Art History: Paleolithic to Ancient Egypt Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering key terms, art conventions, and architectural concepts from Paleolithic art through Old Kingdom Egypt.

Profile View

A depiction of a subject from the side, used almost exclusively for the representation of animals in Paleolithic cave art.

Twisted Perspective

An artistic convention where a figure's head is depicted in profile while specific features, such as horns, are turned facing the front.

Megalith

A giant stone used in ancient construction, typically reserved for important communal spaces rather than individual homes.

Hierarchy of Scale

The artistic technique of manipulating relative size to indicate importance, where larger figures represent higher status or significance.

Conceptual Representation

An artistic depiction based on human knowledge of an object's fundamental features—such as drawing a frontal eye on a face in profile—rather than an optical depiction of how it appears from a single perspective.

Shallow Relief

A sculpting technique where figures project only slightly from the background surface; also referred to as low relief.

Aerial Perspective

A top-down or sky-view vantage point used in artwork to present a clear conceptual depiction of a scene.

Registers

Separate horizontal bands or fields established by ground lines to organize different narrative scenes within an artwork.

Palette of King Narmer

A ceremonial slate palette over two feet high from Hierakonpolis (c. 3000 to 2920 BCE) that acts as political propaganda celebrating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Crown of Upper Egypt

A tall, white, bowling pin-shaped crown worn by ancient Egyptian kings to symbolize authority over Upper Egypt.

Crown of Lower Egypt

A distinct red crown worn by Egyptian pharaohs signifying rule over Lower Egypt.

Hathor

The cow-headed Egyptian goddess regarded as the divine mother of the pharaohs.

Mastaba

A bench-like ancient Egyptian tomb made of brick or stone built over an underground burial chamber, used by important officials and people of power.

False Door

A non-functional door inside a mastaba tomb chapel intended to guide the Ka from the underground burial space into the serdab.

Serdab

A chamber within a mastaba tomb containing a statue of the deceased, serving as a physical backup vessel for the Ka.

Ka

The ancient Egyptian spirit or soul that requires a preserved physical body or statue to inhabit after death.

Necropolis

A large burial complex or cemetery, literally meaning a 'city of the dead,' such as Saqqara.

Imhotep

The ancient Egyptian architect who designed the Stepped Pyramid and surrounding funerary precinct for King Djoser at Saqqara.

Engaged Columns

Architectural columns that are attached directly to or built into a supporting wall surface.

Ashlar Masonry

A construction method using precisely quarried, rectangular stone blocks laid in horizontal courses and dressed to yield a smooth finish.

Benben

The primordial mound rising out of the waters in ancient Egyptian creation myth, whose shape is recreated in the design of the pyramids.