History Of Western Art I / Exam 1 / Vocab

Front 1

composite view

Back 1

A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part is shown frontally; it is a descriptive, as opposed to a strictly optical, method of representation.

Front 2

cromlech

Back 2

An arrangement of huge stones in a circle; also called a henge.

Front 3

ground

Back 3

A coating applied to a canvas or some other surface to prepare that surface for painting; also, background.

Front 4

ground line

Back 4

A painted or carved base line on which figures appear to stand in paintings and reliefs.

Front 5

found objects

Back 5

Images, materials, or objects as found in the everyday environment that are appropriated as works of art.

Front 6

incise

Back 6

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

Front 7

landscape

Back 7

A picture of a natural setting without narrative content.

Front 8

lintel

Back 8

A horizontal beam used to span an opening.

Front 9

medium

Back 9

The substance or agency in which an artist works; also, in painting, the vehicle (usually liquid) that carries the pigment.

Front 10

megalith

Back 10

Literally, "great stone"; a large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental prehistoric structures.

Front 11

monolith

Back 11

A large, single block or piece of stone used in megalithic structures. Also, a column that is all in one piece (not composed of drums).

Front 12

mural

Back 12

a wall painting; a fresco is a type of mural medium and technique

Front 13

narrative composition

Back 13

elements in a work of art arranged in such a manner as to tell a story.

Front 14

neolithic

Back 14

From the Greek "neo" - new and "lithos" - stone; New Stone Age c 9000 - 2000 BC

Front 15

paleolithic

Back 15

From the Greek "paleo" - old and "lithos" - stone; Old Stone Age c. 30,000 - 9000 BC

Front 16

relief

Back 16

In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas) and sunken (hollow)

Front 17

sarsen

Back 17

a form of sandstone used for the megaliths at Stonehenge

Front 18

trilithons

Back 18

a three-stone construction; two vertical monoliths topped with a lintel.

Front 19

apadana

Back 19

the great royal audience hall in ancient Persian palaces

Front 20

apotropaic

Back 20

capable of warding off evil

Front 21

cella

Back 21

The chamber at the center of an ancient temple; in a classical temple, the room in which the cult statue usually stood (Greek: "naos")

Front 22

city-state

Back 22

an independent, self-governing city that rules the surrounding countryside

Front 23

cuneiform

Back 23

Lit. "wedge-shaped". In ancient Mesopotamia a system of writing that was comprised of wedge-shaped characters. The epic Gilgamesh was composed in cuneiform.

Front 24

cylinder seal

Back 24

A cylindrical piece of stone usually about an inch or so in height, decorated wiht a design in intaglio, so that a raised pattern is left when the seal is rolled over soft clay.

Front 25

facade

Back 25

Usually, the front of a building; also, the other sides when they are emphasized architecturally.

Front 26

foreshortening

Back 26

The apparent visual contraction of an object so that it appears to recede in space

Front 27

frieze

Back 27

the part of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice; also, any sculptured or ornamented band in a building, on furniture, etc.

Front 28

glaze

Back 28

a thin coating applied to pottery to seal and decorate the surface; it may be colored, transparent, or opaque, and glossy or matte.

Front 29

glazed brick

Back 29

bricks painted and then kiln filred to fuse the color with the baked clay

Front 30

heraldic composition

Back 30

a composition or arrangement that is symmetrical on either of a (often larger) central figure

Front 31

hierarchy of scale

Back 31

an artistic convention in which greater size indicates greater importance

Front 32

lamassu

Back 32

in assyrian art, guardians in the form of man-headed winged bulls

Front 33

lapis lazuli

Back 33

a rich, ultramarine, semipreciuos sotne use for carving and as a source of pigment

Front 34

Mesopotamia

Back 34

From the Greek for "land between two rivers", the land beween the Tigris and Euphrates

Front 35

modeling

Back 35

The shaping or fashioning of three-dimensional forms in a soft material, such as clay.

Front 36

pictographs

Back 36

simplified pictures that stand for words or ideas; an early form of writing

Front 37

register

Back 37

one of a series of superimposed hands in a pictorial narrative, or the particular levels on which motifs are placed (also called a frieze)

Front 38

stele

Back 38

a carved stone slab used to mark graves and/or to commemorate historical events.

Front 39

stylus

Back 39

a needle-like tool used in engraving and incising

Front 40

votive offering

Back 40

a gift of gratitude or an offering made to a deity; often in the form of a small statuette

Front 41

ziggurat

Back 41

in Mesopotamian architecture, a high (monumental) platform for a temple, often with a bent-axis approach.

Front 42

amulet

Back 42

an obejct worn to ward off evil (therefore it is appropriate) or of aid to the wearer

Front 43

ashlar masonry

Back 43

carefully cut and regularly-shaped blocks of stone used in construction, fitted together without mortar

Front 44

atlantid

Back 44

a male figure that functions as a supporting column (statue-column). In the female form it is called a caryatid

Front 45

ben-ben

Back 45

a pryamidal stone; a fetish or smbol of the Egyptian sun god ra

Front 46

block statue

Back 46

in ancient Egyption sculpture, a cubic stone image with simplified body parts.

Front 47

Book of the Dead

Back 47

An ancient Egyptian collection of wriitngs containing about 200 spells that are intended to protect the mummy and the ka.

Front 48

canon

Back 48

a system of proportions for the human figure

Front 49

canopic jars

Back 49

In ancient Egypt, containers in which the organs of the deceased were placed for later burial with the mummy

Front 50

capital

Back 50

The uppermost member of a column, serving as a transition from the shaft to the lintel.

Front 51

column

Back 51

a vertical weight-bearing architectural structure, circular in form, often consisting of three main parts: a base, a shaft, and a capital

Front 52

colonnades

Back 52

a series or row of columns, usually spanned by arched lintels

Front 53

diorite

Back 53

an exceptionally hard black stone found in Southern Africa

Front 54

engaged column

Back 54

a half-round column attached to a wall

Front 55

flute / fluting

Back 55

vertical channeling, roughly semicircular in cross-section and used principally on columns and pilasters

Front 56

fresco

Back 56

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

Front 57

hieroglyphic

Back 57

a system of writing using symbols or pictures

Front 58

hypostyle hall

Back 58

In Egyptian architecture, a hall with a roof supported by columns.

Front 59

ka

Back 59

In ancient Egypt, the immortal, human life force; the concept approximates the Western idea of the soul

Front 60

mastaba

Back 60

Arabic for "bench". An ancient Egyptian rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides erected over a subterranean tomb chamber

Front 61

mummification

Back 61

a technique used by ancient Egyptians to preserve human bodies or that they may serve as the eternal home of the immortal ka

Front 62

necropolis

Back 62

a large burial area or cemetar; literally, "city of the dead."

Front 63

memes

Back 63

the headdress worn by the Pharaoh, usually with the uraeus (cobra) on the front.

Front 64

palette

Back 64

In ancient Egypt, a stone slab with a circular depression used for preparing makeup

Front 65

papyrus

Back 65

a plant native to Egypt and adjacent lands used to make paper-like writing meterial

Front 66

portico

Back 66

a porch with a roof supported by columns; an entrance porch

Front 67

pylon

Back 67

a simple and massive gateway, with sloping walls, often in front of an Egyptian temple

Front 68

realism

Back 68

the representation of things according to their appearance in visible nature; without idealization

Front 69

Rosetta Stone

Back 69

an Egyptian artifact, discovered in 1799, that gave scholars a key to deciphering hieroglyphic writing. It has one text written in three scripts: Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphs

Front 70

sarcophagus

Back 70

a coffin, usually of stone, from the Latin for "consumer of flesh"

Front 71

scarab

Back 71

a gem in the shape of a beetle

Front 72

serdah

Back 72

a small concealed chamber in or part of an Egyptian tomb used to house a statue of the deceased

Front 73

sphinx

Back 73

a mythical Egyptian beast with the body of a lion and the head of a human

Front 74

ushabtis

Back 74

Literally, "answerers", small statuettes placed inside a tomb to perform or answer for the deceased should they be required to perform any labor in the afterlife

Front 75

corbel

Back 75

courses of stone or brick in which each course projects beyond the one beneath it. Two such structures, meeting a the topmost course, create a corbeled arch.

Front 76

corbeled vault

Back 76

a vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses, cantilevered inward until the two walls meet in a pointed arch. No mortar is used.

Front 77

Cycladic Art

Back 77

the art of the Cycladic Islands in the Aegean sea; so-called because the islands circle the island Delos

Front 78

cyclopean

Back 78

Giganic, vast and rough, massive. Cyclopean masonry is a method of stone construction using large, irregular blocks without mortar

Front 79

dromos

Back 79

a long passageway used as an approach often to a tholos tomb

Front 80

faience

Back 80

eathenware or pottery, especially with highly-colored design

Front 81

Helladic Art

Back 81

the art of the Greek mainland, "Hellas" is the Greek word for Greece

Front 82

krater

Back 82

An ancient Greek wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water

Front 83

labyrinth

Back 83

an intricate combination of passages; a maze. "Labrys" = double ax, so labyrinth means literally "house of double axes

Front 84

Linear A and B

Back 84

Ancient Aegean writing similar to hieroglyphics. Thus far only Linear B has been fully deciphered

Front 85

megaron

Back 85

The large reception hall of the king in a Mycenaean palace, fronted by an open, two-columned porch

Front 86

minoan art

Back 86

the pre-Helladic art of the island of Crete, named after the legendary King Minos of Knossos

Front 87

Mycenaean

Back 87

the late phase of Helladic art, named after the site of Mycenae

Front 88

niello

Back 88

a black metallic alloy often used for inlay decoration

Front 89

relieving triangle

Back 89

in a corbelled arch, the opening above the lintel that serves to lighten the weight to be carried by the lintel itself

Front 90

repousse

Back 90

formed in relief by heating a metal plate from the back,leaving the impression on the front

Front 91

sculpture in the round

Back 91

Freestanding figures, carved or modeled in three dimensions

Front 92

Thera

Back 92

the ancient name for the island of Santorini; the island was almost completely destroyed by a huge volcanic eruption

Front 93

tholos

Back 93

a type of tomb in Mycenaean architecture with a bee-hive shaped circular plan, also called a bee-hive tomb; a temple with a circular plan.

Front 94

「祝い」

Back 94

頑張ってな！！！