Principles of Design and Visual Art History Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the Principles of Design and Western Art History based on lecture review material.

Symmetrical Balance

A type of balance achieved by placing identical objects on either side of a central point; also called formal balance, it creates a quiet, restful feeling and suggests restraint, orderliness, and formality.

Asymmetrical Balance

A type of balance achieved by placing different objects of equal visual weight on either side of a central point; also called informal balance, it creates a more interesting arrangement with a relaxed feel.

Radial Balance

A type of balance where furnishings or patterns are arranged in a circular manner around a center, creating a sweeping, dramatic, circular motion in a room.

Rhythm by Repetition

A type of rhythm created by duplicating shapes, colors, pattern, line, or texture.

Rhythm by Gradation

A type of rhythm created by a gradual change in size or color, such as wall paint changing gradually in value.

Rhythm by Radiation

A type of rhythm created by identical objects coming from a central axis.

Rhythm by Opposition

A type of rhythm created by lines at right angles or contrasting colors intersecting.

Rhythm by Transition

A type of rhythm created by curved lines that carry the eye across a straight surface.

Scale

Relates to the size of a design in relation to the height and width of the area in which it is placed — the actual and relative size and visual weight of the design and its components.

Proportion

Relates to the parts of an object and how one part relates to another.

The Golden Mean

The division of a line or form so that the smaller portion has the same ratio to the larger as the larger has to the whole, with effective ratios such as $2:3$, $3:5$, $5:8$, and $4:7$.

Emphasis

The center or focus of attention and interest within a design that commands attention and makes a design visually interesting.

Dominance

A method of creating emphasis achieved through size, shape, color, brushstrokes, or combinations.

Focal Point

The process of isolation that makes an element stand out from the pictorial field, achieved through size, position, movement, and contrast.

Motif

A complete unit in a larger design that is repeatedly used to create a pattern.

Unity

The sense that everything fits together; a sense of harmony or oneness.

Variety

Opposing or contrasting elements used to achieve visual interest and stimulate movement in a design.

Venus of Willendorf

A prehistoric sculpture in the round representing a fertility statue with exaggerated treatment of female sexual attributes.

Stonehenge

An example of a cromlech located in Salisbury Plain, England that served as a huge calendar and could foretell lunar and solar eclipses.

Menhir

A huge, vertically standing stone on the ground, usually placed in the middle of a field or arranged in rows.

Dolmens

Known as "stone table" — two huge standing stones supporting a horizontal giant stone, believed to be a grave or altar.

Cromlech

A circle of standing stones.

Gate of Ishtar

A monumental entrance to Babylon built around 575 BCE during King Nebuchadnezzar II's reign, decorated with bright blue glazed bricks and relief images of lions, bulls, and dragons.

Mastaba

An earlier, simpler type of Egyptian tomb also called "house of eternity"; a flat-roofed, rectangular structure containing a chamber for the dead.

Saqqara

A vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt marking the beginning of the step-pyramid.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

Also known as the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), it is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza complex.

Book of the Dead

Egyptian religious scripture containing funeral prayers and rituals.

Kouros

An Archaic Greek sculpture depicting a nude male figure, presumably of an athlete.

Kore

An Archaic Greek sculpture depicting a fully clad female figure.

Classicism

Refers to the Hellenic Period and its aesthetic and philosophical ideals, presenting an idealist imitation and perfection of the human body in sculpture.

Lance-bearer

Polycleitos' important sculpture — a study in classical proportions and the balance of physical tensions in the human figure.

Discus Thrower

Myron's sculpture showing an athlete about to throw a discus at the moment of highest physical tension preceding release.

Doric Order

The shortest and most massive of the three Greek architectural orders, characterized by a plain abacus capital.

Ionic Order

A taller and slender Greek architectural order with a capital featuring a pair of spirals (volutes) and a base.

Corinthian Order

The tallest and most slender Greek architectural order, featuring a capital adorned with curling acanthus leaves and a base.

Fresco

A painting technique where water-based pigments are applied to freshly applied plaster on walls.

Encaustic

A painting technique developed by Greek shipbuilders using hot wax mixed with pigments to paint a wax hull or surface.

Mimesis

The imitation of reality in art, famously illustrated by the Greek painting competition between Zeuxis and Parrhasius.

Colosseum

A circular Roman building whose main feature was the circular arena used for gladiatorial combats and fights between men and beasts.

Baths of Caracalla

A Roman compound of public bathing halls with a complex underground heating system, two vaulted chambers, lounges, halls, gardens, shops, and gymnasiums.

Statuary Sculpture

Free-standing sculpture.

Sarcophagi

A box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone and displayed above ground.

Portraiture

An important Roman art form related to ancestor-worship.

Equestrian Statues

Roman sculptures serving as symbols of dynamic authority and power, such as the statue of Marcus Aurelius.

Trimurti

The Hindu Triumvirate consisting of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (associated with destruction).

Icons

Byzantine objects of worship portraying Christ, the Crucifixion, and Mary, made as portable ivory carvings or wood panel paintings adorned with precious stones.

Gothic Cathedral

An architectural triumph of the later Middle Ages described by John Ruskin as "A Bible in Stone."

Renaissance

French word meaning "rebirth," referring to the 15th-century revival of ancient Greek and Roman art characterized by scientific inquiry, perspective, chiaroscuro, and sfumato.

Mannerism

An art movement (1530–1600) expressing the insecurity and anxieties of the aristocratic class, featuring elongated, stylized figures and compositional instability.

Chiaroscuro

A technique featuring deep contrast between light and shadow, widely used in Baroque and Neo-Classical painting.

Art Nouveau

Meaning "New Art," a movement reacting against industrialization that featured plant motifs with sinuous, undulating lines and linear, poster-like compositions.

Pointillism

Also known as Divisionism, an art technique using points or dots based on the theory of visual mixing, pioneered by Georges Seurat.

Fauvism

An art movement named after the French word for "beast," known for bright, bold, unnatural colors and simplified forms used to express emotion.

Expressionism

An art movement using bright, screaming colors and gnarled, distorted shapes to express intense internal feelings.

Cubism

A 20th-century movement invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque that depicts subjects in multi-view reduced to flat geometric shapes.

Futurism

An art movement aimed at expressing the excitement, speed, and energy of the modern, technological world.

Surrealism

An art movement led by André Breton aimed at fusing the conscious and unconscious minds to create a super-reality.

Dadaism

A radical movement led by Marcel Duchamp that created art by destroying art, aiming to shock the public and subvert traditional values.

Suprematism

A purely formal movement started by Kasimir Malevich that reduced forms to basic shapes and colors to express pure subjectivity.

Ready-Made Art

An art concept based on the Institutional Theory of Art, asserting that ordinary objects become art when designated as such by an artist.

Pop Art

An art movement that utilizes imagery from mass culture, advertising, commercial packaging, comics, and cartoons.

Abstract Expressionism

A non-objective movement based on the Action Theory of Art that emphasizes spontaneous freedom in the act of painting.

Color Field Painting

A branch of action painting focusing on large fields or masses of color applied across the canvas.

Op Art

A purely formal art style using optical illusions where the illusion itself becomes the reality of the work.

Environmental Art

A postmodern style (also called Earthwork) that uses natural materials such as soil, rocks, plants, sand, and water as its medium to connect art with nature.

Installation Art

A postmodern art style where multiple materials are arranged in a specific space, transforming the space itself into the artwork.