ART 1020: 40 Artwork Flashcards and Key Terms

A complete set of study flashcards defining key art historical terminology and analyzing the 40 artworks featured in the ART 1020 course.

Anamorphosis

A distorted image that becomes recognizable from a particular viewing angle.

Illusionistic texture

Painting an object's surface so it appears convincingly real.

Linear perspective

Creating depth using lines that converge toward vanishing points.

Multi-point perspective

A composition using more than one vanishing point.

Foreshortening

Making a form look shorter because it extends toward or away from the viewer.

Implied lines

Lines suggested by gazes, gestures, weapons, or the arrangement of figures.

Flattened picture space

Reducing the illusion of depth so a painting feels more two-dimensional.

Contrapposto

A standing pose with weight shifted mainly onto one leg.

Continuous narrative

Multiple moments in a story shown within a connected visual sequence.

Tenebrism

Dramatic contrast between deep darkness and brightly illuminated areas.

Futurism

An art movement interested in speed, movement, technology, and modern life.

Color Field painting

Abstract painting emphasizing large areas of color.

Gothic architecture

Architecture that often uses pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses.

Post-and-lintel

A construction method where horizontal beams are supported by vertical posts or columns.

Fresco

Painting on wet plaster, often executed on walls or ceilings with painted architectural framing.

Zips

Thin vertical lines that cross the canvas in Barnett Newman's Vir Heroicus Sublimis.

Great Wave off Kanagawa

A c. 1831 polychrome woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai depicting a huge curling wave over boats with Mount Fuji in the distance; a Japanese ukiyo-e print emphasizing nature's power.

Hall of the Bulls

Paleolithic paintings made with pigment on cave walls c. 15,000–13,000 BCE by unknown prehistoric artists in Lascaux, France.

Sunflower Seeds

A 2010 installation by Ai Weiwei at Tate Modern, London, consisting of millions of individually hand-painted porcelain seeds exploring individuality, conformity, mass production, and collective labor.

Tar Beach

A 1988 work by Faith Ringgold made of acrylic on canvas with a fabric border, combining painting, fabric, quilting, and storytelling to depict a family on a Harlem rooftop.

Bayeux Tapestry

A c. 1070s wool embroidery on linen traditionally associated with Bishop Odo's workshop, using continuous narrative to depict the events leading up to and including the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

Column of Trajan

A Roman marble relief sculpture and architectural monument dedicated in 113 CE in Rome, Italy, traditionally associated with Apollodorus of Damascus, featuring a spiral relief celebrating emperor Trajan's military campaigns.

Isaac and His Sons

A 1425–1452 gilded bronze relief panel by Lorenzo Ghiberti on the Florence Baptistery doors (Gates of Paradise), utilizing linear perspective to create depth in a biblical narrative.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

A 1508–1512 fresco by Michelangelo in Vatican City, featuring scenes from Genesis, painted architectural framing, and figures with powerful anatomy and dramatic poses.

Philosophy (The School of Athens)

A 1509–1511 fresco by Raphael in the Vatican Palace, Vatican City, using linear perspective to depict ancient Greek philosophers in a grand architectural setting celebrating classical learning and humanism.

Netherlandish Proverbs

A 1559 oil on panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicting numerous small scenes of people acting out familiar proverbs and human foolishness in a village setting.

Saint Francis Altarpiece

A 1235 medieval tempera on wood altarpiece by Bonaventura Berlinghieri at the Church of San Francesco in Pescia, Italy, featuring a large central saint surrounded by life scenes in a hierarchical arrangement.

Parthenon

An ancient Greek marble temple dedicated to Athena, built 447–432 BCE on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, traditionally by Iktinos and Kallikrates using post-and-lintel construction, Doric columns, and subtle optical refinements.

Great Pyramids of Gizeh

Stone architecture built c. 2550–2490 BCE in Giza, Egypt, by ancient Egyptian builders as royal pharaonic tombs expressing permanence and afterlife beliefs through massive scale and geometric forms.

Travelers Among Mountains and Streams

An early 11th-century Chinese landscape painting by Fan Kuan executed in ink and colors on silk, showing monumental mountains dominating tiny human figures.

Starry Night

An 1889 oil on canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting a stylized swirling sky, bright stars, and a dark cypress tree in Saint-Rémy, France, using energetic brushwork and expressive color.

Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter

A 1481–1482 fresco by Pietro Perugino in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, demonstrating linear perspective across a large plaza as Christ delivers spiritual authority to Peter.

Number 1, 1950

A 1950 Abstract Expressionist action painting by Jackson Pollock using enamel and aluminum paint dripped, poured, and splattered across canvas.

Opening of the Gospel of Mark, Book of Kells

A c. 800 illuminated Gospel manuscript page crafted with ink and pigments on vellum by unknown monastic scribes and artists associated with Iona and Kells (Ireland/Scotland).

The Night Café

An 1888 oil on canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting a café interior in Arles, France, using strong contrasting colors and distorted perspective to communicate unease.

Calling of St. Matthew

A 1599–1600 oil on canvas painting by Caravaggio in the Contarelli Chapel, Rome, Italy, using tenebrism and implied lines to show Christ calling Matthew.

French Ambassadors

A 1533 oil and tempera on panel painting by Hans Holbein the Younger in the National Gallery, London, depicting two ambassadors beside scientific and musical instruments, featuring an anamorphic skull in the foreground.

Object

A 1936 Surrealist artwork by Meret Oppenheim housed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, consisting of a fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon.

Glorification of St. Ignatius

A 1691–1694 Baroque ceiling fresco by Andrea Pozzo in the Church of St. Ignatius, Rome, employing illusionistic perspective to make the ceiling appear to open into the heavens.

The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe)

A 1929 oil on canvas painting by René Magritte in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art showing a painted pipe with text stating that a picture of an object is not the actual object.

Among the Sierra Nevada, California

An 1868 oil on canvas landscape painting by Albert Bierstadt in the Hudson River School tradition, portraying dramatic mountains, water, trees, and atmospheric light.

Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)

A 1656 oil on canvas painting by Diego Velázquez in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, depicting the Infanta Margarita, attendants, the artist himself, and a mirror reflecting the king and queen.

Hunters in the Snow

A 1565 oil on panel seasonal landscape by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, showing hunters returning to a winter village with people skating on frozen water.

David

A 1501–1504 monumental marble sculpture by Michelangelo in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy, depicting biblical David using contrapposto before his battle with Goliath.

Red Studio

A 1911 oil on canvas painting by Henri Matisse in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which flattens picture space by dominating the room in red with outlined objects.

Vir Heroicus Sublimis

A 1950–1951 Color Field painting by Barnett Newman in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, featuring a large red canvas crossed by thin vertical lines called zips.

No. 5/No. 22

A 1950 oil on canvas Abstract Expressionist and Color Field painting by Mark Rothko featuring large blocks of color with soft, blurry edges designed to evoke emotion.

Paris Street, Rainy Day

An 1877 oil on canvas painting by Gustave Caillebotte in the Art Institute of Chicago, utilizing multi-point perspective, cropped figures, and wet pavement to capture modern urban life.

The Oxbow

An 1836 oil on canvas landscape by Thomas Cole showing the Connecticut River Valley, contrasting a stormy wilderness with a bright, cultivated valley.

Third of May, 1808

An 1814 anti-war oil on canvas painting by Francisco Goya in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, depicting French soldiers executing Spanish civilians using implied lines and dramatic light.

Cloud Gate

A 2004 stainless steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park, Chicago, nicknamed 'The Bean,' featuring a curved reflective surface that distorts viewers and the skyline.

Dead Christ (Lamentation of Christ)

A c. 1480 tempera on canvas painting by Andrea Mantegna in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy, utilizing dramatic foreshortening with Christ lying on a slab feet-first toward the viewer.

Apollo and Daphne

A c. 1622–1625 Baroque marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, depicting Daphne transforming into a laurel tree as Apollo reaches for her.

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

A 1912 Futurist oil on canvas painting by Giacomo Balla at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, using repeated legs, feet, tail, and leash to show rapid motion.

Hagia Sophia

A Byzantine architectural structure built c. 532–537 CE in Istanbul, Turkey, by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, noted for an expansive interior and a massive central dome that appears to float.

Amiens Cathedral

A French Gothic architectural masterpiece begun in 1220 in Amiens, France, that uses pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses to support soaring walls and ceilings.