Protagonists

Antonio Spano after Marco Pino
Perseus with the Head of Medusa
ca. 1570-80
chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Natalia Goncharova
Design for Stage Set
ca. 1912
pochoir
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Raoul Dufy
Les Trois Nus
before 1953
pochoir
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall

Jan van Somer after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of painter Hubert Le Sueur
ca. 1670-80
mezzotint
British Museum

Jan van Somer
Woman with Veil
ca. 1670-80
mezzotint
British Museum

William Strang
Woman darning
1884
etching and mezzotint
British Museum

Georges Barbier
La Terre
1925
lineblock and pochoir
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Georges Barbier
L'Automne
1925
lineblock and pochoir
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Georges Barbier
L'Eau
1925
lineblock and pochoir
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Elisha Kirkall after Enea Salmeggia
Christ with Martha and Mary
ca. 1720-30
chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Master N.D. after Parmigianino
Virgin and Child with Saints
ca. 1544
chiaroscuro woodcut
(School of Fontainebleau)
British Museum

Hans Burgkmair the Elder
Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I
1518
chiaroscuro woodcut
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hans Wechtlin
Alcon slaying the Serpent
before 1526
chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Hans Wechtlin
Orpheus
ca. 1510
chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Hans Wechtlin
Pyrgoteles (ancient gem-cutter)
ca. 1520
chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Hans Wechtlin
The Knight and the Lansquenet
ca. 1518
chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Johann Ulrich Biberger
Herzog Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig
ca. 1710
mezzotint
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

ELISION – The obliteration of a syllable, for metrical reasons, when a vowel at the end of a word comes before one at the beginning of another.  This strict classical meaning of the term is extended ordinarily, in the English use of it, to the omission of a syllable within a word, or the fusion of two in any of the various ways indicated by the classical terms crasis ("mixture"), thlipsis ("crushing"), syncope ("cutting short"), synalœpha ("smearing together"), synizesis ("setting together"), synecphonesis ("combined utterances"), and others.  Perhaps the most useful phraseology in English indicates "elision" for actual vanishing of a vowel (when it is usually represented by an apostrophe), and "slur" for running of two into one.  These two processes are of extreme importance, for upon the view taken of them turns the view to be held of Shakespeare's and Milton's blank verse, and of a large number of other measures.

– George Saintsbury, from Historical Manual of English Prosody (1910)  

Protagonists

Isaac Beckett after Nicolas de Largillière
Mary of Modena, Queen Consort of James II
ca. 1685-88
mezzotint
British Museum

André Lanskoy
Cortège
1985
pochoir (greeting-card, recto)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

André Lanskoy
Cortège
1985
pochoir (greeting-card, verso)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Master N.D. after Rosso Fiorentino
Holy Family with St Elizabeth
ca. 1544
chiaroscuro woodcut
(School of Fontainebleau)
British Museum

Master N.D. after Rosso Fiorentino
Holy Family with St Elizabeth
ca. 1544
chiaroscuro woodcut
(School of Fontainebleau)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Master N.D. after Rosso Fiorentino
Holy Family with St Elizabeth
ca. 1544
chiaroscuro woodcut
(School of Fontainebleau)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Arthur Pond after Jacopo Bertoia
Venus in Chariot with Putti
ca. 1736
etching and chiaroscuro woodcut
British Museum

Georges Barbier
Le Matin
(plate from Gazette du Bon-Ton)
1925
lithograph and pochoir
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jean-Gabriel Domergue
Le Miroir Ovale
1920
pochoir
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Viktor Hammer
Dr Oskar Stracker, Vienna
ca. 1920-30
mezzotint
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Georg Fennitzer after Johann Bergmann
Posthumous Portrait of Andreas Bergmann
1693
color mezzotint printed à la poupée
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Vivant-Denon
L'Abbé Zani discovering unique niello engraving by Maso Finiguerra
1803
chiaroscuro woodcut and letterpress
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Chuck Webster
Do the Earth by Hand
2013
pochoir and screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Chuck Webster
Houses Rise and Fall
2013
linocut, pochoir and screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Chuck Webster
Old Stone to New Building
2013
pochoir and screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Jan van Somer after Adam Elsheimer
Tobias and the Archangel Raphael in Moonlight
ca. 1670-80
mezzotint
British Museum

Paul Colin
Le Tumulte Noir
(formerly but wrongly said to be Josephine Baker)
1927
lithograph and pochoir
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

CATALEXIS ("leaving off") – A term of great importance, inasmuch as there is no other single one which can replace it; but a little vague and elastic in use.  Strictly speaking, a catalectic line is one which comes short, by a half-foot or syllable, of the full normal measure; a brachycatalectic ("short leaving off"), one which is a whole foot minus; and a hypercatalectic ("leaving over"), one which has a half foot (or perhaps a whole one in rare cases) too much.  The terms "catalexis" and "catalectic" are sometimes used loosely to cover all these varieties of deficiency and redundance in their several developments.  Acatalectic means a fully and exactly measured line, without excess or defect.  

– George Saintsbury, from Historical Manuel of English Prosody (1910) 

Paradigms (Western)

Edvard Munch
Kneeling Nude
ca. 1920-23
oil on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Romaine Brooks
Portrait of arts patron Baroness Catherine d'Erlanger
ca. 1924
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Matthew Smith
La Chemise Jaune
1924-25
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

André Derain
Mano the Dancer
ca. 1924-28
oil on canvas
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Georges Barbier
Le Printemps
1925
lineblock and pochoir (fashion plate)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

John Lavery
Portrait of Lila Lancashire
ca. 1925
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Man Ray
Kiki de Montparnasse (Alice Prin)
ca. 1925
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Sybil Craig
Portrait Study of a Woman
1926
drawing
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Nickolas Muray
Judith Anderson in Behold the Bridegroom
ca. 1927
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

George Luks
The Polka-Dot Dress
1927
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

Augustus John
Tallulah Bankhead
1930
oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Edward Steichen
Anna May Wong
1930
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Marty Mann
Portrait of photograph Barbara Ker-Seymer
ca. 1930
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Raphael Soyer
Portrait of Rebecca
ca. 1930
oil on canvas
Portland Art Museum, Oregon

Harold Weston
The Spider
ca. 1930-31
oil on canvas
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas

Alma Lavenson
Portrait of photographer Consuelo Kanaga
1931
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Alfred J. Frueh
Katharine Cornell
1931
drawing
(caricature commissioned by the New Yorker)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

ALLITERATION – The repetition of the same letter at the beginning or (less frequently) in the body of different words in more or less close juxtaposition to each other.  This, which appears slightly, but very slightly, in classical poetry, has always been a great feature of English.  During the Anglo-Saxon period universally, and during a later period (after an interval which almost certainly existed, but the length of which is uncertain) partially, it formed, till the sixteenth century, a substantive and structural part of English prosody.  Later, it became merely an ornament, and at times, especially in the eighteenth century, has been disapproved.  But it forms part of the very vitals of the language, and has never been more triumphantly used than in the late nineteenth century by Mr. Swinburne. 

– George Saintsbury, from Historical Manual of English Prosody (1910)