fresco

views updated

fresco a painting done rapidly in watercolour on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colours penetrate the plaster and become fixed as it dries; this method of painting, used in Roman times and by the great masters of the Italian Renaissance including Giotto, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

The word is recorded from the late 16th century and comes from Italian, literally ‘cool, fresh’. It was first recorded in the phrase in fresco, representing Italian affresco ‘on the fresh (plaster)’.

More From encyclopedia.com