Gardner's Art History Vocab (Ch. 1-3)

Front 1

paleolithic

Back 1

The "old" stone age, during which humans created the first paintings and sculptures

Front 2

neolithic

Back 2

The "new" stone age

Front 3

prehistory

Back 3

human history in the period before recorded events, known mainly through archaeological discoveries, study, research, etc.; history of prehistoric humans.

Front 4

relief

Back 4

figures projecting from a background of which they are part

Front 5

optical vs descriptive viewpoint

Back 5

optical - seen from a fixed viewpoint

descriptive - less realistic but shows more

Front 6

form

Back 6

an object's shape and structure

Front 7

burin

Back 7

a tempered steel rod, with a lozenge-shaped point and a rounded handle, used for engraving furrows in metal.

Front 8

incise

Back 8

to cut into; cut marks, figures, etc., upon.

Front 9

twisted perspective

Back 9

communicates the most visual information

Front 10

narrative art

Back 10

art that tells a story

Front 11

composite view

Back 11

same as twisted perspective, shows part in profile and part in frontal

Front 12

landscape

Back 12

painting of natural scenery - no narrative

Front 13

lintel

Back 13

a horizontal beam used to span an opening

Front 14

megalith

Back 14

a large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental prehistoric structures

Front 15

pictographs

Back 15

a picture - usually stylized - that represents an idea

Front 16

cuneiform

Back 16

system of writing composed of slim triangular or wedge-shaped elements, as the characters used in writing by the ancient Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and others.

Front 17

ziggurat

Back 17

ancient monumental platform for a temple in Mesopotamia

Front 18

cella

Back 18

chamber at the center of an ancient temple where the cult statue stood

Front 19

formal analysis

Back 19

visual analysis of artistic form

Front 20

iconography

Back 20

the content, or subject, of a piece of art as well as the study of the content in art (often religious)

Front 21

register

Back 21

one of a series of superimposed bands or friezes in a pictoral narrative

Front 22

frieze

Back 22

1. the part of a classical entablature between the architrave and the cornice, usually decorated with sculpture in low relief.

Front 23

conceptual vs. optical representation

Back 23

conceptual - stylized, not usually very realistic

optical - realistic, how the eye would see

Front 24

hierarchy of scale

Back 24

bigger = more important

Front 25

votive image

Back 25

gift of gratitude to a deity, offering

Front 26

composite view

Back 26

A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally (again?)

Front 27

stele

Back 27

carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events

Front 28

naturalistic

Back 28

close representation of the natural world

Front 29

stylization

Back 29

to design in or cause to conform to a particular style, as of representation or treatment in art; conventionalize.

Front 30

hollow cast

Back 30

hollow sculpture following a wax mold

Front 31

SANBAN P

Back 31

Ancient Near East: Sumer, Akkad, Neo-Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Neo-Babylon, Persia

Front 32

dynasty

Back 32

a sequence of rulers from the same family, stock, or group

Front 33

heiroglyphs

Back 33

pictographic script, particularly that of the ancient Egyptians, in which many of the symbols are conventionalized, recognizable pictures of the things represented.

Front 34

mastaba

Back 34

an ancient Egyptian tomb made of mud brick, rectangular in plan with sloping sides and a flat roof.

Front 35

ka

Back 35

a spiritual entity, an aspect of the individual, believed to live within the body during life and to survive it after death.

Front 36

necropolis

Back 36

a cemetery, especially one of large size and usually of an ancient city

Front 37

facade

Back 37

the front of a building, especially an imposing or decorative one.

Front 38

sunken relief

Back 38

a relief, but carved into the material instead of out of it

Front 39

capitals

Back 39

the city or town that is the official seat of government in a country,state, etc.

Front 40

columns

Back 40

a decorative pillar, most often composed of stone and typically having a cylindrical or polygonal shaft with a capital and usually a base

looks like a bunch of f u c k i n g reeds

Front 41

diorite

Back 41

rock, very hard to carve, symbolized strength

Front 42

mortuary chapel

Back 42

Chapel, free-standing or attached to a church, under which is a sepulchre or tomb, often built and used for interment by one family.

Front 43

bilateral symmetry

Back 43

a plan in which the left and right sides of something can be divided into approximate mirror images of each other along the midline.

Front 44

pylon temple

Back 44

temple that divided up the social classes - court at front and then smaller and smaller rooms until the smallest, the shrine - only high priests and kings and people were allowed

Front 45

fresco secco

Back 45

a fresco painting technique in which pigments ground in water are tempered using egg yolk or whole egg mixed with water which are applied to plaster that has been moistened (using this temper) to simulate fresh plaster

Front 46

ideal proportion/canon

Back 46

Whenever the Ancient Egyptian artists sculptured, inscribed or painted figures, their proportions would be determined by a canon of proportions. Up until the end of the New Kingdom's 26th Dynasty, the Ancient Egyptians used a grid that measured 18 units to the hairline.

Front 47

colonnade

Back 47

a series of regularly spaced columns supporting an entablature and usually one side of a roof.

Front 48

pillar

Back 48

an upright shaft or structure, of stone, brick, or other material, relatively slender in proportion to its height, and of any shape in section, used as a building support, or standing alone, as for a monument:

Front 49

iconoclasm

Back 49

destruction of religious or sacred images

Front 50

colossus

Back 50

any statue of gigantic size.

Front 51

clerestory

Back 51

a portion of an interior rising above adjacent rooftops and having windows admitting daylight to the interior.

Front 52

obelisk

Back 52

a tapering, four-sided shaft of stone, usually monolithic and having a pyramidal apex.