Flashcards and Answers – AP Art History Vocabulary
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In the shape of a human
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Anthropomorphic
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The Study of Artifacts
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Archaeology
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A view of the frontal and profile(side) together
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Composite View
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What an art piece is made of
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Composition
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A hollow cylinder or cone enclosed in a rectangular body
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Cong
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A circle of standing stones
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Cromlech
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A prehistoric monument consisting of a circle of stone or wooden uprights
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Henge
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A horizontal support of timber, stone, concrete, or steel across the top of a door or window
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Lintel
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A large stone that forms a prehistoric monument or part of one
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Megalith
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A tall upright stone of a kind, erected in prehistoric times in Western Europe
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Menhir
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A slot or recess, usually rectangular, cut into a piece of wood or stone, a projecting piece of wood made for insertion in a slot (definition above) of another piece.
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Mortise and Tenon
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A painting on a wall.
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Mural
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Human era before the development of agriculture
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Paleolithic
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Two pillars supporting a Column above to make a large n shape. (Pillar and Column)
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Post and Lintel
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A technique to determine the age of organic material based on the 14C that the material acquired from the air.
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Radio Carbon Dating
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Range of traditional beliefs and practices that include the abililty to cure, diagnose and sometimes cause suffering by creating a relationship with, or gaining control, over spirits.
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Shamanism
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To generalize something, for example: All popular girls have expensive clothes.
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Stylized
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Unglazed, usually brownish-red earthenware used as ornamental building materials and in modeling.
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Terracotta
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Art created during the reign of Akhenaton, which features a more relaxed figure style than in Old and Middle Kingdom art
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Amarna Style
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An Egyptian symbol of life
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Ankh
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A building with an elongated ground plan
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Axial Plan
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A cubic stone image with simplified body parts
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Block Statue
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A set of rules, principles, or standards accepted universally in a field of art. IE. the Egyptian Canon
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Canon
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A roof that rises above lower roofs and thus has window space beneath
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Clerestory
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A column that is not freestanding but attached to a wall
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Engaged Column
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A painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling.
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Fresco
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Egyptian writing using symbols or pictures as characters
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Hieroglyphics
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A hall in an Egyptian temple that has a roof supported by a dense thicket of coolmns
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Hypostyle
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A Latin expression that means that something is in its original locationo
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In Situ
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The soul, or spiritual esseence, of a human being that either ascends to heaven or can live in an Egyptian statue itself
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Ka
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Arabic for "bench", a low, flat-roofed Egyptian tomb with sides slopng down to the ground
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Mastaba
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Literally, a "city of the dead", a large burial area
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Necropolis
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The striped headcloth worn by Pharoahs in Ancient Egypt
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Nemes
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A tall aquatic plant whose fiber is used as writing surface in ancient Egypt
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Papyrus
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A colonnade surronding a building or enclosing a courtyard
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Peristyle
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A king of ancient Egypt
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Pharaoh
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A picture representing a word, phrase, or idea. (Ex. Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform)
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Pictograph
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A monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple marked by two flat, sloping walls between which is a smaller entrance
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Pylon
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A column that is cut away from rock but as no support function
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Reserve Column
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A stone coffin
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Sarcophagus
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A carving in which the outlines of figures are deeply carved into a surface so that the figures seem to project forward
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Sunken Relief
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An audience hall in a Persian palace
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Apadana
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Having the power to ward off evil or bad luck
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Apotropaic
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A very shallow relief sculpture
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Bas-relief
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The top element of a column
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Capital
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The main room of a temple where the god is housed
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Cella
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A city that has its own government in which controls all government affairs pertaining to that city.
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City-State
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A system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge, or arrowhead shape
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Cuneiform
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The front of a building
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Facade
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A base line upon which figures stand
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Ground Line
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A system of representation that expresses a person's importance by the size of his or her representation in a work of art.
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Hierarchy of Scale
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A colossal winged human-headed bull in Assyrian art
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Lamassu
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Empty space around an object or a person, such as the cut-out areas between a figure's legs or arms of a sculpture
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Negative Space
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A horizontal band, often on top of another, that tell a narrative story
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Register
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Sculpture that projects from a flat background.
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Relief Sculpture
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A stone slab used to mark a grave or a sit
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Stele
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Offered in fulfillment of a vow or a pledge
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Votive
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A pyramid-like building made of several stories that indent as the building gets taller, thus, ziggurats have terraces at each level
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Ziggurat
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An order of Greek architecture that features columns with scrolled capitals and an upper story with sculptures that are in friezes
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Ionic
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The tradition of depicting heads of figures on the same level
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Isocephalism
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An oven used for making pottery
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Kiln
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An archaic Greek sculpture of a standing youth
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Kouros
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A large ancient Greek bowl used for mixing water and wine
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Krater
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A small relief sculpture on the facade of a Greek temple
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Metope
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A decoration using pieces of stone, marble, or colored glass, called tesserae, that are cemented to a wall or a floor
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Mosaic
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Ancient Greek goddess of victory
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Nike
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The model of a grieving mother; after boasting of her twelve children, jealous gods killed them.
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Niobe
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A ceremonial road for a procession built to honor Athena during a festival
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Panathenaic Way
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The triangular top of a temple that contains sculpture
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Pediment
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A garment worn by women in ancient Greece, usually full length and tied at the waist
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Peplos
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A colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a courtyard
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Peristyle
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An entranceway to a building having columns supporting a roof
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Portico
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A gateway leading to a Greek temple
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Propylaeu
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The body of a column
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Shaft
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An ancient Greek covered walkway having columns on one side and a wall on the other
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Stoa
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An ancient Greek circular shrine
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Tholos
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A projecting grooved element alternating with a metope on a Greek temple
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Triglyph
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King of the ancient Greek gods; known as Jupiter to the Romans; god of the sky and weather
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Zeus
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A fine plaster used for wall decorations or moldings
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Stucco
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A hard ceramic clay used for building or for making pottery
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Terra-cotta
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A dining table in ancient Rome that has a couch on three sides for reclining meals
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Triclinium
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A porous rock similar to limestone
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Tufa
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An artificial mound of earth and stones placed over a grave
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Tumulus
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An order of ancient architecture featuring slender, smooth columns that sit on simple bases; no carvings on the frieze or in the capitals
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Tuscan order
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Carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of masonry
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Ashlar masonry
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A courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church
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Atrium
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In Roman architecture, a large axially planned building with a nave, side aisles, and apses
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Basilica
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A sculpture depicting a head, neck, and upper chest of a figure
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Bust
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In architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling
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Coffer
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One that contains a combination of volutes from the Ionic order and acanthus leaves from the Corinthian Order
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Composite Column
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A work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in a single frame
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Continuous Narrative
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A graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees
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Contrapposto
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A Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb
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Cubiculum
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A small dome rising over the roof of a building; in architecture, a _____ is achieved by rotating an arch on its axis
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Cupola
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An ancient method of painting that uses colored waxes burned into a wooden surface
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Encaustic
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A visual effect in which an object is shortened and turned deeper into the picture plane to give the effect of receding in space
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Foreshortening
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A public square or market place in a Roman city
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Forum
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A rectangular basin in a Roman house that is placed in the open-air atrium in order to collect rainwater
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Impluvium
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The center stone of an arch that holds the others in place
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Keystone
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A circular window in a church, or a round opening at the top of a dome
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Oculus
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Depth and recession in a painting or relief sculptures
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Perspective
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A three-dimensionality in the two-dimensional world of the picture plane
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Linear Perspective
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All lines that draw the viewer back in space to a common point
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Orthogonals
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The common point in which orthogonals draw viewers to
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Vanishing point
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Landscapes that give the illusion of distance
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Atmospheric or Aerial Perspective
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A vertical support that holds up an arch or a vault
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Pier
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A triangular space enclosed by the curves of arches
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Spandrel
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A roof constructed with arches
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Vault
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When an arch is extending in space and forms a tunnel
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Barrel Vault
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When two barrel vaults intersect at right angles
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Groin Vault
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Sculptures from the Roman Republic characterized by extreme realism of facial features
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Veristic
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A passageway around the apse or altar of a church
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Ambulatory
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The endpoint of a church where the altar is located
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Apse
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A courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church
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Atrium
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A church with a long nave whose focus is the apse, so-called becaquse it is designed along an axis
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Axial Plan
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In Christian architecture, an axially planned church with a long nave, side aisles, and an apse for the altar
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Basilica
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An underground passageway used for burial
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Catacomb
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A church having a circular plan with the altar in the middle
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Central Plan
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The third, or window, story of a church
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Clerestory
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In architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling
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Coffer
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The junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church.
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Crossing
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Small underground rooms in catacombs serving as mortuary chapels
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Cubicula
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An individual leaf of paper or parchment, numbered on the recto or front side only, occurring either loose as one of a series or forming part of a bound volume
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Folio
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The first four books of the New Testament that chronicle the life of Jesus
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Gospels
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A manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations.
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Illuminated manuscript
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Openings in the walls of catacombs to receive the dead
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Loculi
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A crescent-shaped space, sometimes over a doorway, that contains sculpture or painting
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Lunette
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The closest part of the atrium to the basilica, it serves as a vestibule, or lobby, of a church
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Narthex
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The main aisle of a church
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Nave
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A figure with its hands raised in prayer
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Orant Figure
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In art history, the reuse of architectural or sculptural pieces in buildings generally different from their original contexts
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Spolia
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An aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave, where the clergy originally stood.
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Transept
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Fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf.
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Vellum
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The principal church of a diocese, where a bishop sits
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Cathedral
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A manuscript book
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Codex
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A work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in a single frame
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Continuous Narrative
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A projecting ledge over a wall
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Cornice
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The bread sanctified by the priest at the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Support
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Eucharist
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First book of the Bible that details Creation, the Flood, Rebecca at the Well, and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, among other episodes
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Genesis
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A devotional panel depicting the sacred image
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Icon
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A screen decorated with icons, which separates the apse from the transept of a church
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Iconostasis
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A shrine built over a place of martyrdom or a grave of a martyred Christian Saint
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Martyrium
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A decoration using pieces of stone, marble, or colored glass, called tesserae, that are cemented to a wall or a floor
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Mosaic
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A plate, dish, or bowl used to hold the Eucharist at a Christian ceremony
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Paten
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A construction shaped like a triangle that transitions the space between flat walls and the base of a round dome
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Pendentive
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A copy of the biblical psalms
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Psalter
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The polygonal base of a dome that makes a transition from the round dome to a flat wall
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Squinch
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The Virgin Mary in her role as the Mother of God
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Theotokos
