Early Europe and Colonial America I

Ambulatory

a covered walkway, outdoors (as in a church cloister) or indoors; especially the passageway around the apse and the choir of a church. In Buddhist architecture, the passageway leading around the stupa in a chaitya hall.

Apse

a recess, usually semicircular, in the wall of a Roman basilica or at the east end of a church.

Archivolt

the continuous molding framing an arch. In Romanesque or Gothic architecture, one of the series of concentric bands framing the tympanum.

Atrium

the court of a Roman house that is partly open to the sky. Also the open, colonnaded court in front of and attached to a Christian basilica.

Baptistery

In Christian architecture, the building used for baptism, usually situated next to a church

Basilica

In Roman architecture, this is a civic building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan with an entrance usually on a long side. In Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling this, usually entered from one end and with an apse at the other.

Buttress

an exterior masonry structure that opposes the lateral thrust of an arch or a vault. A pier _____ is a solid mass of masonry; a flying _____ consists typically of an inclined member carried on an arch or a series of arches and a solid _____ to which it transmits lateral thrust.

Chevet

The east, or apsidal, end of a Gothic church, including choir, ambulatory, and radiating chapels is known as the chevet.

Chiaroscuro

In drawing or painting, the treatment and use of light and dark, especially the gradations of light that produce the effect of modeling

Choir

the space reserved for the clergy and singers in the church, usually east of the transept but, in some instances, extending into the nave.

Codex (pl. codices)

separate pages of vellum or parchment bound together at one side; the predecessor of the modern book. The _____ superseded the rotulus. In Mesoamerica, a painted and inscribed book on long sheets of bark paper or deerskin coated with fine white plaster and folded into accordion

Crossing

The space in a cruciform church formed by the intersection of the nave and the transept

Crossing Square

The area in a church formed by the intersection (crossing) of a nave and a transept of equal width, often used as a standard module of interior proportion

Crossing Tower

The tower over the crossing of a church

Cruciform

refers to cross shaped building plans.

Diptych

a two-paneled painting or altarpiece; also, an ancient Roman, Early Christian, or Byzantine hinged writing tablet, often of ivory and carved on the external sides.

Fresco

a painting on lime plaster, either dry (dry ____ or ____secco) or wet (true or buon ____). In the latter method, the pigments are mixed with water and become chemically bound to the freshly laid lime plaster.

Icon

a portrait or image; especially in Byzantine art, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are objects of veneration. In the visual arts, a painting, a piece of sculpture, or even a building regarded as an object of veneration.

Iconoclasm

the destruction of images. In Byzantium, the period from 726 to 843 when there was an imperial ban on images. The destroyers of images were known as iconoclasts. Those who opposed such a ban were known as iconophiles or iconodules.

Illuminated Manuscript

luxurious handmade books with painted illustrations and decorations.

Lunette

a semicircular area (with the flat side down) in a wall over a door, niche, or window; also, a painting or relief with a semicircular frame.

Mandorla

almond-shaped nimbus surrounding the figure of Christ or other sacred figure.

Mihrab

a semicircular niche set into the qibla wall of a mosque.

Minaret

a distinctive feature of mosque architecture, a tower from which the faithful are called to worship.

Minbar

In a mosque, the pulpit on which the imam stands

Mosque

the Islamic building for collective worship. It comes from the Arabic word masjid, meaning a “place for bowing down.”

Pointed arch

a narrow arch of pointed profile, in contrast to a semicircular arch.

Qibla

indicates the direction (toward Mecca) Muslims face when praying.

Pantocrator

an image of Christ as ruler and judge of heaven and earth.

Pendentive

a concave, triangular section of a hemisphere, four of which provide the transition from a square area to the circular base of a covering dome. Although pendentives appear to be hanging (pendant) from the dome, they in fact support it.

Narthex

the porch or vestibule of a church, generally colonnaded or arcaded and preceding the nave.

Nave

the central area of an ancient Roman basilica or of a church, demarcated from aisles by piers or columns.

Nimbus

a halo or aureole appearing around the head of a holy figure to signify divinity.

Orant

In Early Christian art, an _____ figure was a person depicted with both arms raised in the ancient gesture of prayer.

Parchment

lambskin prepared as a surface for painting or writing.

Relics

The body parts, clothing, or objects associated with a holy figure, such as the Buddha or Christ or a Christian saint

Squinch

an architectural device used as a transition from a square to a polygonal or circular base for a dome. It may be composed of lintels, corbels, or arches.

Tracery

the ornamental stonework for holding stained glass in place, characteristic of Gothic cathedrals. In plate tracery, the glass fills only the “punched holes” in the heavy ornamental stonework. In bar tracery, the stained-glass windows fill almost the entire opening, and the stonework is unobtrusive.

Transept

a part of a church with an axis that crosses the nave at a right angle.

Vellum

calfskin prepared as a surface for writing or painting.

Woodcut

a wooden block on the surface of which those parts not intended to print are cut away to a slight depth, leaving the design raised; also, the printed impression made with such a block.