foreground

n. 1 part of a view or picture nearest the observer. 2 most conspicuous position. [dutch: related to *fore-, *ground1]

n. On a painting, and sometimes in a bas-relief, mosaic picture, or the like, that part of the scene represented, which is nearest to the spectator, and therefore occupies the lowest part of the work of art itself. Cf. Distance, n., 6.