The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (233 page)

 
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iconostasis
.

In
Byzantine
and Russian churches, a screen shutting off the sanctuary from the main body of the church on which
icons
were placed.

 
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ideal
.

A conception of something that is perfect, referring in the visual arts to works that attempt to reproduce the best of nature, but also to improve on it, eliminating the inevitable flaws of particular examples. The notion derives ultimately from Plato's Theory of Ideas, according to which all perceptible objects are imperfect copies approximating to unchanging and imperceptible Ideas or Forms. This idea reappeared with the revival of Platonism in the Italian
Renaissance
, and throughout much of subsequent European art the model of ideal beauty was supplied by classical statuary. Its most influential formation was in a lecture by
Bellori
delivered before the
Academy
of St Luke in Rome in 1664, and published as a Preface to his
Lives
in 1672. To Bellori, the contemporary artist who best exemplified the doctrine was
Poussin
, whose example became binding for the French Academy of the 17th cent. The doctrine provided the philosophical justification for the
Grand Manner
, and was the basis of criticism of anti-idealistic artists such as
Caravaggio
and
Rembrandt
, who were thought to have broken the ‘rules’ of good art. Although the doctrine has been responsible for much arid art, it has also been an inspiration to such great artists as
Raphael
, who said, ‘To paint a beautiful woman I must see several, and I have also recourse to a certain ideal in my mind’, and Guido
Reni
, who said ‘The beautiful and pure
idea
must be in the mind, and then it is no matter what the model is.’

 
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ideal landscape
.

A type of landscape painting, invented by Annibale
Carracci
in the first decade of the 17th cent, in which the elements of the landscape are composed into a grand and highly formalized arrangement suitable as a setting for small figures from serious religious or mythological subjects. It was an extraordinarily influential invention, which was developed most memorably by
Claude
and
Poussin
.

 
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illuminated manuscripts
.

Books written by hand, decorated with paintings and ornaments of different kinds. The word ‘illuminated’ comes from a usage of the Latin word
illuminare
in connection with oratory or prose style, where it means ‘adorn’. The decorations are of three main types:

(
a
) 
miniatures
or small pictures, not always illustrative, incorporated into the text or occupying the whole page or part of the border;
(
b
) 
initial letters
either containing scenes (historiated initials) or with elaborate decoration;
(
c
) 
borders
, which may consist of miniatures, occasionally illustrative, or more often are composed of decorative motifs.

They may enclose the whole of the text space or occupy only a small part of the margin of the page. Manuscripts are for the most part written on
parchment
or vellum. From the 14th cent. paper was used for less sumptuous copies. Although a number of books have miniatures and ornaments executed in outline drawing only, the majority are fully coloured. By the 15th cent. illumination tended more and more to follow the lead given by painters, and with the invention of printing the illuminated book gradually went out of fashion. During the 15th and 16th cents. illuminations were added to printed books.

 
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illusionism
.

Term applied in its broadest sense to the basic principle of
naturalistic
art whereby verisimilitude in representation causes the spectator in various degrees to seem actually to be seeing the object represented, or the space in which it is represented, even though with part of his mind he knows that he is looking at a pictorial representation and not at the real object or scene. In a somewhat narrower sense ‘illusionism’ refers to the use of pictorial techniques such as
perspective
and foreshortening to deceive the eye (if not the mind) into taking that which is painted for that which is real, or in architecture and stage scenery to make the constructed forms seem visually more extensive than they are. Two specific forms of illusionism in painting are
quadratura
, in which painted architecture appears to extend the real space of a room, and
trompe-l'œil
, in which the spectator is genuinely, if momentarily, tricked into thinking that a painted object is a real one.