morbidezza

American  

[mawr-bi-det-suh, mawr-bee-det-tsah] / ˌmɔr bɪˈdɛt sə, mɔr biˈdɛt tsɑ /

noun

Fine Arts.

1. the effect of extreme softness and delicacy in pictorial and sculptural representations.

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Etymology

Origin of morbidezza

1615–25; < Italian, equivalent to morbid ( o ) delicate ( see morbid) + -ezza -ice

Example Sentences

"He can't persuade us, Lady Auriol, that he is afflicted with the morbidezza of 1830."

From The Mountebank by Locke, William John

But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza, and that kind of thing.

From Middlemarch by Eliot, George

He is masculine and absolutely free from the neurasthenic morbidezza of his fellow-countryman Zuloaga.

From Promenades of an Impressionist by Huneker, James

They are certainly not endowed with that charming refinement, the morbidezza of manners which but too often is but a mask covering a morbid selfish disposition, a hypocritical and false nature.

From The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature All volumes by Various

She was tall, and her lovely arms showed through the black gauze of her dress with an exquisite roundness and morbidezza.

From Suburban Sketches by Howells, William Dean