Barrel Vault (or Tunnel Vault) - Oxford Definition

The simplest form of vault, consisting of a continuous vault of semi-circular or pointed section, unbroken in its length by cross vaults. Developed by the Romans, barrel vaults were used in Christian churches until the invention of rib-vaulting around 1100.

Baroque Revival - Oxford Definition

An architectural style adopted for many major public and institutional buildings in Great Britain and the British Empire between 1885 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Known at the time as the English Renaissance style, it adopted many of its motifs such as domes and cupolas from what is now regarded as the English Baroque style of Wren, Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh, and Gibbs. One of many notable examples of the Baroque Revival style is the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Courts), London, of 1900–6 with its central dome modelled after Wren's Royal Hospital at Greenwich.

Baroque - Oxford Definition

A term now generally used to describe art in Europe between c.1600 and c.1750. It is broadly accepted today that ‘Baroque’ implies dynamism and movement (particularly in architecture and sculpture), and a theatricality dependent on a mastery of space and geometry. The illusionism of Baroque painting is, nevertheless, founded on the ability to depict reality. All Baroque art, however outwardly dissimilar it may appear, is indebted to the technical achievements of the Renaissance. The term itself originated in the mid-18th century when used by Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–68) in a derogatory sense, to describe the allegedly excessive art of the preceding era. The word ‘Baroque’ was claimed to derive from the Portuguese barroco meaning a ‘pearl or tooth of unequal size’. It therefore implied imbalance and ugliness, as opposed to the ideal beauty and perfection sought by Winckelmann through the imitation of ancient, more particularly Greek, art. It was not until the later 19th century that ‘Baroque’, through the writings of a series of distinguished German art historians, lost its pejorative connotations and was considered as an art that was vital and distinct from that of the hallowed Renaissance. The Baroque was originally associated with post-Counter-Reformation Italy and with the concept of the unity of the arts, best exemplified in the work of Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), architect, sculptor, theatre set designer, and painter and the presiding artistic genius of 17th-century Rome. Essentially a Catholic art, the Baroque spread from Italy to Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and later to southern Germany, numbering among its many masters such diverse figures as Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, and Rubens.

Barium Yellow (or Lemon Yellow)

A pale green-yellow pigment made by mixing solutions of neutral potassium chromate and barium chloride.

Barbizon School - Oxford Definition

A group of French landscape painters who worked in the forest of Fontainebleau south-east of Paris c.1830–70 and were based in the village of Barbizon on the western edge of the forest. The most important members were Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Charles Jacque, Jules Dupré, Narcisse Diaz, and Constant Troyon; also associated with them were Camille Corot and Charles Daubigny. Much of their forest imagery of ancient oaks and desolate heaths, sometimes populated by the local peasants and their livestock, was inspired by Dutch 17th-century art. Their choice of imagery represented a reaction to the rapid urban growth of Paris and answered an increasing demand from bourgeois patrons for paintings of rural landscape, often imbued with a melancholy Romanticism. The term ‘Barbizon School’ was not actually coined until 1890 when the Scottish dealer David Croal Thomson published his book The Barbizon School of Painters. By that time the so-called Barbizon artists were widely collected in Britain (especially Scotland), Europe, and the United States. Despite claims made for Barbizon as a forerunner of Impressionism, its aims, its rural setting, and the techniques it employed were really very different to those of that later Paris-based movement.

Barbican - Oxford Definition

An outwork, such as a watchtower, defending the entrance to a castle, fortress, or town.

Baptistery - Oxford Definition

Part of a church used for the rites of baptism. Sometimes found in an apse of the main building, more often a separate structure, usually circular or polygonal. Early baptisteries had large pools for total immersion, but it became more normal for symbolic baptism to be from a font.