AP Art History Rome, Early Christian, and Byzantine

Vocab Term + definition + 2 examples

Aisles

a passage between rows of seats. Santa Sabina and Basilica Ulpia

Ambulatory

a place for walking. San Vitale

Apse

a semicircular recess in a church. Hagia Sofia and San Vitale

Basilica/Longitudinal Plan

a rectangle with a central nave, side aisles, and an apse at one or both ends. Basilica of Ulpia and Santa Sabina

Catacombs

A Christian burial place underground. Catacomb of Priscilla

Central Plan

the building’s parts radiate symmetrically from a central point. Hagia Sofia, San Vitale, Pantheon

Crossing/Cruciform

in the form of a cross. Hagia Sofia and San Vitale

Eucharist (communion)

Transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Justinian Mosaic in San Vitale and Fresco of the Good Shepard

Fresco secco

pigments applied to dry plaster.

Buon fresco

pigments applied on wet plaster. 4th Style Wall Paintings on the House of the Vettii and the Orant painting on the Catacomb of Priscilla

Head cluster

many heads grouped together. Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George and Column of Trajan

Icon/Iconography

a sacred image for devotion. Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George (Theotokos)

Illuminated manuscript

a book with illustrations. Vienna Genesis

Lunette

crescent-shaped space filled with paintings. Orant Fresco at Catacomb of Priscilla and Justinian and Theodora mosaic plans at San Vitale

mosaic

an image made of small pieces of tessarae. Justinian and Theodora mosaic panels and Hagia Sofia

pendentives

a triangular, curved structure that allows a dome to sit on a polygonal base. Hagia Sofia

Stylization

a flat, 2D representation meant to symbolize reality transcending a natural world. Virgin and Child between Saints Theodore and George and Vienna Genesis