Fresco (from Italian “fresh”) – painting with pigments suspended in water on wet or dry plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster.

Buon Fresco – painting on freshly applied plaster. This type of fresco has to be done rapidly as the plaster dries. Sistine Chapel frescoes, painted Michelangelo (1508-1512) and Raphael’s School of Athens (1509-1511) are examples of buon fresco painting.

Fresco Secco – painting on dried lime plaster wall with pigments mixed with an organic binder.

Vocabulary:

Intonaco – the final coat of plaster on which the artist paints when plaster is still wet.

Arriccio – the second coat of plaster, over the roughcast and under the intonaco.

Cartoon – a large scale drawing, usually the size of the fresco, made for the purpose of transferring the design to the wall. View the cartoon for The School of Athens.

Pouncing – method of transferring the drawing onto the wall by perforating the outlines. A pouncing pad usually made from cheesecloth filled with charcoal dust or graphite powder is used to ‘pounce’ graphite powder through the holes to transfer the image onto the wall. Today, projectors are used to transfer the drawings.
Giornata (from Italian “giorno” meaning “day”) is an area that has been painted within the course of a single day.