Art History Vocab

Campanilismo

“my bell tower is bigger than your bell tower” civic pride, competition between the city states

Fresco

Painting on wet plaster with watercolor; no final coat on the painting, but the pigments get cemented into the plaster once it dries

Tempera on panel

Painting on wooden material that is prepped with a sheet and watered-down gesso. The paint used was pigment and egg yolk

Romanesque -

(flourishing roughly from 1000 to 1150 CE) combine heavy, monumental stone construction in architecture with symbolic, expressive two-dimensional forms in paintings and art.

Architecture

• Semicircular Arches: Borrowed from ancient Rome, round arches define doorways, windows, and arcades.

• Massive Walls & Heavy Masonry: Thick, double-shell walls and sturdy piers support heavy stone roofs (barrel and groin vaults) instead of flammable wood.

• Small Windows: Thick walls left little room for glass, resulting in dim, fortress-like interiors that felt safe and solid.

• Latin Cross Floor Plans: Designed for large crowds and traveling pilgrims, featuring expanded transepts, ambulatories, and radiating chapels.

• Towers: Large crossing towers and twin western facade towers dominated the exterior.

Paintings and Visual Art

• Didactic Purpose: Frescoes on church walls and illuminated manuscripts served as "bibles for the illiterate," teaching Christian faith and celestial power.

• Byzantine Influence & Iconography: Standard subjects included Christ in Majesty (Pantocrator), the Last Judgement, and scenes from the life of Christ.

• Flat, Two-Dimensional Style: Lacked realistic perspective; figures were stylized, abstracted, and elongated to fit tightly into architectural spaces like apses and barrel vaults.

• Bold Primary Colors: Utilized striking, vivid primary pigments with heavy dark outlines to make figures stand out on stone walls.

• Expressive Gestures: Focus remained on symbolic and emotional impact rather than natural human anatomy

Gothic 1140-1400s ish

A medieval art style bridging Romanesque and Renaissance art between 12th - 14th centuries. Signature features include pointed arches, graceful, flowing, elongated human forms and drapery, and the S-curve pose. Detached from earthly reality (gold leaf backgrounds)

Early Renaissance 1400s- 1495

A cultural and historical movement in Europe, reviving classical Greek and Roman art and sparking advances in science, literature, and humanism. Art focuses on naturalism (dynamic faces/emotions, bodies are proportional and in a “natural” position, depth, weight).

• Core Focus: Experimenting with linear perspective, mathematical proportion, and empirical realism to make flat surfaces look three-dimensional. [1, 2]

• Paintings:

  • Linear perspective creates a clear sense of deep, geometric space.

  • Figures look grounded and natural, though sometimes stiff or individually isolated.

  • Key artists include Masaccio and Botticelli. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

• Architecture:

  • Clean, rational, and flat classical facades.

  • Revival of Roman columns, arches, and proportion.

  • Pioneered by Brunelleschi (e.g., Florence Cathedral Dome). [1, 2]

• Sculpture:

  • Reintroduction of freestanding, nude classical sculptures with weight distribution (contrapposto).

  • Pioneered by Donatello (e.g., his early bronze David).

Baptism of Christ by Verrocchio & da Vinci is a transition between early and high Ren.

High Renaissance - 1490s-1520s

A cultural and historical movement in Europe across the 14th - 17th century, reviving classical Greek and Roman art and sparking advances in science, literature, and humanism. Art focuses on naturalism (dynamic faces/emotions, bodies are proportional and in a “natural” position, depth, weight).

• Core Focus: Achieving absolute harmony, balance, and ideal beauty, often prioritizing grand artistic vision over strict, raw realism. [1, 2]

• Paintings:

  • Masterful use of sfumato (blending colors and tones to eliminate harsh outlines) and chiaroscuro (strong contrast between light and dark).

  • Use of stable, pyramidal or triangular compositions (grouping figures in balanced triangles).

  • Key masters include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. [1, 2, 3]

• Architecture:

  • Monumental scale, centralized plans (like Greek crosses/circles), and dramatic interplay of light and shadow.

  • Pioneered by Bramante and later Michelangelo (e.g., original plans for St. Peter’s Basilica). [1, 2]

• Sculpture:

  • Dynamic, twisting, and complex poses that show intense anatomical perfection and psychological weight.

  • Mastered by Michelangelo (e.g., his marble David and Pietà)

Porphyry stone

The purple stone that was often used as “spoglia” because it was quarried out during Imperial Roman times. It was usually a sign that they reused an older Greek structure since no new pieces of this stone could be quarried during the Renaissance.

Lost-Wax Method

A metal (bronze) casting technique where the metal is poured into a mold created from a wax model. 1400s used the direct method.

spoglia

Spoils of ancient Rome, shows that they reused older Roman Empire materials because they thought it was cool and liked to repurpose stuff; does not mean it is stolen

Relief sculpture

Three-dimensional artwork in which the sculpted forms remain attached to a flat background plane

Rilievo Schiacciato

flattened perspective in relief sculpture, low relief = projects only slightly (farther away), high relief = projects more dramatically (closer to viewer).

Freestanding/in the round sculpture

Sculpture that is fully carved out, not still within the stone. A free-standing sculpture is a fully three-dimensional artwork that stands on its own and is designed to be viewed from all sides.

Classicism

An artistic philosophy inspired by traditional styles of ancient Rome and Greece, prioritizing Symmetry, Harmony, Balance, and Proportion.

Composition

Arrangement and organization of a work of art - line, shape, color, texture, space

Pilaster

Column-like, but it is built into the wall itself, giving the appearance of a flat column. Normally it is not structurally significant and is instead decorative.

Engaged

Attached directly or embedded into the wall, structurally relevant. Not fully in the round.

Medium

What is the work made out of? Fresco, tempera on panel, marble, bronze, etc…

Subject

What the painting/sculpture depicts (person, story, etc)

Stylized

Looking idealistic, not true to natural form

Naturalism

Inspired by the natural world

Countrapostal Stance/Contraposso

Hip pop pose where a figure has most of its weight on one foot, the david is doing this and it's a very human and natural pose

Byzantine

Eastern church, islamic influences, can be combined with romanesc because it was apart of roman empire and fell later

Stigmata

The signs of Jesus’ crucifixion (nail holes on hands/feet, most commonly seen on St. Francis)

Porphyry (purple stone)

Type of stone that the Roman Emperors loved (imperial purple), so they literally quarried all of it from the Nile River. Having it in later centuries can show wealth, elitism, and a connection/honoring old Roman times.

Minaret (Islamic tall slender tower)

Tower calling people to pray

Capital

Top fancy part of a column

Mosaic

Made up of tiny pieces of glass called tesserae. Gold leaf encased in glass, or colored glass, placed into plaster to create an image. Reflected light well- dancing/sparkling

Sarcophagi

Roman tombs

Chiaroscuro

Name of the technique of using light/darkness and highlights/shadows to create depth and dimensionality