Sentence:  To recapitulate: consider the human form—skin, bone, and flesh. Consider the painting—surface, structure, and pigment. With a little license, the first gives us the ingredients for what might be called human or “figurative” <WSD>figuration</WSD>; the second gives us the ingredients for abstract or “nonfigurative” <WSD>figuration</WSD>. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The representation of an object through visual forms.