pentimento
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌpɛn.tɪˈmɛn.toʊ/
- Specialized
- The artist's early sketches were visible as pentimento beneath the final layers of paint.
Examples
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He was just explaining what pentimento meant when headlights swept across the walls of the kitchen.
Fiction book (2001) -
The metaphor of the pentimento suggests another approach—that the text bears the trace of conflicting artistic and ideological allegiances.
Academic text (1994) -
That is called pentimento, because the painter repented, changed his mind.
-
Like pentimento, some old marks, some ruins, ghosting my days and nights.
Fiction book (1997) -
That's the pentimento we want to scratch away at; that's the part we are clamoring to uncover and reclaim.
Academic text (2010) -
As the years went by, the pentimento of the original portrait became more distinct, revealing the artist's earlier intentions.
-
In the museum, visitors admired the pentimento that showed the evolution of the painting over time.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Pentimento comes from the Italian verb pentire, meaning 'to repent' or 'to change one's mind', and is like the English word repent. In painting a pentimento is a place where you can see the artist's earlier idea under the new paint, so the picture looks like it 'changed its mind' and left a trace of the old version.