fresco
noun
Did you know?
If the word fresco brings to mind images of eating an alfresco meal—that is, a meal eaten outside “in the fresh air”—your gut is on the right track: fresco is Italian for “fresh,” and the culinary usage is relatively common in English. But what puts the “fresh” in the English fresco is not so appetizing: the name of this art form refers to the fresh plaster used in it. Fresco is an ancient art, used as early as the Minoan civilization on Crete, but it reached the height of its popularity during the Italian Renaissance of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Fresco comes in two types: in fresco secco (“dry fresco”), a dry wall is soaked in limewater, and lime-resistant pigments are then applied; in buon fresco (“good fresco”; buon fresco is also called “true” fresco), used by Michelangelo in his 16th century Sistine Chapel frescos, pigments are fused directly with wet plaster.
Did you know?
Fresco and the Art World
The Italian word fresco means “fresh” and comes from a Germanic word akin to the source of English fresh. In the Renaissance, pittura a fresco, meaning “painting freshly,” referred to paint applied while the plaster on the wall was still wet, as opposed to pittura a secco “painting dryly,” in which paint is applied when the plaster was dry. In English, fresco appears earliest as part of the phrase in fresco; it does not appear as a noun referring to a painting until 1670. A different sense of Italian fresco, meaning “fresh air,” appears in the phrase al fresco “outdoors,” borrowed into English as alfresco and used particularly in reference to dining outdoors.
Examples of fresco in a Sentence
Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 June 2025
The artistic influences evident in these frescoes extend beyond Britain, drawing inspiration from wall decorations found in other parts of the Roman Empire, such as Xanten and Cologne in Germany, and Lyon in France.
—Willem Marx, NPR, 20 June 2025
Across the five floors, which include the ground floor and the basement, all the structures accumulated in recent times were stripped away during the restoration to reveal 19th century decorations, 18th century trompe l’oeils, late 17th century frescoes and even earlier ornamentation.
—Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 24 May 2025
By the Renaissance, when Perugino created his fresco in the Sistine Chapel, more visuals emerge not just of Jesus and Peter, but of them with all the other disciples.
—Elizabeth Dias, New York Times, 8 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for fresco
Cite this Entry
“Fresco.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fresco. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025.
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fresco
noun
Italian, from fresco "fresh"
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