Vocab: Late Antique Art

Ambulatory

A passageway around the apse or altar of a church.

Apse

the endpoint of a church where the altar is

Atrium

a courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church

Axial plan (Basilican plan, Longitudinal plan)

a church with a long nave whose focus is the apse, so-called because it is designed along an axis

Basilica

an axially planed church with a long nave, side aisles, and apse for the altar

Catacomb

underground burial place

Central plan

a church having a circular plan with the altar in the middle

Clerestory

the third, or window, story of a church

Coffer

in architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling

Cubicula

small underground rooms in catacombs serving as mortuary chapels

gospels

Four books in the New Testament that tell the story of Christ's life and teachings

loculi

openings in the walls of catacombs to receive the dead

lunette

a crescent-shaped space, sometimes over a doorway, that contains sculpture or painting

Narthex

the closest part of the atrium to the basilica, it serves as vestibule, or lobby, of a church

nave

main aisles of a church

orant figure

a figure with its hands raised in prayer

spolia

in art history, the reuse of architectural or sculptural pieces in buildings generally different from their original contexts

transept

an aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave where the clergy originally stood