graphs:
Also see font, glyph, heraldry, hieroglyphics, icon, iconomatic, ideogram, lettering, logo, petroglyph, text, type, typeface, and typography.
picture - A visual representation or image drawn, painted, photographed, or otherwise produced on a flat surface. Considered as a synonym for painting, some Americans mistakenly think it uncultivated, however the term is much more commonly used by the British.
Also see print, rebus, sketch, and study.
picture plane - In perspective, the plane (a flat level) occupied by the surface of the picture — its frontal boundary. When there is any illusion of depth in the picture, the picture plane is similar to a plate of glass behind which pictorial elements are arranged in depth. Artists indicate the supposed distance of subjects beyond the picture plane through the use of changes in the sizes of things, the ways they overlap each other, and (when subjects are placed on the depicted ground, as opposed to flying above it) by positioning them on the area taken up by the depicted floor, ground, or a body of water. Abstract Expressionists worked directly on the plane itself, unconcerned with recession in depth.
picturesque - In general, this may refer to any scene which seems to be especially suitable for representation in a picture, especially that which is sublime. It is especially associated with an aesthetic mode formulated in the late eighteenth century which valued deliberate rusticity, irregularities of design, and even a cultivated pursuit of quaint or nostalgic forms. Such pictures became common in nineteenth century Europe and America. Examples can be found among the American painters of the Hudson River school — Thomas Cole (1801-1848), Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900), and Asher B. Durand (1796-1886) — and of the Rocky Mountain school — Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) and Thomas Moran (1837-1926).
John Hill (American engraver, 1770-1850), View by Moonlight, Near Fayetteville, after a painting by Joshua Shaw (American, 1776-1860), published in Picturesque Views of American Scenery by M. Carey & Son, 1820, hand-colored engraving, New York Public Library. Several figures stand around a campfire in a forest. It is unclear whether this is near Fayetteville, Arkansas or Fayetteville, North Carolina. See nocturne.
Thomas Cole (American, 1801-1848), The Course Of Empire: Savage State, no date, oil on canvas, 39 1/4 x 63 1/4 inches, New-York Historical Society. See landscape, Luminism, and Romanticism.
Also see bad art, calendar painting, chinoiserie, kitsch, landscape, low art, paint-by-number, pastoral, rustic, sacral-idyllic scene, and seascape.
piebald - Patchy or spotted, especially in black and white, or, less frequently, other colors. Piebald is often used in describing horses, dogs, and other animals.
Paulus Potter (Dutch, c. 1650-1654), The Piebald Horse, oil on canvas, 19.5 x 17 11/16 inches, J. Paul Getty Art Museum, Malibu, CA. See equine and equestrian art.
Also see ablaq, brindled, maculate, pattern, punctate, and variegated.
piece - To join parts to form a whole. When the whole is a sculpture, the parts are often projecting extremities or accessories, especially in marble sculpture. "Piece" sometimes refers to an artifact, an artwork, or an object, or to a part of one.
Also see masterpiece.
piece mold - A mold made in interlocking sections which can be used in making several casts since the mold is easily removed each time without being damaged. Piece molds are most often made of plaster, but might also be made of clay.
Also see drape mold.
pie chart - See graph.
pied de biche - A claw chisel with two long points. This is the French name (literally "deer's foot") for what in Italy is called a calcagnolo.
(pr. pee-ay' deh beesh)
Also see bush hammer.
pier - A sculptural and an architectural term with several possible meanings. It is most commonly a platform extending from a shore over water and supported by piles or pillars, used either as a mooring for ships or boats, or for entertainments of other sorts. And finally, it may be any of several sorts of vertical supporting struc