- grisaille
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/gri zuy", -zayl"/; Fr. /grddee zah"yeu/, n., pl. grisailles /-zuyz", -zaylz"/; Fr. /-zah"yeu/ for 2.1. monochromatic painting in shades of gray.2. a work of art, as a painting or stained-glass window, executed in grisaille.
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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.
Grisaille stained glass, detail of the Five Sisters Window, 13th century, Cathedral of St. Peter, ...Copyright Sonia Halliday and Laura Lushington* * *
▪ paintingpainting technique by which an image is executed entirely in shades of gray and usually severely modeled to create the illusion of sculpture, especially relief. This aspect of grisaille was used particularly by the 15th-century Flemish painters (as in the outer wings of the van Eycks (Eyck, Jan van)' Ghent Altarpiece) and in the late 18th century to imitate classical sculpture in wall and ceiling decoration. Among glass painters, grisaille is the name of a gray, vitreous pigment used in the art of colouring glass for stained glass. In French, grisaille has also come to mean any painting technique in which translucent oil colours are laid over a monotone underpainting.In the grisaille enamel painting technique, pulverized white vitreous enamel is made into a paste by mixing it with water, turpentine, oil of lavender, or petroleum oil and is then applied to a dark enamel ground, usually coloured black or blue. Lighter areas of the design are thickly painted, while the gray areas are obtained by painting with thinner coats to allow the dark background colour to tone the white enamel pigment. This technique achieves a dramatic effect of light and shade and a pronounced sense of three-dimensionality. Grisaille enamels were developed in the 16th century in France by the Limoges school of enamelers (Limoges painted enamel). Among the most noted practitioners of this technique were members of the Pénicaud Family. The technique was also popular with some 20th-century painters, including Alfred Leslie and Chuck Close (Close, Chuck).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
