Adeline's art dictionary : containing a complete index of all terms used in art, architecture, heraldry, and archaeology / translated from the French and enlarged.

  • Adeline, Jules, 1845-1909.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Adeline's art dictionary : containing a complete index of all terms used in art, architecture, heraldry, and archaeology / translated from the French and enlarged. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    two charges when placed back to back. Thus, we say two lions addorsed. Two crescents are addorsed when their flanks are turned towards one another and their horns to the sides of the shield. Adit. (Arch.) The entrance or ap- proach to a building. Adobe. Sun-dried bricks, such as are in use in Egypt and in other countries with a warm and dry climate. They were introduced into Spain from Africa, and they are found under the same name in Mexico and other parts of America. Adrian, St. The patron saint of soldiers, is represented in art with an anvil and a sword, the former referring to his martyrdom and the latter being the attribute of a military saint. Adze. (Sculp.) A small hatchet, one end of which serves as a hammer. It is used by sculptors for work- ing the plaster. Car- vers in wood also make use of an adze, one end of which is bevel-edged. Aegipan. A mythological deity of the mountains and woods represented with horns and the feet of a goat. It is often met in Bacchanalian pictures. Aegis. Originally a protection of goatskin worn by the early inhabit- ants of Greece. Hence it denoted the shield carried by Zeus and Ath- ene, which was made of the skin of the goat Amal- thae?. and had the Gorgon's head in its centre. Later on it came to mean a breast- plate worn by emperors and others. AesculapiuB. In Greek mythology the God of Medicine. He is represented in ancient art as a bearded man of a type very similar to that of Zeus. He often leans upon a staff, round which is coiled a serpent, the symbol of rej u venescence. Aesthetics. Strictly speaking the theory of perception, but in a more exclusive sense the science of the beau- tiful. During the last ten years the terms aesthete, aesthetic, &c, have been used as slang terms referring to a sham admiration of art, which has been per- sistently ridiculed in certain journals and plays. Aetos. (Arch.) The name given to the triangular pediment or gable which sur- mounted the portico of the Greek temple. [Pediment.] Affronte, Affronted. (Her.) This is the converse of addorsed, and is said of two charges facing one another. It is also used in the sense of full-faced to the spectator. Thus a peacock affronte means a peacock with his tail expanded. Agate. A siliceous stone of great hardness. The varieties of agate most generally employed by gem-engravers are the cornelian and sardonyx. The chrysopras is used exclusively for jewel- lery, while vases, pedestals, &c, of much richness are manufactured from the onyx and the numerous other varieties of agate. Agatha, St. A martyr saint of Catania, who was tortured and put to death by Quintian, a governor of Sicily. She is represented in art as holding in one hand a palm, in the other a dish or salver, on which is a woman's breast. She wears a crown of martyrdom and a veil, and beside her lie the shears, the instrument with which her breast was cut off. The best known picture of her martyrdom is by Sebastian del Piombo, and is at the Pitti Palace. Agnes, St. The favourite saint of the