fresco
Americannoun
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Also called buon fresco. Also called true fresco. the art or technique of painting on a moist, plaster surface with colors ground up in water or a limewater mixture.
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a picture or design so painted.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a very durable method of wall-painting using watercolours on wet plaster or, less properly, dry plaster ( fresco secco ), with a less durable result
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a painting done in this way
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fresco
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Italian: “cool, fresh,” of Germanic origin; see fresh
Explanation
Whether you've studied art history or not, you're probably familiar with the world's most famous fresco: Michelangelo's paintings on the walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. To paint a fresco, you must apply paint to freshly applied plaster that is still wet, and you better get it right the first time. Too slow and the plaster hardens, and then you've got a lot of chipping away to do. Fresco comes from the Italian fresco, meaning "cool" or "fresh," which describes exactly the fast, unlabored technique required of fresco painting.
Vocabulary lists containing fresco
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Stroke of Genius: Words About Painting
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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.
See Examples For:
Renata Pintus, who heads the masonry department at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence's famous restoration workshop, told AFP it had been a "privilege" to work on Giotto's famous fresco cycle.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
During warmer months, the patio offers an excellent spot for al fresco dining.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
One of the leader’s admirers, a restorer working on a fresco at Rome’s Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, etched her likeness onto the face of an angel holding up a map of Italy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Go the Capitol rotunda and look up at the dome, where Constantino Brumidi’s fresco The Apotheosis of Washington, painted during the Civil War, shows Washington in heaven, flanked by goddesses.
From Slate ● Feb. 16, 2026
I miss the hot sun and sweating all day and the beach and eating cold fresco with my friends and long walks up and down hills and Cola Lakay and deep-fried beef patties.
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
The water gushed through gaps in the roof, running down the frescoes on the facade and onto the icons inside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
From the scaffolding, restorers have been meticulously filling in damaged portions of the frescoes and conservatively layering paint over bare sections with delicate brushes, their hands protected by gloves.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Even the prosecutor touring a buried villa that’s become a crime scene, illegally stripped of its frescoes, bemoans what’s been lost when thieves rob a people of their ancestors’ memories.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
"Painters used to put all sorts of things in frescoes," Monsignor Daniele Micheletti said.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2026
In groups of twenty or thirty, tourists swarmed through the ruins, milling around the villas, wandering the cobblestone paths, gawking at the colourful frescoes and mosaics.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Alongside the spectacle of execution and the glimmering blood, Mary, John, St. Dominic and others beside Christ in many of these frescos cover their faces or turn away.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
The frescos on the ceiling, the intricate wooden and stone carvings that punctuate the space, they’re all in perfect condition.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
For the frescos that must stay in position, a plaster glue is injected to their rear to prevent them coming away from the walls.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2024
Inside the breathtaking Art Deco interiors of the Palais de la Porte Doree, Issey Miyake ’s guests admired wall-to-wall frescos and bas-reliefs of exotic scenes lit up in dappled lighting.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2024
Now there are the wonderfully spirited frescos of Masaccio at the Carmine, frescos which were studied and copied by Raphael himself and Michael Angelo.
From Dorothy and other Italian Stories by Woolson, Constance Fenimore
Once virtually lost to memory after being painted over with whitewash, the frescoes began to be uncovered in the mid-19th century -- but the work left scratches and pockets of white on the frescoed walls.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
The New York County Courthouse's Roman façade and frescoed interiors have played backdrop to many iconic movies and television shows - perhaps, most famously, Goodfellas.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2023
"Not everyone in the Sistine Chapel. Please! We are much more," she told Reuters at the opening of an exhibition of ceramics within metres of Michelangelo's frescoed masterpiece.
From Reuters ● May 30, 2023
On Tuesday, the two autocratic presidents will dine at a state banquet in a richly frescoed hall used by a long line of Russian czars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
Walking into the library, I took in my breath sharply and stopped: glass-fronted bookcases and Gothic panels, stretching fifteen feet to a frescoed and plaster-medallioned ceiling.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
The medium made famous by Michelangelo, da Vinci and Fra Angelico, frescoing is a delicate process that entails crushing pigments and painting them into wet plaster before it dries.
From Washington Post ● May 6, 2021
Near the end of his torturous years of frescoing, Michelangelo was painting right over the elevated area where the pope would sit on his gilded throne.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 5, 2012
It was certainly a model of good taste, while the paintings, statuary, frescoing, and articles of bijouterie were evidences of enormous expenditures.
From Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives Don Pedro and the Detectives; Poisoner and the Detectives by Pinkerton, Allan
And she picked up her eyebrow pencil again and did a little more frescoing.
From The Camp Fire Girls on the Open Road or, Glorify Work by Frey, Hildegard G. (Hildegard Gertrude)
The walls were lined with marble slabs, or frescoed, while the ceilings were either bare, exposing the beams, or, in the finer houses, covered with ivory, gold, and frescoing.
From Ancient Rome : from the earliest times down to 476 A. D. by Pennell, Robert Franklin
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.
