altarpiece
A painting with a religious subject intended to be placed on or above an altar in a church. An altarpiece could be a single picture, or it could be made up of several or many pictures.

Cupid
The Roman god of love. Cupid is the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. He is usually shown with wings and a bow and a quiver of arrows. The arrows have the power to make the person shot with them fall in love with the next person they see. His Greek name is Eros.

egg tempera
Paint made with colours mixed with water and egg yolk as a medium.

gold leaf
Gold that has been beaten down until it is very thin and can be applied to a painting through the process of gilding.

Judith
The Jewish heroine who cut off the head of the Assyrian leader Holofernes after the Assyrians had besieged a Jewish city.

Low Countries
The part of northern Europe which now includes Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The name derives from the fact that most of Holland lies below sea level.

Luther
Martin Luther (1483–1546) was an Augustinian monk and parish priest, whose demands for changes in the Catholic church led to the Reformation.

Mars
The Roman god of war. Venus fell in love with him, and had an affair with him while she was married to Vulcan. His Greek name is Ares.

medium
The liquid with which colour (pigment) is mixed to make paint. In egg tempera paint, the medium is egg; in oil paint, it is oil.

perspective
A method used by artists to produce a realistic sense of depth, distance and space on a two-dimensional surface.

pigment
A colouring substance. Pigments may be made from many different materials, including plants, artrificial dyes, animal extracts and minerals. When these are ground up finely and mixed with a medium they make paint.

Reformation
A period during the first half of the sixteenth century when Western Europe experienced a range of religious, social and political change as a result of conflict within the Catholic church.

Renaissance
A cultural movement in Western Europe lasting from about 1300 to about 1600. Renaissance art is characterised by a new sense of realism including the representation of light and space (through perspective), and by a revival of interest in the art of ancient Greece and Rome.

Royal Academy
An official art institution founded in the eighteenth century. Academicians (artists who were elected members of the Royal Academy) enjoy particular status.

Salon
The official annual art exhibition in France, held at the Louvre palace in Paris.

ultramarine
A deep blue pigment made form the semiprecious stone lapis lazuli. This was brought to Europe from Afghanistan, where it was mined. Until the nineteenth century, when it began to be manufactured artificially, it was more expensive than gold.

Venus
The Roman goddess of love and beauty, and mother of Cupid. Her Greek name is Aphrodite.

Vulcan
The Roman god of fire. (The word ‘volcano’ derives from his name.) He was also the blacksmith who made armour and weapons for the gods and heroes.