: the art of painting on freshly spread moist lime plaster with water-based pigments
2
: a painting executed in fresco
frescotransitive verb
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Fresco and the Art World
The Italian word fresco means “fresh” and comes from a Germanic word akin to the source of English fresh. In the Renaissance, pittura a fresco, meaning “painting freshly,” referred to paint applied while the plaster on the wall was still wet, as opposed to pittura a secco “painting dryly,” in which paint is applied when the plaster was dry. In English, fresco appears earliest as part of the phrase in fresco; it does not appear as a noun referring to a painting until 1670. A different sense of Italian fresco, meaning “fresh air,” appears in the phrase al fresco “outdoors,” borrowed into English as alfresco and used particularly in reference to dining outdoors.
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebThe queso fresco adds a mild tang that, when blended with the evaporated milk and walnuts, produces a creamy sauce. Alexis Montoya, Bon Appétit, 14 Sep. 2022 Those house visits also inspired the furrowed plasterwork in the formal entrance hall that doubles as a dining room, a new oaken staircase, and Halard’s freehand fresco of undulant oak leaves in the library. Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 30 Aug. 2022 At each fresco, there is a placard that shows where that particular painting is on the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Griffin Wiles, The Indianapolis Star, 8 July 2022 During the renovation, an electrician also accidentally uncovered a large fresco above one hall that had been hidden for centuries behind a false ceiling. Peter Mikelbank, PEOPLE.com, 13 July 2022 There was even enough to hire an Orthodox Christian fresco painter from Serbia, a man named Aleksander Zivadinovic, to paint the interior. Tamarra Kemsley, The Salt Lake Tribune, 23 July 2022 In addition to Hercules’ labors, restorers also discovered a large fresco of Odysseus and a ceiling painting depicting the mythological abduction of Europa by the god Zeus, who appears in the form of a bull. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 July 2022 The portraits of the heads of St. John the Evangelist and St. James, who are each sat to the left of Jesus Christ in the famed fresco in Milan, are part of a Sotheby's London sale on July 6 dedicated to master works on paper.CNN, 29 June 2022 Golden statues of angels and saints climb the inside pillars of Lviv’s Bernardine church, up to a ceiling fresco of the ascension. Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 June 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Italian, from fresco fresh, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German frisc fresh