AP Art History: Early Middle Ages, Romanesque, Gothic, and Islamic Art

Vocabulary and identification flashcards covering Early Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, and Islamic art history, including key monuments, manuscripts, architectural elements, and decorative arts.

Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George

An Early Byzantine icon from the 6th or early 7th century made of encaustic on wood at Saint Catherine’s Monastery (Sinai, Egypt). It depicts Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer) flanked by Saints Theodore and George, with angels and the hand of God above, characterized by a gold background, halos, frontal figures, and devotional focus.

Theotokos

A title for Mary meaning 'God-bearer', emphasized in Byzantine Christian icons such as the Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George.

Vienna Genesis (Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well & Jacob Wrestling the Angel)

An Early Byzantine illuminated manuscript from the early 6th century made with tempera, gold, and silver on purple-dyed vellum. It illustrates Genesis stories utilizing continuous narrative, combining classical naturalism with early Christian storytelling.

Continuous Narrative

An artistic convention in which multiple moments or episodes of a story are shown within a single image or frame, often featuring repeated figures to signify the passage of time.

Hagia Sophia

A monumental Byzantine church in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) built between 532 and 537 CE. Commissioned by Emperor Justinian and designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, it features a massive central dome resting on pendentives, semi-domes, and a ring of windows creating a sense of lightness.

Pendentives

Curved triangular architectural features that allow the transition and support of a circular dome over a square base, as prominently seen in Hagia Sophia.

Church of Sainte-Foy

A Romanesque pilgrimage church in Conques, France, constructed c. 1050–1130. It features thick stone walls, rounded arches, barrel vaults, small windows, and a large sculpted tympanum depicting the Last Judgment, designed to accommodate pilgrims visiting the relics of Saint Foy.

Romanesque Architecture

A medieval European architectural style characterized by rounded arches, heavy stone construction with thick walls, barrel vaults, smaller windows, and a grounded, solid appearance.

Chartres Cathedral

A premier example of Gothic architecture located in Chartres, France, rebuilt mainly after 1194. It is distinguished by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, soaring verticality, rose windows, and extensive stained-glass windows.

Flying Buttress

An exterior masonry arch in Gothic architecture that transfers outward thrust away from the walls, enabling taller structures, thinner walls, and larger stained-glass windows.

Gothic Architecture

A medieval architectural style defined by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, external flying buttresses, thinner walls, large stained-glass windows, and a tall, vertical appearance.

Kaaba

An ancient sacred black cubic shrine located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, within the Great Mosque of Mecca. Draped in the kiswah, it is the holiest site in Islam, serving as the focal point of the Hajj pilgrimage and the direction Muslims face during prayer.

Kiswah

The ceremonial black cloth adorned with gold-embroidered Arabic calligraphy that covers the Kaaba in Mecca.

Dome of the Rock

An Umayyad Islamic shrine built in 691–692 CE in Jerusalem under Caliph Abd al-Malik. It features an octagonal plan crowned by a golden dome, detailed tile and mosaic ornamentation, geometric patterns, and Arabic inscriptions over the Foundation Stone.

Great Mosque at Isfahan

A Persian mosque in Isfahan, Iran, begun in the 8th century with major additions under the Seljuks. It is organized around a central courtyard with four iwans, domed prayer halls, muqarnas ornamentation, and tile work.

Iwan

A vaulted hall or space walled on three sides and opening completely onto an exterior courtyard, prominent in Persian mosque design such as at Isfahan.

Taj Mahal

A Mughal mausoleum constructed from 1632 to 1653 in Agra, India, commissioned by Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It features white marble, a central onion-shaped dome, four minarets, formal reflecting pools, and bilateral symmetry.

The Alhambra

A Nasrid palace and fortress complex built in the 13th–14th centuries in Granada, Spain. It exemplifies Islamic art in al-Andalus through decorative courtyards, fountains, reflecting pools, delicate columns, arabesques, and muqarnas ceilings.

Great Mosque of Djenne

A Sudano-Sahelian mosque in Djenne, Mali, originally dating to the 13th century and reconstructed in 1907. Built from massive adobe (mud-brick) walls and tapering towers, it incorporates protruding wooden beams known as toron.

Toron

Protruding wooden beams embedded in the adobe walls of West African architecture (such as the Great Mosque of Djenne) that function as permanent scaffolding and footholds for regular community replastering.

Folio from the Qur’an

An Islamic sacred manuscript page dating to the 9th–10th centuries, executed in ink and pigment on parchment. It displays angular Arabic calligraphy in Kufic script and decorative verse markers without figural imagery.

Kufic Script

An early, angular calligraphic script used for writing Arabic text, notably seen in early folios from the Qur'an.

Ardabil Carpet

A Safavid Persian carpet dating to 1539–1540, made of wool pile on a silk foundation. It features a prominent central medallion, dense floral motifs, intricate symmetrical patterns, an elaborate border, and a woven inscription with date.

Court of Gayumars

A Safavid Persian miniature painting (c. 1522–1525) by Sultan Muhammad from the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh (Book of Kings). Painted in opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper, it illustrates King Gayumars seated above his court in a lush, imaginative mountain setting.

Bahram Gur Fights the Karg

An Ilkhanid-era Persian miniature painting (c. 1330) from the Great Mongol Shahnama made of ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, depicting the hero Bahram Gur on horseback vanquishing a mythical horned karg.