Art History Vocab

Front 1

biomorphic form

Back 1

shape that suggests living things; sometimes called organic

Front 2

primary colors

Back 2

red, yellow, blue -- all other colors made as a combination of these hues

Front 3

secondary colors

Back 3

come from a mixture of two primaries -- orange, green, and violet

Front 4

complementary colors

Back 4

colors opposite each other on the color wheel

Front 5

intuitive perspective

Back 5

forms become narrower and converge the farther they are from the viewer, approx spacial recession

Front 6

linear perspective

Back 6

-one point=elaborate intuitive where orthogonals recede back into a vanishing point
-two point= two vanishing points

Front 7

atmoshpheric perspective

Back 7

portraying objects far in distance often in blu-gray hues and less clarity than foreground

Front 8

picture plane

Back 8

the two-dimensional surface of a painting

Front 9

period

Back 9

common traits in works of art and architecture of a particular historical era

Front 10

regiona

Back 10

stylistic traits that persist in a geographic region.

Front 11

representational

Back 11

recognizable subject matter: naturalism, realism, illusionism

Front 12

naturalism/realism

Back 12

natural world, accurately depicted objects... also idealism somewhat seperate

Front 13

illusionism

Back 13

highly detailed with convincing illusion of reality

Front 14

abstract style

Back 14

depart from literal realism to capture the essence of the form

Front 15

non-representational

Back 15

does not produce recognizable imagery

Front 16

carved

Back 16

subtractive, created by taking away material (start with a block of stone and take away)

Front 17

modeled

Back 17

additive, object is built up like from clay

Front 18

cast

Back 18

molded, metal usually cast

Front 19

assembled

Back 19

welding of metal statues

Front 20

architecural plan

Back 20

birds-eye view

Front 21

architectural elevations

Back 21

exterior sides of buildings, no perpective

Front 22

architectural section

Back 22

cut vertically from top to bottom

Front 23

architectural cutaway

Back 23

can see both inside and outside elements

Front 24

lost wax casting

Back 24

way to cast bronze statues that were hollow and used less bronze--wax on molded clay was given details and bronze was cast on top of that then wax melted away

Front 25

post and lintel

Back 25

uprights are spanned by a horizontal element

Front 26

cantilever

Back 26

variation of p&l w/ reinforced concrete

Front 27

true arch & corbelled arch

Back 27

aodsa;sodfij

Front 28

contextualism

Back 28

studying art in the context of its historical time period and culture--identify the cultural factors that helped produce a work, to determine what it probably meant for the artist and the original audience

Front 29

canon

Back 29

classical rule of proportions

Front 30

idealism

Back 30

artists striving to make their forms adn figures attain perfection, based on pervading cultural values or their own mental image of beauty

Front 31

patron

Back 31

person or group who commissions or supports a work of art

Front 32

avant-garde

Back 32

strikingly new or radical

Front 33

formalism

Back 33

many years of close study with various styles of art, focusing on design, composition, way materials are manipulated, etc.

Front 34

aesthetics

Back 34

considers the nature of beauty, art, and taste

Front 35

monolith/monolithic

Back 35

(made of) a single stone, usually very large

Front 36

megalith

Back 36

a big stone

Front 37

Neolithic

Back 37

the "new" stone age, when agriculture developed and animals were being domesticated, started to create farming communities

Front 38

Paleothic

Back 38

the "old" stone age, lots of toolmaking

Front 39

dolmen

Back 39

a tomb chamber formed by huge upright stones supporting tabelike rocks

Front 40

cairn

Back 40

hill or pile of stones used as a memorial or landmark of a tomb

Front 41

ziggurat

Back 41

in mesopotamia, a small-stepped mound made of earthly materials that supports usually a shrine

Front 42

cuneiform

Back 42

a second step of writing stemming from pictographs that sort of simplified it by simply modelling the marks after the strokes of the stylus

Front 43

votive figures

Back 43

oftentimes self-portraits, figurines placed at the shrines of Gods

Front 44

stele

Back 44

an upright stone slab, upon which relief sculture

Front 45

lamassu

Back 45

human-headed winged lion

Front 46

mastaba

Back 46

first in the series of egyptian burial chambers, a small rectangle w/ chapel and then shaft and underground burial chamber

Front 47

necropolis

Back 47

city of the dead

Front 48

clerestory

Back 48

long row of window opening to allow some light into huge temples

Front 49

Perikles

Back 49

Leader of Greece during the Golden Age, helped decide to make athens beautiful

Front 50

sarcophagus

Back 50

rectangular stone coffin

Front 51

Stupa

Back 51

buddhist temple (indian), derives from burial mounds

Front 52

axis mundi

Back 52

axis of the world

Front 53

torana

Back 53

gateways to stupa

Front 54

mudra

Back 54

right-hand raised symbol meaning have no fear, buddhism

Front 55

pagoda

Back 55

also reliquary tower (something that holds relics), origniated in indian stupa then combined with han watch towers

Front 56

megaron

Back 56

a great room, large audience hall of a mycenaean ruler