1042 Glossaryseal—In Asian painting, a stamp affixed to a paint-
ing to identify the artist, the calligrapher,or the
owner. See also cylinder seals.
secco—Italian, “dry.” See also fresco.
Second Style mural—The style of Roman mural
painting in which the aim was to dissolve the con-
fining walls of a room and replace them with the
illusion of a three-dimensional world constructed
in the artist’s imagination.
secondary colors—Orange, green, and purple,
obtained by mixing pairs ofprimary colors (red,
yellow, blue).
section—In architecture, a diagram or representa-
tion of a part of a structure or building along an
imaginary plane that passes through it vertically.
Drawings showing a theoretical slice across a
structure’s width are lateral sections. Those cut-
ting through a building’s length are longitudinal
sections. See also elevation and cutaway.
sedes sapientiae—Latin, “throne of wisdom.” A Ro-
manesque sculptural type depicting the Virgin
Mary with the Christ Child in her lap.
senate—Latin senatus, “council of elders.” The Sen-
ate was the main legislative body in Roman con-
stitutional government.
serdab—A small concealed chamber in an Egyptian
mastabafor the statue of the deceased.
Severe Style—The Early Classical style of Greek
sculpture, ca. 480–450 BCE.
sexpartite vault—See vault.
sfumato—Italian,“smoky.” A smokelike haziness that
subtly softens outlines in painting; particularly
applied to the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and
Correggio.
sgrafitto—A Chinese ceramic technique in which the
design is incisedthrough a colored slip.
shaft—The tall, cylindrical part of a column between
the capital and the base.
shakti—In Hinduism, the female power of the deity
Devi (or Goddess), which animates the matter of
the cosmos.
shaykh—An Islamic mystic saint.
sherd—A fragmentary piece of a broken ceramic
vessel.
shikara—The beehive-shaped tower of a northern-
style Hindu temple.
Shingon—The primary form of Buddhism in Japan
through the mid-10th century. Lowercase shingon
is the Japanese term for the words or syllables re-
cited in Buddhist ritual.
Shino—Japanese ceramic wares produced during
the late 16th and early 17th centuries in kilns in
Mino.
shogun—In 12th- through 19th-century Japan, a
military governor who managed the country on
behalf of a figurehead emperor.
shogunate—The Japanese military government of
the 12th through 19th centuries.
sibyl—A Greco-Roman mythological prophetess.
signoria—The governing body in the Republic of
Florence.
silk-screen printing—An industrial printing tech-
niquethat creates a sharp-edged image by press-
ing ink through a design on silk or a similar tightly
woven porous fabric stretched tight on a frame.
silverpoint—A stylus made of silver, used in drawing
in the 14th and 15th centuries because of the fine
line it produced and the sharp point it maintained.
Simultanéisme—Robert Delaunay’s version ofCu-
bismin which he created spatial effects and kalei-doscopic movement solely through color con-
trasts; also known as Orphism.
simultaneous contrasts—The phenomenon of jux-
taposed colorsaffecting the eye’s reception of each,
as when a painter places dark green next to light
green, making the former appear even darker and
the latter even lighter. See also successive contrasts.
sinopia—A burnt-orange pigment used in fresco
painting to transfer a cartoon to the arricciobe-
fore the artist paints the plaster.
siren—In ancient Greek mythology, a creature that
was part bird and part woman.
site-specific art—Art created for a specific location.
See also Environmental Art.
skene—Greek, “stage.” The stage of a classicaltheater.
skenographia—Greek, “scene painting”; the Greek
term for perspectivepainting.
skiagraphia—Greek, “shadow painting.” The Greek
term for shading, said to have been invented by
Apollodoros, an Athenian painter of the fifth cen-
tury BCE.
slip—A mixture of fine clay and water used in ce-
ramic decoration.
space—In art history, both the actual area an object
occupies or a building encloses, and the illusionistic
representation of space in painting and sculpture.
spandrel—The roughly triangular space enclosed by
the curves of adjacent archesand a horizontal
member connecting their vertexes; also, the space
enclosed by the curve of an archand an enclosing
right angle. The area between the arch proper and
the framing columnsand entablature.
spectrum—The range or band of visible colors in
natural light.
sphinx—A mythical Egyptian beast with the body of
a lion and the head of a human.
splashed-ink painting—See haboku.
springing—The lowest stone of an arch,resting on
the impost block.In Gothic vaulting,the lowest
stone of a diagonal or transverse rib.
squinch—An architectural device used as a transi-
tion from a square to a polygonal or circular base
for a dome.It may be composed oflintels, corbels,
or arches.
stained glass—In Gothicarchitecture, the colored
glass used for windows.
stamp seal—See cylinder seal.
stanza(pl.stanze)—Italian, “room.”
statue—A three-dimensional sculpture.
stave—A wedge-shaped timber; vertically placed
staves embellish the architectural features of a
building.
stele (pl.stelae)—A carved stone slab used to mark
graves or to commemorate historical events.
stem stitching—See embroidery.
stigmata—In Christian art, the wounds Christ re-
ceived at his crucifixion that miraculously appear
on the body of a saint.
still life—A picture depicting an arrangement of
inanimate objects.
stoa—In ancient Greek architecture, an open build-
ing with a roof supported by a row ofcolumnspar-
allel to the back wall. A covered colonnadeor
portico.
Stoic—A philosophical school of ancient Greece,
named after the stoas in which the philosophers
met.
stoneware—Pottery fired at high temperatures to
produce a stonelike hardness and density.
strategos—Greek, “general.”during the Renaissance,especially for stone courses
at the ground-floor level.
sabi—Japanese; the value found in the old and
weathered, suggesting the tranquility reached in
old age.
sacra conversazione—Italian, “holy conversation.” A
style ofaltarpiece painting popular after the mid-
dle of the 15th century, in which saintsfrom dif-
ferent epochs are joined in a unified space and
seem to be conversing either with one another or
with the audience.
sacra rappresentazione (pl.sacre rappresenta-
zioni)—Italian,“holy representation.” A more elab-
orate version of a mystery playperformed for a lay
audience by a confraternity.
sacramentary—A Christian religious book incorpo-
rating the prayers priests recite during Mass.
saint—From the Latin word sanctus,meaning “made
holy by God.” Applied to persons who suffered and
died for their Christian faith or who merited rev-
erence for their Christian devotion while alive. In
the Roman Catholic Church, a worthy deceased
Catholic who is canonized by the pope.
Saint-Simonianism—An early-19th-century utopian
movement that emphasized the education and en-
franchisement of women.
sakkos—The tunic worn by a Byzantine priest.
saltimbanque—An itinerant circus performer.
Samarqand ware—A type of Islamic pottery pro-
duced in Samarqand and Nishapur in which the
ceramists formed the shape of the vessel from
dark pink clay and then immersed it in a tub of
white slip, over which they painted ornamental or
calligraphic decoration and which they sealed
with a transparent glaze before firing.
sangha—The Buddhist monastic order.
samsara—In Hindu belief, the rebirth of the soul
into a succession of lives.
samurai—Medieval Japanese warriors.
sand painting—A temporary painting techniqueus-
ing sand, varicolored powdered stones, corn pollen,
and charcoal. Sand paintings, also called dry paint-
ings, are integral parts of sacred Navajo rituals.
sarcophagus (pl.sarcophagi)—Latin, “consumer of
flesh.” A coffin, usually of stone.
Satimbe—“Sister on the head.” A Dogon (Mali) mask
representing all women.
saturation—See color.
satyr—A Greek mythological follower of Dionysos
having a man’s upper body, a goat’s hindquarters
and horns, and a horse’s ears and tail.
saz—An Ottoman fabric design composed of sinu-
ous curved leaves and complex blossoms.
scarab—An Egyptian gem in the shape of a beetle.
scarification—Decorative markings on the human
body made by cutting or piercing the flesh to cre-
ate scars.
Scholasticism—The Gothicschool of philosophy in
which scholars applied Aristotle’s system of ratio-
nal inquiry to the interpretation of religious belief.
school—A chronological and stylistic classification
of works of art with a stipulation of place.
screen facade—A facadethat does not correspond
to the structure of the building behind it.
scriptorium (pl.scriptoria)—The writing studio of
a monastery.
scudi—Italian, “shields.” A coin denomination in
17th-century Italy.
sculpture in the round—Freestanding figures,
carved or modeled in three dimensions.