vocabulary from an art gallery

It's a habit of mine to look up words I don't know, and I came across several unknowns today in an art gallery. I'm noting them here so that I remember what they are. aquamanile: (noun) a vessel usually shaped like an animal or a human, which held and dispensed water for hand washing (mostly for ritual purposes). I was able to parse this as the name comes from Latin (aqua: water, manus: hand), but the specifics of 'water for hands' escaped me for some reason. An aquamanile is an ewer: (noun) a pitcher shaped like a vase which was used to carry liquids. This is such an odd word. I guessed what it was from the shape, but I still had to note it down for its oddity. repoussé: a technique in metal working where a flat metal sheet is hammered to create a three dimensional effect that pushes outward. I saw several pieces of repoussé gold, which were stunning. pyrophyllite: a very soft phyllosilicate mineral made of aluminum silicate hydroxide. The name comes from Greek (πῦρ: fire, φύλλον:…