gesso
gypsum or plaster of Paris prepared with glue for use as a surface for painting.
any plasterlike preparation to prepare a surface for painting, gilding, etc.
a prepared surface of plaster or plasterlike material for painting, gilding, etc.
Origin of gesso
1Words Nearby gesso
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use gesso in a sentence
No. 1261 retains the greater part of a gilt gesso border, stamped or modelled with a wavy tendril and bud pattern.
The background is entirely of gold, thickly studded with bosses of gilded gesso.
Luca Signorelli | Maud CruttwellIt is of an architectural type and of oak, and was covered with gilded gesso which long since disappeared.
The examples coated with gilded gesso or blazoned with paintings are, however, the most magnificent.
The evidence is in favour of white grounds, of size and gesso.
British Dictionary definitions for gesso
/ (ˈdʒɛsəʊ) /
a white ground of plaster and size, used esp in the Middle Ages and Renaissance to prepare panels or canvas for painting or gilding
any white substance, esp plaster of Paris, that forms a ground when mixed with water
Origin of gesso
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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