grisaille

plural grisailles

1. countableuncountableartIn painting, a method of working which employs only varying values of gray to create form. Often a preliminary step in a fully colored painting.

   1 more example

   Very pertinent relationships between these grisailles of the vegetal type and Islamic transennas have been established by Eva Frodl-Kraft, between that of Obazine with palmettes enchâssées, and a transenna from the Umayyad castle of Qasr-el Heir al Gharbi (about 727-750), today reconstructed at the National Museum in Damascus, and with a plaque, probably of Syrian origin, reused over a tomb in San Marco in Venice.

   1982, Meredith P. Lillich, Studies in Cistercian art and architecture, page 134

2. countableuncountableA stained-glass window in this style.