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grisaille

  (grĭ-zī', -zāl') pronunciation
n.
  1. A style of monochromatic painting in shades of gray, used especially for the representation of relief sculpture.
  2. A painting or design in this style.
    1. Vitrifiable glass paint.
    2. A lacy pattern painted on light glass with vitrifiable paint and fired.

[French, from gris, gray, from Old French, from Frankish *grīs.]


 
 

Grisaille stained glass, detail of the Five Sisters Window, 13th century, Cathedral of St. Peter, …
(click to enlarge)
Grisaille stained glass, detail of the Five Sisters Window, 13th century, Cathedral of St. Peter, … (credit: Copyright Sonia Halliday and Laura Lushington)
Painting technique by which an image is executed entirely in shades of gray and usually modeled to produce the illusion of sculpture or relief. It was used especially by 15th-century Flemish painters (e.g., Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, 1432) and in the late 18th century to imitate Classical sculpture in wall and ceiling decoration. It is sometimes used to produce monotone underpainting for translucent oil colours. In the 16th century grisaille enamels were developed in Limoges, France; the technique achieves a dramatic effect of light and shade and a pronounced sense of three-dimensionality.

For more information on grisaille, visit Britannica.com.

 
Architecture: grisaille


1. A system of painting in grey tints of various shades; used either for decoration or to represent objects, as in relief.
2. A stained glass window executed according to this method.


 
(grĭzī', –zāl', Fr. grēzä') , a monochrome painting and drawing technique executed in tones of gray. Such works were often produced in the Renaissance to simulate sculpture, as in Uccello's equestrian portrait of Sir John Hawkswood (Cathedral of Florence). Painters of stained glass frequently used grisaille. In the 17th cent. grisaille was prized for interior decoration.


 
Wikipedia: grisaille
The Baptism of Christ, one of Andrea del Sarto's gray and brown grisaille frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo, Florence (1511-26).
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The Baptism of Christ, one of Andrea del Sarto's gray and brown grisaille frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo, Florence (1511-26).

Grisaille (grĭ-zī', -zāl'; French: gris, grey) is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome, usually in shades of grey or brown, particularly used in decoration to represent objects in relief. Italian examples may be described as work in chiaroscuro, although this term has other meanings as well. Some grisailles in fact include a slightly wider colour range, like the Andrea del Sarto illustrated.

A grisaille may be executed for its own sake as a decoration, as the first layer of an oil painting (in preparation for glazing layers of colour over it), or as a model for an engraver to work from.

Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel, and Jan van Eyck painted grisaille figures on the outsides of the wings of tryptychs, including the Ghent Altarpiece - these were the sides most commonly on display, as the doors were normally kept closed. In both cases imitation of sculpture was intended.

Trompe-l'œil Wall grisaille in Amsterdam by Jacob de Wit, 1730s.
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Trompe-l'œil Wall grisaille in Amsterdam by Jacob de Wit, 1730s.

The ceiling frescoes of the Sistine chapel have portions of the design in grisaille. At Hampton Court the lower part of the decoration of the great staircase by Antonio Verrio is in grisaille. Full colouring of a subject makes many more demands of an artist, and working in grisaille was often chosen as being quicker and cheaper, although the effect was sometimes deliberately chosen for aesthetic reasons. Grisaille paintings resemble the drawings, normally in monochrome, that artists from the Renaissance on were trained to produce; like drawings they can also betray the hand of a less talented assistant more easily than a fully coloured painting.

Illuminated manuscripts had often been produced in pen and wash with a very limited colour range, and many artists such as Jean Pucelle and Matthew Paris specialised in such work. Renaissance artists such as Mantegna and Polidoro di Caravaggio often used grisaille as a classicising effect, either in imitation of the effect of a classical sculptured relief, or of Roman painting.

Window of St. Peter: Stained glass (white glass, grisaille and silver sulfide) and lead, France, ca. 1500–1510.
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Window of St. Peter: Stained glass (white glass, grisaille and silver sulfide) and lead, France, ca. 1500–1510.

In enamel and stained glass

The term is also applied to monochrome painting in enamels, and also to stained glass; a fine example of grisaille glass is in the window known as the "Five Sisters",[1] at the end of the north transept in York cathedral. Portions of a window may be done in grisaille — using, for example, silver stain or vitreous paint — while other sections are done in coloured glass.

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Grisaille" Read more

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