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pictura

Pictura is a Latin noun meaning painting, picture, or the art of painting. The term derives from pict-, related to painting, and is grammatically feminine, with plural picturae. In classical Latin, pictura referred to a painting or image, as well as the act of painting; it could denote religious icons, frescoes, or other depictions, and was used across literary and technical texts to describe visual representation.

In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the word continued to designate painting as a discipline and a

In modern usage, pictura survives primarily in Latin phrases and in historic contexts; the term in vernacular

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field
of
study.
It
appears
in
a
number
of
treatises
in
Latin
as
a
formal
designation
of
the
art,
including
the
major
Renaissance
treatise
De
Pictura
by
Leon
Battista
Alberti,
published
around
1435.
Alberti’s
work
presented
painting
as
a
rational
craft
with
rules
of
composition,
proportion,
lighting,
color,
and
the
use
of
perspective,
and
it
helped
position
pictura
as
a
teachable
science
of
visual
representation.
languages
developed
separate
words
(for
example
Italian
pittura,
French
peinture,
Spanish
pintura).
The
Latin
form
remains
common
in
scholarly
discussions
and
in
titles
of
historical
works,
such
as
De
Pictura.
As
a
general
concept,
pictura
refers
to
painting
as
a
medium
and
to
the
produced
image
itself.