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
Monica Mendal, Vogue, 13 May 2025
Traces of an early 16th-century fresco adorn the courtyard as does a funerary stele of Bishop Albricio Peregrino, one of the palazzo’s earliest tenants.
—Madeline Weinfield, Architectural Digest, 5 May 2025
At each vote, a cardinal will write his choice on a piece of paper, process up to Michaelangelo’s giant fresco of the last judgment – which serves as a reminder of the gravity and sacredness of their responsibility – and drop his ballot in a chalice.
—Peter Pinedo, FOXNews.com, 21 Apr. 2025
The current Pope Leo undoubtedly knows the story: Raphael’s fresco depicting Leo and Attila can be seen in the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican, near the Sistine Chapel.
—Alison Hudson, The Orlando Sentinel, 11 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 30 Jun. 2025.
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fresco
noun
Italian, from fresco "fresh"
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