#art theory

• Allegorical — Containing an allegory or belonging to it; expressed through images, symbols, extended metaphors, or personifications that hide a profound moral or philosophical meaning, different from the literal sense of the words or plastic representations. In criticism, it describes a mode of artistic coding where visual or narrative elements structurally correspond to a parallel system of abstract ideas.
• Allegorized — Having been expressed, represented, or interpreted by means of an allegory; transposed from a literal or direct form into a complex symbolic structure based on extended metaphors and personifications. In criticism, it describes the final state of an abstract concept or historical event that has received a figurative artistic cloak to hide or enrich the original meaning.
• Autographic — Pertaining to or relating to an autograph or to autography; executed by direct handwriting or multiplied using the lithographic technique of autographic transfer. In aesthetics and art theory (Nelson Goodman), it describes a work whose authenticity depends on the direct physical execution by the author (such as a painting), as opposed to allographic arts (such as music or literature), which can be reproduced through notation without losing their status as an original.
• Self-pastiche — The act of self-pasticheing and its result; a structural process or artistic manifestation marked by the faithful, yet unoriginal, reproduction of one's own creative style from the past. In critical analyses, the phenomenon of self-pastiche is often labeled as sterile mannerism, indicating a moment when an author no longer evolves conceptually, but prefers to clone their own formal successes to meet market or public expectations.