Ancient- Art History Midterm

Front 1

Colonnade

Back 1

Row of columns with a straight entablature and no arches

Front 2

entasis

Back 2

The sense of life in a Greek column created by shaping the form of the column as through it is bulging under the weight it carries. This ‘humanizing’ of an inanimate object is carried to its conclusion in the use of human forms as columns – the caryatids.

Front 3

Frieze

Back 3

The wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs

Front 4

Triglyph

Back 4

A vertically channeled tablet, usually found in repetition on the Doric frieze alternating with metopes

Front 5

Metope

Back 5

a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, usually containing a relief carving

Front 6

post and lintel

Back 6

An elementary architectural structural concept found in structures from antiquity to today. It is based on the simple principal of two upright posts or columns traversed by a crossing piece at their tops. This concept is found in Stonehenge, Classical Greek temples and contemporary timber framing

Front 7

Pediment

Back 7

Changes undertaken by an artist in the course of painting a picture. They are usually visible under the final version only with the help of X-rays, though they are sometimes revealed when the top layers of paint are worn away or become translucent

Front 8

Caryatid

Back 8

A carved female figure used in architecture as a column to support an entablature.

Front 9

Kouros

Back 9

Kore (female) figures

Front 10

Doryphorus

Back 10

A naturalistic figure of a spear-carrying male nude, created by Ploykleitos in the Greek Classical Period. It was also known as The Canon or The Rule, as the proportions were thought to be perfect.

Front 11

contrappasto

Back 11

An asymmetrical pose in which the one part of the body is counterbalanced by another about the body's central axis. figures who stand with their weight on one leg. revived during the Renaissance

Front 12

Arch

Back 12

A Roman innovation that revolutionized structure and design in architecture. allowed for the confident spanning of greater spaces. pointed arch is widely regarded as the main identifiable feature of Gothic architecture.

Front 13

Monumental Arch

Back 13

Developed in ancient Rome, a massive architectural work that commemorates an individual as a hero. Its main constituent form is an arch under which a procession may pass. It may be decorated with relief sculpture.

Front 14

Trajan's Column

Back 14

A monumental column erected in Rome to commemorate the deeds of Emperor Trajan. Around its entire length is carved a continuous spiral band of low relief sculptures depicting Trajan's exploits.

Front 15

Apse

Back 15

A semicircular projection, roofed with a half-dome, at the east end of a church behind the altar

Front 16

Vault

Back 16

A roof or ceiling whose structure is based on the arch

Front 17

groin vault

Back 17

formed when two barrel vaults intersect

Front 18

Barrel vault

Back 18

A ceiling that is like a continuous circular arch or tunnel, contrasted with vaults that are supported on ribs or a series of arches. Also tunnel vault.

Front 19

Dome

Back 19

in architecture, hemispherical structure evolved from the arch, usually forming a ceiling or roof.

Front 20

Basicila

Back 20

a church building, with a tall main nave and two or four side aisles of lesser height. There may also be a transept between the nave and the choir. Originally, an ancient Greek administrative building, Romans used it for markets and law courts; then a place of assembly for the early Christians, and thus a church.

Front 21

Clerestory

Back 21

A row of windows in the upper part of the wall of a basilicas nave (main aisle)

Front 22

narthex

Back 22

entrance porches in early basilican churches, and for interior vestibules across the western end of later churches

Front 23

Nave

Back 23

the main interior space of a church building. It may have parallel aisles on each side, often separated from it by columns, and may be intersected by the transept, which cuts across it at the point where the choir begins.

Front 24

Pilaster

Back 24

A flat, low-relief decorative strip on a wall that corresponds to a column in its parts, since, it has a base, a shaft, and capital. It is often fluted, in other words the surface is lined with parallel grooves.