Art History Vocabulary Chpt 1-3

Front 1

Sculpture-in-the-round

(Freestanding sculpture)

Back 1

Carved or modeled in 3-Dimensions

Front 2

Relief sculpture

Back 2

Figures projecting from a background of which they are part. A relief can be high, low or sunken(carved into the surface)

Front 3

Abstract Art

Back 3

Abstract - Nonrepresentational, forms and colors arranged without depiction of an object

Front 4

Modeling V. Carving

Back 4

Modeling - the shaping of 3-Dimensional figures in soft materials.

Carving - a sculptural technique in which the artist cuts away material in order to create a statue or a relief.

Front 5

Profile view

Back 5

Side view

Front 6

Megalith

Back 6

Greek, great stone. A large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental Prehistoric structures.

Front 7

Post and lintel system

Back 7

A system in which 2 posts support a horizontal beam atop

Front 8

Mortise and tenon joints

Back 8

Mortise - hole

Tenon joint - the piece that fits inside the Mortise to create a more supportive structure

Front 9

Corbeled arch

Back 9

An arch formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses, cantilever inwards until the blocks need at a keystone.

Front 10

Epic of gilgamesh

Back 10

First known works of literature c. 2100

Front 11

Ziggurats

Back 11

In ancient Mesopotamia architecture, a tiered platform for a temple

Front 12

Nanna, Innana, Ishtar

Back 12

Nanna - Mesopotamian goddess of the moon

Innana - Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, sexual desires, wisdom war and combat

Ishtar - Mesopotamian goddess of Fertility, love, war, sex and power.

Front 13

Registers

Back 13

One of a series of superimposed bands in a pictorial narrative or a particular level of which motifs are placed

Front 14

Ground line

Back 14

In paintings of reliefs, a painted of carved baseline in which figure appear to stand

Front 15

Hieratic scale

Back 15

An artistic style in which greater size indicates greater importance

Front 16

Cuneiform

Back 16

Latin, 'wedge shaped'

A system of writing used in ancient Mesopotamia in which wedge-shaped characters were produced by a pressed stylus into a soft clay tablet which was then baked or otherwise hardened

Front 17

Stylus

Back 17

A needle like tool used in engraving and incising.

Also and ancient writing instrument use to inscribe clay or wax tablets

Front 18

Incised clay

Back 18

Clay that has been cut into with a sharp instrument such as a stylus

Front 19

Citadels

Back 19

Fortress cities

Front 20

Lamassu

Back 20

Assyrian guardian in the form of a man-headed winged bull or lion

Front 21

Bull-headed capitals

Back 21

Lyre?

Front 22

Horus

Back 22

Egyptian protector god of the pharaohs

Front 23

Osiris

Back 23

Egyptian god of the underworld and afterlife

Front 24

Isis

Back 24

Egyptian god of the earth

Front 25

Hierakonpolis

Back 25

A predynastic town

Religious and political capital of upper Egypt

Front 26

Rosetta Stone

Back 26

The same information written in 3 different languages used to understand all of hieroglyphics

Front 27

Jean-Francois Champollion

Back 27

Born December 23rd 1790

Known as the primary decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphics

Front 28

Hieroglyphics

Back 28

A system of writing using symbols or pictures

Front 29

Egyptian canon of proportion

Back 29

Front 30

Columns

Back 30

A vertical, weight carrying architectural memento, circular in cross-section and consisting of a base (sometimes omitted), a shaft and capital (upper most member of a column)

Front 31

Engaged column

Back 31

A half-round column attached to a wall.

Front 32

Base

Back 32

Bottom of a column, usually decorated

Front 33

Shaft

Back 33

Middle of a column.

Front 34

Capital

Back 34

Top of a column usually decorated

Front 35

Serdab

Back 35

A small concealed chamber in an Egyptian mastaba (Arabic-'bench'. An ancient Egyptian rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides erected over a subterranean tomb chamber connected with the outside by a shaft) for a statue of the deceased.

Front 36

Ka

Back 36

In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force

Front 37

Ka

Back 37

In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force

Front 38

Ka

Back 38

In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force

Front 39

Mastaba

Back 39

Arabic-'bench'. An ancient Egyptian rectangular brick or stone structure with sloping sides erected over a subterranean tomb chamber connected with the outside by a shaft

Front 40

Wall murals

Back 40

Wall paintings

Front 41

Buon fresco V. Fresco secco

Back 41

Buon fresco - (aka. True fresco) wet paint on lime plaster. Paint made by mixing pigments with water.

Fresco secco - dry pigments on lime plaster

Front 42

Djoser Step pyramid

Back 42

Built by imhotep for pharaoh Djoser

Front 43

Valley Temple

Back 43

The temple closest to the nile river, associated with each of the the old kingdom pyramids at given in ancient Egypt

Front 44

Mortuary temple

Back 44

a temple erected for the worship of deceased Egyptian pharaohs

Front 45

Causeway

Back 45

A raised roadway

Front 46

Causeway

Back 46

A raised roadway

Front 47

Enclosure wall

Back 47

Walls surrounding the outside of a temple

Front 48

Pyramid complex

Back 48

Valley Temple, Mortuary temple, causeway, enclosure wall.

Front 49

Coffin

Back 49

Where they keep the body

Front 50

Sarcophagus

Back 50

Greek. 'consumer of flesh'

Coffin usually made of stone

Front 51

Pylons

Back 51

The wide entrance of an Egyptian temple, characterized by its sloping walls

Front 52

Open court

Back 52

Forecourt

Front 53

Hypostyle hall

Back 53

A hall with a roof supported by columns

Front 54

Clerestory

Back 54

A fenesterated (windowed) part of a building that raised above the roof of the other parts.

The oldest Clerestories being Egyptian.

Front 55

Temple

Back 55

A place of worship

Front 56

Sanctuary

Back 56

Axial plan temple (place of refuge for the gods?)

Front 57

Stylized

Back 57

The way the artist depicts a subject that follows similar depictions made near the same time.

Front 58

Stylistic V. Naturalistic

Back 58

Stylistic - an artist's interpretation of a subject

Naturalistic - the close examination of nature and replication of such in the artist's work.

Front 59

Egyptian King's regalia

Back 59

Nemes headdress, crowns, crook and flail

Front 60

Nemes

Back 60

Egyptian linen headdress worn by the pharaohs with the cobra of kingship on front

Front 61

Crown of upper and lower Egypt

Back 61

Front 62

Crook and flail

Back 62

Front 63

Senenmut

Back 63

Architect at Deir el-Bahri

Front 64

Amarna

Back 64

Major Egyptian city built in the 18th dynasty

Front 65

The Aton (Aten)

Back 65

Disc of the sun, also representation of the sun god ra.

Front 66

Howard Carter

Back 66

Discovered the tomb if Tutankhamun of the 18th century intact