Art History I Terms: Test 3

Front 1

Calligraphy

Back 1

Greek, “beautiful writing.” Handwriting or penmanship, especially elegant writing as a decorative art

Front 2

Codex

Back 2

separate pages of vellum bound together at one side; the predecessor of the modern book

Front 3

Mihrab

Back 3

A semicircular niche set into the qibla wall of a mosque

Front 4

Qibla

Back 4

The direction (toward Mecca) that Muslims face when praying

Front 5

Sahn

Back 5

a courtyard in Islamic architecture. Most traditional mosques have a large central sahn, which is surrounded by a riwaq or arcade on all sides

Front 6

Minaret

Back 6

a tower attached to a mosque from which the faithful are called to worship by a muezzin

Front 7

Muezzin

Back 7

a man who calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret of a mosque

Front 8

Muqarnas

Back 8

a form of architectural ornamented vaulting, the "geometric subdivision of a squinch, or cupola, or corbel, into a large number of miniature squinches, producing a sort of cellular structure", sometimes also called "honeycomb" vaults

Front 9

Cloisonne

Back 9

A decorative metalwork technique employing cloisons; also, decorative brickwork in later Byzantine architecture

Front 10

Interlace

Back 10

a decorative element in medieval art, bands or other motifs are interwoven

Front 11

Vikings

Back 11

Pre-Christian pirates and traders of Scandinavia

Front 12

Rune Stones

Back 12

raised stones, boulders, and bedrock with runic inscriptions for presenting a message -- from the Viking Age, used often as memorial stones for the dead, and found in and around Scandinavia

Front 13

Picture Stones

Back 13

same use and origin as rune stones but with pictures for conveying the intended messages

Front 14

Illuminated Manuscripts

Back 14

a luxurious handmade book painted with illustrations and decorations

Front 15

Scriptoria

Back 15

the writing studio in a monastery

Front 16

Monasteries

Back 16

a group of buildings on which monks live together, set apart from the secular community of a town.

Front 17

Westwork

Back 17

the facade and towers at the western end (westwerk) of a medieval church, principally in Germany. IN contemporaneous documents, the west work is called a castellum. (lati. “castle” or “fortress”) or turris (“tower”)

Front 18

Evangelists

Back 18

one of the four authors (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) of the new testament Gospels.

Front 19

Gospels

Back 19

the four New testament books that relate the life and teachings of jesus

Front 20

Refectory

Back 20

the dining hall of a christian monastery

Front 21

Feudalism

Back 21

the medieval political, social, and economic system held together by the relationship between landholding liege lords and the casals who were granted tenure of a portion of their land and in turn swore allegiance to the liege lord

Front 22

Reliquary

Back 22

a container for holding relics

Front 23

Tribune

Back 23

in church architecture, a gallery over the inner aisle flanking the nave

Front 24

Cloister

Back 24

a monastery courtyard, usually with covered walks or ambulatories along its side

Front 25

Campanile

Back 25

a bell tower of a church, usually, but not always, freestanding

Front 26

William the Conqueror

Back 26

a norman Duke, believed by his people to be the rightful heir to Anglo-Saxon England, who took the kingship by force after the death of its king, Edward the Confessor. William sailed across the English Channel, invaded, and became master of Anglo-Saxon England

Front 27

Gothic Style

Back 27

originally a derogatory term named after the goths, used to describe the history, culture, and art of western europe in the 12th to 14th centuries. Typically divided into periods designated early (1140-1194), high (1194-1300), and late (1300-1500)

Front 28

Ribbed Vaults

Back 28

a vault in which the diagonal and transverse ribs compose a structural skeleton that partially supports the masonry web between them.

Front 29

Flying Buttresses

Back 29

an exterior masonry structure that opposes the lateral thrust of an arch or a vault. a pier buttress is a solid mass of masonry. A flying buttress consists typically of an inclined member carried on an arch or a series or aches and a solid buttress to which it transmits lateral thrust.

Front 30

Pointed (Ogival) Arch

Back 30

a narrow arch of pointed profile, in contrast to a semicircular arch

Front 31

Guilds

Back 31

an association of merchants,craftspersons, or scholars in medieval and renaissance europe.

Front 32

Saint Augustine

Back 32

confirmed the validity of a typological approach in which some of the Old Testament’s persons and events are prefigurations (suggestions ahead of time) to the New Testament, when he said, “the New Testament is hidden in the Old; the Old is clarified by the New”

Front 33

Pinnacle

Back 33

a sharply pointed ornament capping the piers or flying buttresses; also used on cathedral facades

Front 34

Flying Buttresses

Back 34

Masonry struts that transfer the thrust of the nave vaults across the roofs of the side aisles and ambulatory toa tall pier rising above the church’s exterior wall

Front 35

Vaulting web

Back 35

the masonry blocks filling the area between the ribs of a groin vault

Front 36

Diagonal rib

Back 36

in plan, one of the ribs forming the X of a groin vault

Front 37

Transverse rib

Back 37

a rib crossing the nave or aisle at a 90 degree angle

Front 38

Springing

Back 38

the lowest stone of an arch; in Gothic vaulting, the lowest stone of a diagonal or transverse rib

Front 39

Clerestory

Back 39

the windows below the vaults in the nave elevations uppermost level. By using flying buttresses and rib vaults on pointed arches, Gothic architects could build huge clerestory windows and fill them with stained glass held in place by ornamental stonework called tracery

Front 40

Oculus

Back 40

a small, round window

Front 41

Lancet

Back 41

a tall, window crowned by a pointed arch

Front 42

Triforium

Back 42

the story in the nave elevation consisting of archades, usually blind arcades but occasionally filled with stained glass.

Front 43

Nave arcade

Back 43

the series of arches supported by piers separating the nave from the side aisles

Front 44

Compound pier (cluster pier) with shafts (responds)

Back 44

a pier with a group, or cluster, of attached shafts, or responds, extending to the springing of the vaults

Front 45

Tracery

Back 45

ornamental stonework for holding stained glass in place, characteristic of Gothic cathedrals. In plate tracery, the glass fills only the “ punched holes” in the heavy ornamental stonework. In bar tracery, the stained-glass windows fill almost the entire opening, and the stonework is unobtrusive

Front 46

Scholasticism

Back 46

the gothic school of philosophy in which scholars applied Aristotle’s system of rational inquiry to the interpretation

Front 47

Abbot Suger

Back 47

Right-hand of man of Louis VI and Louis VII, and abbot of Saint Denis for which he had the Carolingian basilica rebuilt. Called the colored light of stained glass windows lux nova

Front 48

Pilgrimage

Back 48

a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion

Front 49

Crusades

Back 49

in medieval Europe, armed pilgrimages aimed at recapturing the Holy Land from the Muslims

Front 50

Holy Roman Empire

Back 50

empire of the Salians, the Romanesque successors of the Ottonians and a dynasty of the Franks, roughly corresponding to present-day Germany and the Lombard region of northern Italy

Front 51

Renaissance

Back 51

French, “rebirth.” Term used to describe the history, culture, and art of 14th through 16th century western Europe during which artists consciously revived the classical style

Front 52

Dante

Back 52

Florentine poet, known for Divine Comedy

Front 53

Tempera

Back 53

a technique of painting using pigment mixed with egg yolk, glue, or casein; also, the medium itself

Front 54

Gesso

Back 54

Greek, “gypsum”, Latin “chalk”, used to smooth surfaces before painting [gesso grosso (rough gesso)], then with a series of layers of gesso sottile (finishing gesso) made with fine plaster slaked in water, which produced an opaque, white, reflective surface

Front 55

Altarpiece

Back 55

a panel, painted or sculpted, situated above and behind an alter

Front 56

Predella

Back 56

the narrow ledge on which an altarpiece rests on an alter

Front 57

Fresco

Back 57

painting on lime plaster,either dry (dry fresco, or fresco secco) or wet (true, or buon, fresco) In the latter method, the pigment are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the freshly laid lime plaster. ALso, a painting executed in either method

Front 58

Arriccio

Back 58

in fresco painting, the first layer of rough lime plaster applied to the wall

Front 59

Intonaco

Back 59

in fresco painting, the last layer of smooth lime plaster applied to the wall; the painting layer

Front 60

Giornata

Back 60

Italian, “day”, section of plaster that a fresco painter expects to complete in one session

Front 61

Stigmata

Back 61

in Christian art, the wounds Christ received at his crucifixion that miraculously appear on the body of a saint

Front 62

Triptych

Back 62

a three-paneled painting, ivory plaque, or altarpiece. Also, a small, portable shrine with hinged wings used for private devotion

Front 63

Saint Francis of Assisi

Back 63

founder of the order of the Franciscans, known for helping the poor and vows of poverty, received the stigmata

Front 64

Black Death

Back 64

bubonic plague, brought by fleas on rats from China in the 1340s, killed roughly half the population of Europe, stimulated religious bequests and commission of devotional images, affected art and stimulated construction of hospitals

Front 65

Renaissance Humanism

Back 65

a code of civil conduct, theory of education, and a scholarly discipline; human values and interests as distinct from - but not opposed to - religion’s otherworldly values; emulation of classical cultures