Glossary
brass
A bright yellow or golden alloy of copper and zinc, in the proportion of about two parts of copper to one part zinc. The zinc makes brass stronger and harder than copper is alone. It is malleable and ductile, though variations in its composition make its properties variable. Also, incised plaques or tablets made of brass, many of which were made as memorials to the dead during the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe. Many of these have become so popular among people desiring to make rubbings of them that casts of the originals have been made to use this way in order to preserve the originals.
ukiyo-e
Japanese for 'pictures of the floating world'. Ukiyo-e were popular in the seventeenth to nineteenth-centuries, and depicted kabuki actors, landscapes, and folk tales.
Example: Kitagawa Utamaro's Five Kinds of Ink from the Northern Provinces, early 1790's
ultramarine
Blue pigment originally made from ground lapis lazuli. French ultramarine is an artificial substitute.
undercut
Carving to create an overhang; a recess or awkward angle in the surface or form of a three-dimensional object which would prevent easy removal of a cast from a mold. Molds should be designed to eliminate this problem. Ways to cast objects with overhangs include using piece molds and waste molds.
underdrawing
Drawing preliminary to other work, and incorporated into it, thus deprived of independent artistic value. An example is the underdrawing in fresco and panel painting, such as sinopia and abbozzo.
underpainting
The layer or layers of color on a painting surface applied before the overpainting, or final coat. There are many types of underpainting. One type is an all-over tinting of a white ground. Another is a blocked out image in diluted oil colors that serves as a guide for the painter while developing the composition and color effects.
See Also: abbozzo, sinopia (or sinopie), grisaille
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