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Art History Words and Terms Beginning With F

Listed here are Art History words and terms that begin with the letter "F". Selecting any entry below will lead to its page and the ability to view its full definition.

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.

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