Unit 2: Ancient Mediterranean, 3500 BCE–300 CE

Identify (AP Art History step)

State what the work is: culture/civilization, approximate date range, medium, and function.

Describe (AP Art History step)

Explain what you can literally see (subject matter, pose, scale, composition, materials, techniques) as visual evidence.

Analyze (AP Art History step)

Interpret how visual choices communicate meaning (why this pose/material/location), supported by your description.

Contextualize (AP Art History step)

Connect the work to its historical world (religion, politics, trade, burial practices, civic identity, imperial power).

Form

How an artwork looks and is made—materials, technique, composition, and style.

Function

What an artwork is for (e.g., temple ritual, tomb furnishing, political propaganda, civic commemoration).

Content

What an artwork shows (e.g., gods, rulers, myths, battles, daily life, rituals).

Context

The beliefs and conditions around the work (e.g., afterlife ideas, kingship, patronage, empire, gender roles).

Ziggurat

A massive stepped platform in Mesopotamia that elevates a shrine toward the heavens; a raised “high place,” not an Egyptian pyramid.

Bent-axis plan

A plan requiring turns before reaching the sacred focal point, controlling access and what the viewer sees when.

Buttress

A projecting exterior support used on buildings (e.g., the White Temple) that creates strong light-and-shadow patterning.

Cella

The main room of a temple that houses the god’s image; not a congregational gathering space.

Votive figure

A devotional offering statue placed in a temple (often fulfilling a vow) to maintain the donor’s constant presence before a god.

Register

A horizontal band used to organize images or narrative, often stacked with others (common in Near Eastern and Egyptian art).

Hierarchical scale

A convention where important figures are shown larger than less important figures to signal status or power.

Composite view

A convention combining multiple angles in one figure to show “most characteristic” aspects (e.g., profile head/legs with frontal torso).

Stele

An upright stone slab used for public display or commemoration (e.g., law codes, grave markers).

Lamassu

An Assyrian guardian figure (human head, winged bull body) placed at palace gates; often carved with five legs for optimal viewing.

Apotropaic

Intended to ward off evil and protect (especially at thresholds like palace gates).

Apadana

A Persian palace audience hall (e.g., at Persepolis) used for royal receptions and imperial spectacle.

Hypostyle hall

A hall whose roof is supported by a dense “forest” of columns (e.g., Karnak).

Pylon

A monumental gateway with sloping walls and a central doorway, typical of Egyptian temple complexes.

Clerestory

A raised roof section with window openings that brings light and air into an interior space (e.g., Karnak’s hypostyle hall).

Sunken relief

Relief carving where outlines are cut into the surface so forms are recessed; durable and creates strong shadows in bright light.

Ka

In ancient Egypt, the spiritual essence of a person that could inhabit the body or a statue; tomb statues could serve as receptacles for it.

Benben

A sacred stone associated with Heliopolis and solar worship; the pyramid form is sometimes linked to it.

Contrapposto

A stance where weight shifts onto one leg, creating an engaged/relaxed balance through the body (central in Classical Greek art).

Polychromy

The practice of painting sculpture/architecture with color; Greek marble statues and temple sculpture were not meant to be plain white.

Kouros

An Archaic Greek freestanding nude youth statue (often a grave marker), typically frontal with one foot forward and an “Archaic smile.”

Kore

An Archaic Greek freestanding clothed maiden statue, often a votive offering; originally brightly painted.

Peplos

A full-length garment worn by women in ancient Greece, often tied at the waist (associated with the Peplos Kore).

Doric order

A Greek architectural order associated with Doric temples like the Parthenon; defined by its characteristic column and entablature system.

Ionic order

A Greek architectural order used in smaller temples and details; the Parthenon also includes Ionic elements such as an interior frieze.

Amphiprostyle

A temple plan with columns only at the front and back (e.g., the Temple of Athena Nike).

Red-figure technique

Greek vase-painting method where figures remain the red color of the clay while the background is painted dark; allows detail and naturalism.

Wet drapery

A sculptural treatment where carved fabric clings to the body, revealing form beneath (seen in Classical/Hellenistic works like Nike figures).

Tholos tomb

A Mycenaean “beehive” tomb with a long entrance passage (dromos) and a corbelled dome (e.g., Treasury of Atreus).

Corbel vault

Inward-stepping layers of stone that create a vault-like interior (used in Mycenaean tholos tombs); not the same as a true arch.

True arch

An arch built with wedge-shaped stones that distribute weight outward; a key Roman engineering method for large interiors.

Voussoir

A wedge-shaped stone used to form a true arch; its shape helps redirect weight to the sides.

Groin vault

A Roman vault formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults, enabling stronger and more open interior spaces.

Dome

A rotated arch creating a vast interior volume; in Roman architecture (e.g., Pantheon) it can symbolize cosmic and imperial order.

Tesserae

Small pieces of stone, marble, or glass used to create mosaics; allow detailed shading and complex imagery.

Verism

Roman “truth-telling” realism in portraiture (wrinkles, sagging flesh) associated with elite authority and ancestry.

Gravitas

A Roman value communicated through portrait realism: seriousness, dignity, experience, and civic authority.

Cuirass

A military breastplate; on Augustus of Prima Porta it carries symbolic and diplomatic imagery as imperial propaganda.

Velarium

A retractable canvas awning over Roman amphitheaters (e.g., the Colosseum) that shaded spectators.

Impluvium

A basin in the center of a Roman atrium that collects rainwater from the roof opening.

Triclinium

A Roman dining room (or dining arrangement) used for banquets; often richly decorated (e.g., the Pentheus Room).

Continuous narrative

A storytelling method showing multiple moments of a story in a single visual field, often without clear separations between episodes.