Art Humanities Midterm Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering classical antiquity through the Baroque period, detailing key artworks, dates, artists, stylistic terms, and historical contexts from the Art Humanities Midterm Study Guide.

The Parthenon

A temple on the Athenian Acropolis dedicated to Athena (447–432 BCE) built under Pericles by architects Ictinus and Callicrates with sculpture supervised by Phidias, combining Doric architecture with Ionic elements.

South Metope 27, Centauromachy

A high-relief marble sculpture from the Parthenon (c. 447–438 BCE) depicting the violent struggle between Lapiths and Centaurs at a wedding feast, symbolizing the victory of civilization over barbarism.

Peplos Scene, Parthenon Frieze

A low-relief continuous marble frieze (438–432 BCE) associated with the Panathenaic Festival, traditionally interpreted as the presentation of a newly woven peplos garment to Athena.

New York Kouros

An Archaic period freestanding nude male youth (c. 590–580 BCE) carved from Naxian marble, featuring frontality, symmetry, hieratic posture, and geometric abstraction under Egyptian artistic influence.

Kritios Boy

An Early Classical freestanding marble sculpture (c. 480 BCE) traditionally attributed to Kritios, demonstrating early contrapposto, a relaxed weight shift, and the Severe Style.

The Canon (Polykleitos)

A theoretical system of ideal bodily proportions and mathematical harmony developed by the High Classical sculptor Polykleitos, embodied in his sculpture Doryphoros.

Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer)

A High Classical sculpture by Polykleitos (c. 450–440 BCE, known via Roman marble copies) depicting an idealized nude athlete or warrior using contrapposto and balanced tension and relaxation.

Dionysus, East Pediment of the Parthenon

A reclining High Classical marble figure (c. 438–432 BCE) responding to the birth of Athena from Zeus's head, adapting the human body to the triangular pedimental space through foreshortening.

Three Goddesses, East Pediment of the Parthenon

Three reclining female divine figures (c. 438–432 BCE) from the Parthenon's east pediment, celebrated for the wet drapery technique that clings to the bodies to reveal anatomy.

Wet Drapery

A sculptural technique seen on the Parthenon's East Pediment where carved fabric clings tightly to the body, revealing anatomical form underneath while suggesting movement.

Theotokos

A title for the Virgin Mary meaning 'God-bearer,' highlighted in the Byzantine devotional icon Salus Populi Romani.

Salus Populi Romani

A Byzantine devotional icon on panel (traditionally dated c. 500 CE) held in Santa Maria Maggiore, depicting Mary as Theotokos with frontal figures, solemn expressions, and a gold background representing divine light.

Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Amiens

A High Gothic French cathedral begun c. 1220 housing the relic of John the Baptist, characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, stained glass, and an interior organized by arcade, triforium, and clerestory.

Beau Dieu

The sculptural depiction of Christ in Majesty located on the central portal of Amiens Cathedral (begun c. 1220), presenting Christ as savior and judge within Last Judgment imagery.

David (Donatello, Marble)

An Early Renaissance marble statue (1408–1409) originally commissioned for Florence Cathedral, portraying the biblical victor over Goliath with elongated proportions, decorative clothing, and subtle contrapposto.

David (Donatello, Bronze)

A freestanding bronze sculpture (c. 1434–1440) associated with Medici patronage, reviving classical freestanding nudity and contrapposto in depicting a youthful David wearing only a hat and boots atop Goliath's severed head.

David (Michelangelo)

A monumental marble sculpture (1501–1504) created during the Florentine Republic, portraying David in contrapposto with intense psychological focus before the battle with Goliath.

The Marriage of the Virgin

A 1504 oil on panel painting by Raphael influenced by Perugino, depicting Mary and Joseph's marriage through linear perspective, orthogonal lines, a vanishing point, and a centralized classical temple.

Madonna del Granduca

A devotional oil on panel painting by Raphael (1505–1506) featuring a pyramidal composition and a stark dark background that focuses attention on the maternal bond between Mary and the infant Christ.

Disputa (Disputation of the Sacrament)

A fresco by Raphael (1509–1511) in the Vatican's Stanza della Segnatura, commissioned by Pope Julius II to visually unite the heavenly and earthly Church in vertical alignment around the Eucharist.

School of Athens

A fresco by Raphael (1509–1511) in the Vatican's Stanza della Segnatura, depicting an imagined gathering of ancient philosophers with Plato and Aristotle positioned at the central vanishing point of classical Roman-style architecture.

Sistine Madonna

An oil on panel altarpiece by Raphael (1512) for the church of San Sisto, depicting the Virgin and Child appearing on clouds between Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara, framed by parted curtains and two bottom angels.

Madonna of the Goldfinch

A 1505–1506 painting by Raphael featuring Mary with Christ and John the Baptist; the goldfinch held in the scene serves as a symbol of Christ's future Passion and suffering.

A Man Drawing a Woman through a Frame with a Network of Squares

A 1525 illustration by Albrecht Dürer demonstrating an intellectual and scientific method of accurate drawing and foreshortening using a gridded framing device and a fixed viewpoint.

The Chess Game

A group portrait (c. 1555) by Sofonisba Anguissola depicting her sisters playing chess, demonstrating aristocratic refinement, education, and individual personal expressions.

Metapainting

A painting that depicts the act of painting itself, exemplified by Sofonisba Anguissola's Self-Portrait at the Easel (c. 1556) to establish her professional legitimacy as an artist.

Deposition (Entombment of Christ)

A Counter-Reformation painting (1603–1604) by Caravaggio that uses intense tenebrism, physical weight, and a projecting stone slab to present Christ's lowering into the tomb with emotional immediacy.

Tenebrism

A dramatic painting style featuring extreme chiaroscuro and dominant dark shadows, used by Caravaggio to intensify theatricality and physical immediacy.

Jesus Carrying the Cross (Luisa Roldán)

A Spanish Baroque sculpture (1692–1700) by Luisa Roldán (La Roldana) utilizing polychromy, pathos, and realistic surface details to emphasize Christ's suffering on the path to the Crucifixion.

David (Bernini)

A dynamic Baroque marble statue (1623) commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, capturing the biblical hero in mid-torsion and active movement as he readies his sling to strike Goliath.

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

A Baroque multi-media sculptural installation by Bernini (1647–1651) in the Cornaro Chapel, illustrating Teresa of Ávila's mystical vision of an angel piercing her heart with a golden arrow under concealed natural lighting.

Gesamtkunstwerk

A 'total work of art' unifying architecture, sculpture, painting, and natural light into a single theatrical environment, exemplified by Bernini's Cornaro Chapel.

The Arnolfini Portrait

A 1434 Early Netherlandish oil painting by Jan van Eyck depicting a couple in an interior, celebrated for its complex symbolism, convex mirror reflection, and the wall inscription 'Jan van Eyck was here.'