Medieval Paintings

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing essential terms, techniques, and artworks from the lecture on Classical Greek and Roman painting.

Historical period in which painting was commonly executed on vases, panels, and tomb walls, featuring battle scenes, mythological figures, and everyday life.

Greek Era

A painting technique using water-based pigments applied on wet plaster; once dry, the colors bond with the wall surface, creating durable, matte murals.

Fresco

A painting method developed by Greek shipbuilders that mixes colored pigments with hot wax, originally to seal ship cracks and later used for art on various surfaces.

Encaustic

A type of red-figured Greek vase painting characterized by elaborate decoration and bright colors, popular in the later Classical period.

Kerch Style

A Greek ceramic vessel with a wide body and narrow neck, primarily used as a wine container.

Pelike

A shallow, lidded Greek bowl with two horizontal handles and a broad foot, often used to hold cosmetics or small items.

Lekanis

A high-handled, lidded Greek vessel associated with bridal baths and wedding rituals.

Lebes gamikos

A large Greek bowl used for mixing wine and water during symposiums and social gatherings.

Krater

The artistic practice of applying multiple colors to a surface, commonly used on Greek pottery and sculpture.

Polychromy

Artwork executed on flat wooden panels, sometimes single pieces or joined boards; most ancient examples have perished due to their organic composition.

Panel Painting

One of the few surviving examples of ancient Greek panel painting, created on wood and discovered near Pitsa, Greece.

Pitsa Panel

Murals decorating burial chambers, frequently produced with fresco or encaustic techniques and marked by sharp, flat outlines in Classical art.

Tomb/Wall Painting

A well-preserved Greek fresco tomb from Paestum, Italy, depicting a diver and symposium scenes, dated to the Classical period.

Tomb of the Diver

An art form that creates images by assembling small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials into intricate patterns or scenes.

Mosaic

A famous Roman floor mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii (c. 100 B.C.), portraying the battle between Alexander the Great and Darius III.

Head of Alexander

A series of Pompeian wall paintings (c. 80 B.C.) believed to represent either a marriage ceremony or the initiation of a woman into a mystery cult.

Villa of the Mysteries Fresco

Elite Roman wall paintings from the Villa of Agrippa Postumus near Pompeii, preserved by the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius and noted for refined landscape and mythological scenes.

Boscotrecase Fresco (Imperial Villa)