Module 1 - Intro to Western Art History

Pediment

In architecture, the triangular component that sits atop a columned porch, doorway, or window

Register

A horizontal section of a work, usually clearly defined band or line

Icon

A person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or worthy of veneration

Frieze

Any sculpture or painting in a long, horizontal format

Foreshortening

In two-dimensional artworks, the illusion of a form receding into space

High relief

Raised forms that project far from a flat background

Sculpture in the round

Freestanding three-dimensional sculpture that can be viewed from every angle, for example, by walking around it

Fauces

Narrow entry hall

Kouros

A freestanding Archaic Greek sculpture of a naked young man

Hand stencil

An image created by placing a hand on the wall of a rock shelter or other surface and blowing paint over it to create a silhouetted image of the hand

Triglyphs

A block with three vertical bands separated by v-shaped groves

Metope

A plain or decorated slab on a Doric frieze between triglyphs

Acanthus

A plant common in the Mediterranean, decorated Corinthian columns

Contrapposto

A posture of the human body that shifts most weight onto one leg, suggesting ease and potential for movement

Volute

A decorative element in the form of a coiled scroll

Acropolis

Used as religious centers and places of worship, forts, and places in which high-status resided

Stele

A carved stone slab that is placed upright and often features commemorative imagery and/or inscriptions

Hierarchical scale

The use of size to denote the relative importance of subjects in an artwork

Etruria

An ancient region in western Italy, was the center for the Etruscan civilization

Tessera

A small block of tile, glass, or stone used to make mosaic

Mosaic

A picture or pattern made form the arrangement of small colored pieces of hard material, such as stone, tile, or glass

Impluvium

A sunken area designed to catch rainwater from a space in the roof

Oculus

A round, eye-like opening in a ceiling or roof

The Architectural style, second style wall paintings

Highly realistic, life-like scenes

The Ornate Stye, third style

Floral, architectural, and small scenes with geometry and Egyptian imagery

Buon fresco (true fresco)

A wall or ceiling painting on wet plaster; wet pigment merges with the placster and becomes an integral part of the wall

Book of Hours

A Christian devotional book corresponding to the liturgical hours honoring the Virgin Mary

Tympanum

A lunette-shaped space above a portal; often filled with relief sculpture

Pieta

An artwork depicting the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of her son, Jesus Christ

Ambulatory

A place for walking, especially an aisles around a sacred part of a religious space

Verism

Preferring realism, especially in portraiture, to the heroic or ideal

Basilica

A longitudinal building with multiple aisles and an apse, typically located at the east end

Post-and-lintel

a form of construction in which two upright posts support a horizontal beam (lintel)

Cubiculum

Small rooms in a Roman house that could be used for different purposes, including bedrooms

Apse

A recess at the end of an interior space, often semicircular, and typically reserved for someone or something important, like an altar in a church

Squinch mosaic

Squinch (support in the corners of a room used to carry a dome) and mosaic

Mandorla

A halo or frame that surrounds the entire body

Cloisonne

A decorative enamelwork technique in which cut gemstones, glass, or colored enamel pastes are separated into compartmented designs by flattened strips of wire

Illumination

Decorative designs, handwritten on a page or document

Recto

The right-hand or front side of a folio (one leaf of a book)

Carpet page

a decorative page resembling a textile; often used to introduce a gospel in early medieval manuscripts

Parchment

A writing surface prepared from the skin of certain animals that has been treated, stretched, and polished

Reliquary

A container for relics, which is often elaborately decorated

Tell Asmar “hoard”

Remarkable treasure trove of votive statues

Restitution

A restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner

Apollonian

Based off Apollo, beardless and youthful

Neolithic

A period of human history in which polished stone implements prevailed

Narthex

The entrance hall or vestibule of a church

Relic

The bodily remains of saints or items believed to have come into physical contact with the divine

Standard of Ur

Hollow woodem trapezoidal box, decorated on four sides with inlaid mosaic scenes made from shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli. Set in bitumen.

Uses hierarchical scale of the ruler placed above everyone, on uppermost register showing a banquet scene.

Lower and middle registers show peasants or lower class.

Stele of Naram-Sin

No horizontal break

Entire victory of Naram-Sin on a single scene

He is semi-nude, muscular, beaded, and larger than all the other figures

He stands victorious holding a bow and arrows and facing a mountain

His soldiers stand victorious to the left

The opposition stand to the right and beg for mercy

Double-horned crown to symbolises his divine status

Low relief

Made of pink limestone

Confident posture

Woman of Willendorf

Focus on female anatomy

5 inches high

substantial belly and deep pronounced navel

arms wrap around her full breasts

no facial features

Highly decorated head, either a knitted cap or braided hair

Tiny feet

Carved

Limestone

Colored red with ocher pigment

Alexander Mosaic

Large number of tesserae of stone or class

Foreshortening of the horse

Chaotic background of felled men

Alexander the Great with shining armer and spering a victum

Gazes at the persian king in retreat and pleading for his people

Hall of Bulls

Depiction of wild cattle

painterly techniques using the horizantal bands on the wall as the ground

Shows movement

Used lines and solid blocks of color to show depth and shadow

Used manganese with yellow and red ocher pigments\

Flickering lights of torches would have shown movement in the animals

Khludov Psalter Page

Part of a codex

Illustration from Christ’s Crucifixion showing soliers mocking christ with a vinegar-soaked sponge

Below, two iconoclasts apply vinegar to a sacred icon trying to erase Christ’s depiction

Augustus as Imperator

Marble statue

May be copy of bronze orginal

Contrapposto stance and youthful featers

Classical idealogy

Reconizable hair style and facial features

Originally painted

Raised arm addressing an audience

Breastplate is coverd in scenes of relief

Shows Roman soldier recieving a Roman standard

Tellus holding a cornucopia with abundant fruit

Dieties Apollos and Diana

Cupid at his feet