Word.ws English Dictionary

alla prima

alla prima adjective: without any preparatory layer of colour; with no underpainting.

Adjective

alla prima (not comparable)

  1. (painting) Without any preparatory layer of colour; with no underpainting.
    • The application of paint in both compositions shows the use of a layering technique in the flesh tones and garments and the alla prima technique in the background.2020, Inken Maria Holubec, “Angelica Kauffman and the Neoclassical Picture”, in Bettina Baumgärtel, editor, Angelica Kauffman, Hirmer, page 33
    Synonyms:
    wet-on-wet

Synonyms of alla prima

Origin of alla prima

From Italian alla prima (“at first”).

Questions about alla prima

What does alla prima mean?
Alla prima means without any preparatory layer of colour; with no underpainting.
What part of speech is alla prima?
Alla prima is an adjective.

Words near alla prima in the dictionary

  1. all-you-can-eat
  2. alla
  3. alla breve
  4. alla cappella
  5. alla marcia
  6. alla prima
  7. Allaah
  8. allaballies
  9. allabogdanite
  10. allabrot
  11. Allacapan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alla prima (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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