Dictionary

grisaille en · NOUN

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French grisaille.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) In painting, a method of working which employs only varying values of gray to create form. Often a preliminary step in a fully colored painting.
   • Very pertinent relationships between these grisailles of the vegetal type and Islamic transennas have been established by Eva Frodl-Kraft, between that of Obazine with palmettes enchâssées, and a transenna from the Umayyad castle of Qasr-el Heir al Gharbi (about 727-750), today reconstructed at the National Museum in Damascus, and with a plaque, probably of Syrian origin, reused over a tomb in San Marco in Venice. 1982, Meredith P. Lillich, Studies in Cistercian art and architecture, page 134:
2. (countable, uncountable) A stained-glass window in this style.

Forms