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Art & Art History vocabulary · Describing & Interpreting Art

Motif

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/moʊˈtiːf/nounCommon term

In art & art history, motif means: A shape, image or theme that is repeated in one work or across many works, such as a flower in a textile pattern or a symbol that keeps returning in an artist's paintings.

In Turkish: motif, bezeme ögesi

How it is used

Used in art history, design and the decorative arts: floral motifs, geometric motifs, a recurring motif. Ottoman tiles and textiles use motifs such as the tulip, the carnation and the saz leaf. Art historians trace how motifs travel between cultures.

Example sentences

  1. The tulip motif appears again and again on İznik tiles.

  2. The open window is a recurring motif in Matisse's paintings.

Common collocations

  • floral motif
  • geometric motif
  • recurring motif
  • decorative motif
  • symbolismThe use of objects, colours, animals or figures to stand for ideas or qualities, for example a dog for loyalty or a skull for death.
  • iconographyThe study of the symbols, figures and themes in artworks and what they meant to people at the time; also the set of images linked to a particular subject.
  • miniatureA small, detailed painting, especially one made to illustrate a manuscript, as in Persian, Ottoman and medieval European books; also a very small portrait.
  • styleThe particular way an artwork looks that links it to an artist, a group, a place or a period, shown in its forms, colours, technique and subjects.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Describing & Interpreting Art

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