Glossary of Art Terms: 'B'

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Baroque

The art style or art movement of the Counter-Reformation in the seventeenth century. Although some features appear in Dutch art, the Baroque style was limited mainly to Catholic countries. It is a style in which painters, sculptors, and architects sought emotion, movement, and variety in their works.

Barbizon School

A group of naturalist landscape painters who worked in the vicinity of Barbizon, a village on the outskirts of the Forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, in the 1840s and 1850s. The group was founded by Théodore Rousseau and included Jean-Baptist Corot, Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, Constant Troyon, Jules Dupré, Jean-François Millet, and Charles-François Daubigny.

bronze

An alloy of copper and tin. It has been used in casting for centuries. A sculpture cast in bronze is referred to as a bronze. Works cast in bronze often begin as clay models.

Byzantine art

The art of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Christian empire whose capital was Constantinople (now known as Istanbul), which endured from 5th century until the Turks conquered it in 1453. The term, however, refers more to a style associated with Byzantium than to its area. Byzantine paintings and mosaics are characterized by a rich use of color and figures, which seem flat and stiff. The figures also tend to appear to be floating, and to have large eyes. Backgrounds tend to be solidly golden or toned. Intended as religious lessons, they were presented clearly and simply in order to be easily learned. Byzantine art is often referred to as Early Christian art.