Art History Words and Terms Beginning With F
faux
From the French, faux literally means "false" or "artificial." In other words, you're not looking the genuine article. To be blunt, faux(-anything) in art is fake(-anything).
fin de siècle
Fin de siècle is a French phrase that translates to "end of the century."
fl. (floruit)
These two handy letters denote the date of Whomever's high water mark, career-wise, because we have records of when paintings and sculptures were executed -- even if we don't have a clue as to the artist's date of birth.
form
Form is an element of art. At its most basic, a form is a three-dimensional geometrical figure.
Fourth Dimension
The Fourth Dimension refers to time among the other dimensions: length, width and depth, or it refers to the mental processes, such as perceiving and feeling.
fraktur
Fraktur has commonly come to mean a type of certificate, most popular from the late 1700s-1900, used by the Pennsylvania Dutch to document births, deaths, family genealogies and land purchases.