the entry makes the dramatic play of light and shadow apparent in the painting, you are directed to flip over to SFUMATO (defined by gradations of tone and color), which in turn points to MODELING, prompting a motivated reader to lumber back to the M’s where, finally—paydirt—this technique, the representation of the three-dimensional form, is precisely as Caravaggio employed at the beginning of our peregrination. You certainly come away with a richer look at the Baroque masterpiece, but the meandering gets old fast and too exhausting to embark on again and again.