Art Definition Term begins with - M | Unique Gift Ideas

A smooth, cultured pearl cultivated in a hemispherical shape so that it has one flat and one convex surface. Mabe denotes a half sphere or domed stone.

Machining

A cold-process method of shaping material by turning, grinding or cutting.

Madrone Wood

A pale reddish-brown wood native to North America.

Majolica

An opaque glaze, usually white, with a glossy surface. Usually decorated with bright overglaze stains.

Majolica Glaze

An opaque glaze with a glossy surface, usually white, generally opacified by tin oxide; a base for colored stain overglaze decoration; traditionally thought of as Italian and Spanish, also used at Delft, Holland, and in Persia.

Makore Wood

A reddish-brown African hardwood known for its strength, dense grain and smooth, knot-free finish.

Mallet

A hammer-shaped tool of a material that will not seriously mark metal. Mallets are made of plastic, leather, wood, paper and horn.

Manifesto

In art, a public declaration or exposition in print of the theories and directions of a movement. The manifestos issued by various individual artists or groups of artists, in the first half of the twentieth century served to reveal their motivations and raisons dâetre and stimulated support for or reactions against them.

Mannerism

A term sometimes applied to art of late 16th early 17th century Europe, characterized by a dramatic use of space and light and a tendency toward elongated figures. The style was a reaction to the classical rationality and balanced harmony of the High Renaissance; characterized by the dramatic use of space and light, exaggerated color, elongation of figures, and distortions of perspective, scale, and proportion.

Maquette

1. A small scale model for a finished sculpture. It is used to visualise and test shapes and ideas without incurring the cost and effort of producing a full scale sculpture. It is the analogue of the painter cartoon or sketch.
For commissioned sculptures, especially monumental public sculptures, a maquette may be used to show the client how the finished work will fit in the proposed site. 2. The Italian equivalent of the term is bozzetto, meaning small sketch.

Marbling

A coloring process where numerous colors of paint or ink are streaked together to look like marble.

Marquetry

Decorative patterns formed when thin layers of wood (and sometimes other materials such as ivory) are inlaid into the surface of furniture or other wood products.

Married Metal

Patterns or imagery developed by joining various colored alloys, such as of bronze, copper and silver, adjacent to one another.

Marver

A heavy flat plate, usually of steel, used to cool, center and shape glass during the glassblowing process.

Mask

A common term for resist material with a design on it, especially photo stencils.

Mass

Three-dimensional form, often implying bulk, density and weight. Also, the illusion of such a form on a two-dimensional surface.

Master Mold

The plaster shape from which repeated copies of a mold can be made.

Mat Board

A heavy board made with paper and fiber, used to protect artwork. It showcases the framed subject and is available in an acid free, archival version. Matting is a stiff paper, fabric or suede border around a print or poster. Matting should buffered to an alkaline pH (to prevent acid damage to the print) and provides consistent colors, clean creamy bevels, and smooth cuts.

Matrix

An object (usually wood, metal or stone) upon which a design is formed and which is then used to make an impression on a piece of paper, thus creating a print.

Matte

Flat, non-glossy; having a dull surface appearance. A dull finish or surface, especially in painting, photography, and ceramics.

Matting

A decorative, sometimes colored, board used in framing that complements the image and the molding. Most matting is acid-free and archival.

Maturing

Reaching the temperature in a kiln which develops desired properties in the ware; or the stage in that materials, bodies, or glazes need to reach in order to be durable. Potters talk about mature glazes, mature bodies, referring to the look and feel of density. Most clays and glazes have a long maturing range, at any point of which they could be deemed mature.

MDF

The abbreviation for medium density fiberboard, a type of hardboard made from wood fibers glued together under heat and pressure.

Medieval Art

The art of the Middle Ages ca. 500 A.D. through the 14th century. The art produced immediately prior to the Renaissance.

Medium

A particular material along with its accompanying technique; a specific type of artistic technique or means of expression determined by the use of particular materials. The medium is the art form in which the artist works. For example, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, are each a medium. 1. The material used to create a work of art. 2. The binder for a paint, such as oil. 3. An expressive art form, such as painting, drawing, or sculpture.

Metal sculptures

Working with metal requires special tools that can stand high temperature. Artist who work with metal have special workshops. Metal sculptures provide a special industrial look, unless the artist chooses to change the basic look of this material. Metal sculptures are not fragile in most cases.

Mezzotint

The surface of the plate is worked by rocking a serrated tool, which forces the metal to sit on the surface of the plate. When inked the surface prints a rich black. The mezzotint process is an intaglio printing process in negative, that is from black to white.

Mica

A group of silicate minerals ranging from colorless to black characterized primarily by their ability to separate into very thin sheets. Finely pulverized mica is used as an inert pigment in paint. A sheet-like mineral found in small flakes in some natural clays; the material that shimmers in many low-fire pots of primitive cultures.

Milk Paint

A non-toxic, fade-resistant paint made from milk protein (casein), clay, lime and earth pigments.

Millefiore

A specific type of murrini with a flower-like, radially symmetrical pattern. The name means "a thousand flowers" in Italian. Similar to neriage; a traditional technique in glass and clay where several, or many, slabs of color are combined in patterns, drawings, or shapes and cut through in cross section to make many smaller ones.

Mimbres

A group of Indians in Southwestern USA who made a unique contribution to clay art from about AD 900 to 1200.

Minimalism

A style of painting and sculpture in the mid 20th century in which the art elements are rendered with a minimum of lines, shapes, and sometimes color. The works may look and feel sparse, spare, restricted or empty. A nonrepresentational style of sculpture and painting, usually severely restricted in the use of visual elements and often consisting of simple geometric shapes or masses. The style came to prominence in the late 1960s.

Mishima

Carved decoration in leather-hard clay, covered with engobe and ribbed off when drier, leaving engobe inlaid in the carving.

Miter Joint

A joint made by matching together two angled edges to form a 90-degree corner.

Mixed Media

Descriptive of art that employs more than one medium – e.g., a work that combines paint, natural materials (wood, pebbles, bones), and man made items (glass, plastic, metals) into a single image or piece of art.

Mixed sculptures

Many artists use the natural differences in shape, size, color and surface of materials to create a dialogue between materials in a mixed sculpture.

Moabi Wood

A light brown wood from western Africa that is often known for its intricate figure.

Mobile

A kinetic sculpture whose parts respond to air currents.

Mobile/Stabile

Terms coined to describe work created by Alexander Calder. The mobile is a hanging, movable sculpture and the stabile rests on the ground but also may have moving parts.

Model

To shape. In sculpture, an additive process where the artist builds up a form by adding and shaping material. In painting, the technique of using light and shade to suggest three-dimensionality. An object, usually built to scale, intended to serve as a pattern for a larger work. An initial form in clay, plasticine, plaster, or a found object, from which a mold will be made for reproduction; maquette.

Model Making

The process of creating exact replicas of designs, typically in wax, for reproduction.

Modelling

1. Working pliable material such as clay or wax into three-dimensional forms. 2. In drawing or painting, the effect of light falling on a three-dimensional object so that the illusion of its mass is created and defined by value gradations. 3. In sculpture, shaping a form in some plastic material, such as clay, wax, or plaster.4. In drawing, painting, or printmaking, the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat surface created by simulating effects of light and shadow.

Modernism

Theory and practice in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, which holds that each new generation must build on past styles in new ways or break with the past in order to make the next major historical contribution. Characterized by idealism; seen as "high art," as differentiated from popular art. In painting, most clearly seen in the work of the Post-Impressionists, beginning in 1885; in architecture, most evident in the work of Bauhaus and International Style architects, beginning about 1920.

Modular

Designed with standardized units or dimensions, as for easy assembly and repair or flexible arrangement and use.

Mohs Scale

A scale for classifying minerals based on relative hardness, determined by the ability of harder minerals to scratch softer ones. The scale includes the following minerals, in order from softest to hardest: 1. talc; 2. gypsum; 3. calcite; 4. fluorite; 5. apatite; 6. orthoclase; 7. quartz; 8. topaz; 9. corundum; 10. diamond.

Moire

A pattern produced on either textile fabrics or metallic surfaces that is watery, clouded, or frosted in appearance.

Mokume Gane

Japanese for “wood grain.” A Japanese metal-working technique in which sheets of metal are fused together and then forged, rolled, formed and filed to create a “wood grain” or other pattern. This technique was developed by a samurai sword maker, Denbei Shoami, in the 17th century.

Mould

Most commonly, a hollow (negative) container used in the casting process. Plaster is the most traditional material for molds, though they may also be made of latex, rubber or gelatin. Also, a form over which materials such as molten glass and leather-hard ceramics are draped to shape them. 1. Usually a plaster form, single or multi-pieced, which will be used to reproduce any number of accurate copies of the original model in clay or plaster. 2. In papermaking, a type of tray, made with wire mesh in a wooden frame, over which the paper pulp is spread. In fine art and manufacturing, a cavity into which a fluid, such as metal or plastic is poured, which hardens, to produce the desired finished piece.

Moulding

A decorative plane or curved strip made from wood, plastic, metal, or other material used for ornamentation or to frame a piece of art. Moulding is the wood or metal material used for framing.

Molochite

White porcelain grog.

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Monochromatic

Having only one color. Descriptive of work in which one hue - perhaps with variations of value and intensity - predominates. A term for a piece of artwork with only one color or hue.

Monoprint

A print produced by painting directly onto an already etched surface and printing the image by hand onto paper.

Monotype

A print made when an artist draws or paints on a glass or metal plate and then prints the image onto paper. No two monotypes will be exactly alike. This one-of-a-kind print is made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either printed by hand or transferred to the paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press.

Montage

A picture composed of other existing illustrations, pictures, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. that are arranged so they combine to create a new or original image. A pictorial technique of arranging cutout, ready-made illustrations, photographs, or fragments of them to create a composite image, either by gluing to a surface, or with computer graphics. 1. It is often used in screen printing and advertising. 2. collage.

Mortise

A notch, hole, groove, or slot made to receive a tenon of the same dimensions.

Mortise and Tenon

A joint formed when a tenon (a projecting piece of wood) is fitted into a notch, hole or groove (mortise).

Mosaic

An art form in which small pieces of tile, glass, or stone are fitted together and embedded into a background to create a pattern or image. Also, works made using this technique.

Mosaic Cane

A special glass rod formed from a variety of colors.

Mount

To secure a work of art to a supportive object or setting for display or study.

Mural

Any large-scale wall decoration done in painting, fresco, mosaic, or other medium.

Murrini

A small wafer of glass bearing a colored pattern. Formed by bundling and fusing colored glass rods together and then pulling the hot glass to a very small diameter. When cut into wafers, each piece bears the original pattern in miniature.

Museum Wrap

A finishing technique for artwork mounted on stretchers. The fabric is mounted onto stretcher bars with no visible staples on the edge of the frame. Edges are painted dark and no framing is necessary.

Mylar

Mylar is a trade name of coated polyester film, also known as acetate. Frosted Mylar is a textured opaque film commonly used for pencil or ink drawing.