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EntityQ848330· pop 30· linked from 248 articles

Also known as tondi

circular work of art

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, Adoration of the Magi, c. 1440/1460, National Gallery of Art A tondo (pl.: tondi or tondos) is a Renaissance term for a circular work of art, either a painting or a sculpture. The word derives from the Italian rotondo, "round". The term is usually not used in English for small round paintings, but only those over about 60 cm (two feet) in diameter, thus excluding many round portrait miniatures – for sculpture the threshold is rather lower.

A circular or oval relief sculpture is also called a roundel. The infrequently-encountered synonym rondo usually refers to the musical form.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “tondo” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.