representational

/ˌrɛprəzənˈteɪʃənəl/

Other forms: representationally

In art, anything that's representational depicts things as they are. A representational portrait of your mom will accurately depict the shape of her face, her hair color, and her eye color.

Representational art depicts recognizable, real-world things, people, or events. A sketch of boats on the ocean, gulls flying overhead in a sky full of clouds, is representational, with every element of the drawing representing something physical. Other types of art are much more abstract, reflecting emotions or ideas — like a Jackson Pollock canvas splattered with paint. Representational comes from the Latin repraesentare, "show or display."

Definitions of representational

1. adjective

   (used especially of art) depicting objects, figures,or scenes as seen
   “representational art”

   “representational images”

   synonyms:

   delineative, depictive

   depicted in a recognizable manner

   eidetic

   of visual imagery of almost photographic accuracy

   figural, figurative

   consisting of or forming human or animal figures

   mimetic

   characterized by or of the nature of or using mimesis

   naturalistic, objectivist, objectivistic, realistic

   representing what is real; not abstract or ideal

   antonyms:

   nonrepresentational

   of or relating to a style of art in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature

   abstract

   existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment

   abstract, abstractionist, nonfigurative, nonobjective

   not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature

   conventional, formal, schematic

   represented in simplified or symbolic form

   geometric, geometrical

   characterized by simple geometric forms in design and decoration

   hieratic

   adhering to fixed types or methods; highly restrained and formal

   protogeometric

   characteristic of the earliest phase of geometric art especially in Greece

   semiabstract

   characterized by stylized but recognizable subject matter