cloisonné Enamelling technique in which the design is constructed out of wires soldered to a plate, and the cells (cloisons) thus formed are filled with coloured enamel paste and fired. The technique was developed in Mycenaean Greece, and was popular in Byzantine art of the 10th and 11th centuries. It flourished in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties and was also adopted in Japan.

cloisonné.
1. Type of coloured wall-con-struction consisting of stones of one colour individually framed all round with bricks of another, laid in courses, especially in Byzantine architecture, such as the Katholikon at Hosios Lukas, Styris (c.1020).

2. Surface formed of coloured enamel panels defined by fillets.

cloi·son·né / ˌkloizəˈnā; ˌklwäz-/ (also cloisonné enamel) • n. enamel work in which the different colors are separated by strips of flattened wire placed edgeways on a metal backing.

cloisonné (of enamels) divided into compartments. XIX. pp. of F. cloisonner, f. cloison partition :- Rom. *clausiō, -ōn-, f. L. claus- (see CLOSE).