gesso
Americannoun
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gessoes
plural
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gypsum or plaster of Paris prepared with glue for use as a surface for painting.
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any plasterlike preparation to prepare a surface for painting, gilding, etc.
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a prepared surface of plaster or plasterlike material for painting, gilding, etc.
noun
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a white ground of plaster and size, used esp in the Middle Ages and Renaissance to prepare panels or canvas for painting or gilding
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any white substance, esp plaster of Paris, that forms a ground when mixed with water
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gesso
1590–1600; < Italian < Latin gypsum gypsum
Explanation
Gesso is a substance similar to white paint that artists use to prepare a surface for painting. Gesso is typically made of glue, chalk, and white pigment. Before you paint a portrait on a square of canvas or a piece of wood, you may want to coat your painting surface with gesso. After it dries, gesso creates an even base that holds paint well — similar to the primer house painters use before applying paint. Gesso means "chalk" or "plaster" in Italian, from the Latin gypsum, also "plaster," and the Greek root gypsos, "chalk."
Vocabulary lists containing gesso
Visual Arts - High School
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Art History
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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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:
And whereas most painters favor white gesso to prepare a canvas, Mckinney chooses an almost counterintuitive layer of black.
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2024
Artist Ken Gun Min uses a tiny needle to applique his canvases, which he treats with gesso and Japanese bookbinding glue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2023
Today, painters most often use an acrylic polymer known as gesso, but 200 years ago, artists turned to a motley variety of substances.
From Science Magazine ● May 23, 2023
Marble dust mixed into gesso gives a weathered look to such pastels as “Flamenco Dancer,” which portrays a single red flower.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022
We spent months experimenting with the methods the old masters used to create real gesso.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
Starting with a rectangle of linen exactly 68 in. by 178 in., she folds, sizes and gessoes it until it becomes a geometrical plaque.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
