Greek Sculpture Midterm Definitions

Anthropomorphic

In human form

Caryatid

Female statue used in place of a column

Centaur

Beast combining human and equine form

Chiasmos

Structural pattern of balanced opposites, especially in a standing nude male sculpture.

Chiton

Long thin garment, usually sleeved.

Contrapposto

A type of weight shift that results in balance across a median axis. Often used for any weight-shift pose.

Cult Statue

Conventional term (not without its detractors) for statue set at the back of the cella of a temple. It is believed to mark or invite the presence of the deity at cult activities taking place before it.

Deadalic

Orientalizing style in art primarily of the seventh century.

Dialectic

In philosophy, use of argumentation to present and clarify an issue. Generally used for process of back-and-forth exchange.

Dorian

Dialect group primarily located in the Peloponnese, Crete and southern Aegan islands, believed to result from a “Dorian Invasion” during the Dark Age.

Doric

One of the three Greek architectural orders. Also used of Dorian dialext.

Hexastyle

Having six columns

Himation

Heavy wrapped mantle

Humanism/humanistic

Belief that mankind is, to some degree, in control of its own circumstances rather than being entirely subject to fate/divine will.

Hymettian marble

Blue-grey stone from Mt. Hymettos, often used for color contrast with white Pentelic marble. Both sources are in Attica.

Intercolumniation

Distance between two adjacent columns.

Kleos

Fame or glory

Kore (plural Korai)

An unwed girl. Used (in modern times) for the Archaic draped female statues used as votives and grave markers.

Kouros (plural Kouroi)

Archaic standing nude male figure.

Meander

Key pattern, very popular in Geometric art, but used throughout Greek art.

Metope

Panel alternating with triglyphs in Doric frieze. Often hold sculptured, occasionally painted, decoration.

Monopteros

Peristyle building with no sekos

Moschophoros

Calf-bearer

Neo-Attic

Originally used of a group of late Hellenistic and Roman sculptors who signed with Athenian ethics. Now extended variously to refer to works of that period that display Classicizing and Archaizing styles, often using fixed figural types.

Omphalos

“Navel.” That at Delphi, used as an attribute of Apollo, was held to be the center of the universe.

Opisthodomus

Back porch of a temple.

Panhellenic

Common to all Greeks

Paryphe

Widened central pleat of a draped garment, often decorated.

Patronymic

In signatures and other inscriptions, term indicating father’s name.

Pediment

Area within the gable at the end of a temple or similar structure.

Peplos

Heavy woolen garment worn by women. Used of two rather different garments, one common in Archaic times, the other in Classical and later eras.

Perceptual

A rendering that focuses on reproducing things as they appear more than as they actually are.

Physiognomics

Study of the relationship between human outward appearance and inner nature.

Plinth

Section of stone cut together with feet of statue to allow setting into a base.

Polis (pluaral poleis)

Greek city-state

Polos

Cylindrical headgear, either tall or flat, worn by goddesses in Near Eastern and Orientalizing Greek art

Polychromy

Use of multiple colors

Pronaos

Front porch of a temple

Strigil

Body-scraper used by athletes after training or competition

Synchronism

Dating method that depends on connecting undated finds from one culture with datable objects from one or more other cultures.

Synoptic or compressed narrative

A scene that implies narrative by depicting together elements from sequentially separate episodes.

Triglyph

Element separating metopes in Doric frieze

Tympanum

The back wall of a pediment

Verism/veristic

Of portraiture, indicates and image that appears to represent its subject with exact verisimilitude, with no suppression of flaws or signs of age. Contrasts with idealism.

Votive

An object dedicated to a deity, in hope of obtaining divine favor.