Art History - Glossary - Chapter 1

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apse

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A recess, usually semicircular, in the wall of a building, commonly found at the east end of a church.

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bucranium, pl. bucrania

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Bovine skull

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burin

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A pointed tool used for engraving or incising.

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chisel

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A tool with a straight blade at one end for cutting and shaping stone or wood.

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composite view

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A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally; also called twisted perspective.

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composition

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The way in which an artist organizes forms in an artwork, either by placing shapes on a flat surface or arranging forms in space.

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corbeled vault

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A vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses, cantilevered inward until the two walls meet in an arch.

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course

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In masonry construction, a horizontal row of stone blocks.

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findspot

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Place where an artifact was found, or provenance.

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freestanding sculpture

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Freestanding figures, carved or modeled in three dimensions.

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ground line

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In paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand.

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henge

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An arrangement of megalithic stones in a circle, often surrounded by a ditch.

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incise

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To cut into a surface with a sharp instrument; also, a method of decoration, especially on metal and pottery.

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landscape

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A picture showing natural scenery, without narrative content.

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lintel

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A horizontal beam used to span an opening.

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megalith (adj., megalithic)

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Greek, great stone. A large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental prehistoric structures.

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Mesolithic

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The middle Stone Age, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages.

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mural

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A wall painting.

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Neolithic

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The New Stone Age

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Paleolithic

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The old Stone Age, during which humankind produced the first sculptures and paintings.

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palette

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A thin board with a thumb hole at one end on which an artist lays and mixes colors; any surface so used. Also, the colors or kinds of colors characteristically used by an artist. In ancient Egypt, a slate slab used for preparing makeup.

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passage grave

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A prehistoric tomb with a long stone corridor leading to a burial chamber covered by a great tumulus.

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post-and-lintel system

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A system of construction in which two posts support a lintel.

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radiocarbon dating

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A method of measuring the decay rate of carbon isotopes in organic matter to provide dates for organic materials such as wood and fiber.

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relief

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In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas), or sunken. In the last, the artist cuts the design into the surface so that the highest projecting parts of the image are no higher than the surface itself. See also repoussé.

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sculpture in the round

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Freestanding figures, carved or modeled in three dimensions.

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trilithons

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A pair of monoliths topped with a lintel; found in megalithic structures.

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tumulus (pl. tumuli)

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Burial mound; in Etruscan architecture, tumuli cover one or more subterranean multichambered tombs cut out of the local tufa (limestone). Also characteristic of Neolithic funerary architecture and the Japanese Kofun period of the third and fourth centuries.

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twisted perspective

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A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally; also called twisted perspective.