Art History Ch 2- Key Words

Akkadian

an ancient empire based in the city of Akkad in Mesopotamia, following the conquest of Sargon resulting politically in unswerving loyalty to a king rather than a city-state.

Arch

a curved structural member that spans an opening and is generally composed of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit downward pressure laterally (thrust)

Babylon

a city of landscape architecture (hanging gardens)

Barrel vault

a deep arch over an oblong space

Bent-axis approach

a processional pathway up to the temple, in the shape of an angular spiral

Bestiary

a collection of real or imaginary animals

Bitumen

an asphalt like substance used between the sun dried bricks on a ziggurat

Blind arcade

a series of arches having no openings

Cella

a central room set aside for a divinity

Citadel

a fortress or a stronghold that commands the city

City-states

independent cities which never become unified

Cuneiform

wedge shaped writing of the Sumerians

Cylinder seal

a cylindrical piece of stone about an inch or so in height, decorated with an incised design, so that a raised pattern was left when the seal was rolled over soft clay. In important property was signed, sealed, and identified this way.

Facade

the front of a building

Foreshortening

a device for suggesting depth by representing a figure or an object at an angle, rather than frontally or profile

Glaze

a color made up of crushed glass, painted on sun dried bricks, which was heated to a high temperature until it was fused to the bricks

Gudea

a Babylonian leader who was inspired by god to build a temple

Hammurabi

the author of the first written code of laws

Heraldic composition

one which is symmetrical around a central figure

Hierarchy of scale

the representation of certain figures in the art in a larger size

Iconographic elements

emphasis on the art work's meaning. The 'writing of images' refers both to the content, or subject, of an art work and to the study of that content in art. It includes the study of symbolic, often religious, meaning of objects, persons or events depicted in the work of art.

Lamassu

a winged man-headed bull

Libation

the ritual pouring of a liquid

Lyre

an early stringed instrument

Mesopotamia

the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Pictograph

a writing using simplified pictures for words

Pier

a square column

Register or frieze

a series of bands in a pictorial narrative

Sargon

the leader of the fierce Akkadians (citadel)

Stele

a stone slab erected to commemorate a historical event

Sumer

an early civilization in Mesopotamia (ziggurats) loyalty to the city-state

Votive offering

a gift of gratitude to a deity usually made in fulfillment of a vow

Ziggurat

a high, stepped, constructed platform on which the Sumerian temples stood