Art history- The art of the body: Greek sculpture

Cycladic

Designation for the Bronze Age on the Aegean islands.

contrapposto

Italian for "set against": describes the Classical convention of presenting standing figures with most of their weight on one leg, creating opposing alternations of tension and relaxation around the central axis. Contrapposto imbues the figure with a sense of potential movement.

chiastic

Chiastic from the Greek word chiasmos, implying diagonal tension: in sculpture, the depiction of a standing human figure in which the weight of the body is shifted onto one supporting leg, with the arm on that side of the body relaxed; the arm above the flexed leg is tensed and active.

kouros

An Archaic Greek freestanding sculpture of a nude male youth.

Typology

The systematic study and classification of things into groups, categories, or types based on shared characteristic. Also, system or reading Old Testament events as types, or prefigurations, for a New Testament event (sometimes called the antitype)

Style

the distinctive visual appearance, formal choices, and recurring patterns that link a work of art to a specific artist, time period, culture, or movement

Chronology

the arrangement of artworks, artists, and art movements in the order that they happened in time.

Function 

the specific purpose, role, or practical use that the object was originally created to serve within its culture and society.

Iconography

the established, conventional meanings or symbolism in a work's imagery or subject matter