Artistic licence
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- For the free software licence, see Artistic License
Artistic licence or license (US), also known as dramatic license/licence, is a colloquial term used to denote the liberties an artist may take in the name of art — for example, if an artist decided it was more artistically "correct" to portray St. Pauls Cathedral next to the Houses of Parliament in a scene of London, even though in reality they are not close together, or if he or she decided to depict a dinosaur chasing a Neanderthal (even though the two never coexisted), that would be artistic license.
In summary, artistic license is:
- Entirely at the artist's discretion
- To be tolerated by the viewer
- Neither "good" nor "bad"
- Useful for filling in gaps, whether they be factual, compositional, historical or otherwise
- Used consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally or in tandem