fresco

UK/ˈfɹɛskəʊ/US/ˈfɹɛskoʊ/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,696 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: frescoes, frescos

A fresco is a painting done on wet plaster. A Renaissance fresco, restore the fresco, paint in fresco.

The colour soaks into the plaster and dries as part of the wall, which is why frescoes survive for centuries — and why the painter must finish each patch before it dries. That deadline is why the work was planned in day-sized sections.

Definitions of fresco

1nounfrescoA painting done on wet plaster.B2+
“The old church walls are covered with faded frescoes of saints and angels.”

fresco is a painting.

Where it comes from

Italian fresco means fresh, from a Germanic root. The phrase was a fresco, on the fresh plaster.

Proto-Germanic
*friskaz
Vulgar Latin
*friscum
Italian
fresco
English, today
fresco

From Italian fresco, from Vulgar Latin friscum, from Proto-Germanic friskaz. a doublet of fresh and frisk.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

fresco in the wild

Fresco (pl. frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster.
Fresco
The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
Fresco
The fresco is suspended 180 feet above the rotunda floor and covers an area of 4,664 square feet.
The Apotheosis of Washington
The secco technique contrasts with the fresco technique, where the painting is executed on a layer of wet plaster.
Fresco-secco
Because the pigments do not become part of the wall, as in buon fresco, fresco secco paintings are less durable.
Fresco-secco

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary