Grisaille in the context of "Ghent Altarpiece"

Limoges enamel has been produced at Limoges, in south-western France, over several centuries up to the present. There are two periods when it was of European importance. From the 12th century to 1370 there was a large industry producing metal objects decorated in enamel using the champlevé technique, of which most of the survivals (estimated at around 7,500 pieces), and probably most of the original production, are religious objects such as reliquaries.

After a gap of a century, the industry revived in the late 15th century, now specializing in the technique of painted enamel, and within a few decades making rather more secular than religious pieces. In the French Renaissance it was the leading centre, with several dynastic workshops, who often signed or punchmarked their work. Luxury pieces such as plates, plaques and ewers were painted with sophisticated Mannerist decoration of pictorial figure scenes, which on vessels were surrounded by elaborate borders.

A lithophane is a thin plaque of translucent material, normally porcelain, which has been moulded to varying thickness, such that when lit from behind the different thicknesses show as different shades, forming an image. Only when lit from behind does the image display properly. They were invented in the 19th century and became very popular, typically for lampshades, nightlights, or to be hung on windows. They could also be given stands, to be placed in front of a light source. The longest side of a lithophane is typically between 6 and 10 in (15 and 25 cm).

The images tended to be artistically unadventurous, mostly repeating designs from prints, or paintings via reproductive prints. A large number were rather sentimental domestic genre scenes, though there were also portraits, landscapes and religious subjects. The technique naturally produced images only in grisaille, tones of grey, but later ones were often painted in translucent paint such as that used for watercolours to give colour images. The name comes from Greek; lithos means "stone," and phainen, means "to cause to appear".

The Charnel House (French: Le Charnier) is an unfinished 1944–1945 oil and charcoal on canvas painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, which is purported to deal with the Nazi genocide of the Holocaust. The black and white 'grisaille' composition centres on a massed pile of corpses and was based primarily upon film and photographs of a slaughtered family during the Spanish Civil War. It is considered to be the second of three major anti-war Picassos, preceded by Guernica in 1937 and succeeded by Massacre in Korea in 1951. The painting is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery is a small panel painting in grisaille (near monochrome) by the Netherlandish Renaissance printmaker and painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It is signed and dated 1565.

Jesus and the woman taken in adultery is a biblical episode from John 8:1–8:20 where Jesus encounters an adulteress brought before Pharisees and scribes, which has been depicted by many artists. Such a crime was punishable by death by stoning; however, in the scene, Jesus stoops to write (in Dutch) he that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her on the ground before her feet. A number of the unthrown stones lie on the floor to the woman's left.

In art, an underpainting is an initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Underpaintings are often monochromatic and help to define color values for later painting. Underpainting gets its name because it is painting that is intended to be painted over (see overpainting) in a system of working in layers.

There are several different types of underpainting, such as veneda, verdaccio, morellone, imprimatura and grisaille. The different types have different colourings. Grisaille is plain grey. Verdaccio is a grey tending towards yellow or green that brings out more luminous tones, while imprimatura uses earth tones.