pentimento
Americannoun
noun
-
the revealing of a painting or part of a painting that has been covered over by a later painting
-
the part of a painting thus revealed
Etymology
Origin of pentimento
1900–05; < Italian, equivalent to penti ( re ) to repent (< Latin paenitēre to regret) + -mento -ment
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There are holes drilled into the top and the pentimento outline of where the displaced sculpture once stood.
From Washington Post • Aug. 23, 2022
It's so common that art historians and conservators have a word for it: pentimento.
From Salon • Nov. 11, 2021
The pentimento of the teenage Blasey made her seem achingly vulnerable.
From New York Times • Sep. 29, 2018
What on earth to say—with those five stars in pentimento on his shoulders, me a nineteen-year-old college student.
From The New Yorker • Sep. 14, 2015
It’s as though the image of the first baby Vincent emerges from under Vincent's, a pentimento uncovered, and in their parents’ eyes the portrait of that hoped-for “good boy” melds with Theo's.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
