Art 1 - Art Fundamentals

Art history

This discipline is dedicated to reconstructing the various contexts in which a work of art was produced.

Aesthetics

This term refers to the philosophical inquiry into the nature and expression of beauty.

Art criticism

This term refers to the explanation of current art events to the masses.

Formal analysis

This type of analysis focuses on only the visual qualities of an artwork.

Contextual analysis

In this type of analysis, critics look at the environment surrounding a work of art's creation and consumption.

Chronological

Art historians follow this development pattern.

Close examination of artwork

Art historians begin an analysis with this act.

Photographs

These artworks appear flatter and lacking in subtlety when reproduced in books.

Participant observation

This method of art historical study is influenced by anthropology.

Pliny the Elder

This ancient Roman historian wrote Natural History.

The Lives of the Artists

Giorgio Vasari wrote this important art historical work.

Artistic genius

This concept developed during the Renaissance and is discussed in The Lives of the Artists.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann

This German scholar emphasized the study of stylistic development in relation to historical context.

Feminist historians

This group of historiansrevised art history to include more women.

Visual culture

This broad area of artistic concern includes advertisements, television, etc.

Stone, metal, and fired clay

These three enduring materials reveal much about early civilizations.

Papyrus

This delicate material survived in Egypt due to its hot, dry climate.

Caves and tombs

These two types of sealed areas helped preserve ancient artworks around the world.

Western art was often better preserved.

Art criticism has focused on Western cultures for this reason.

Central and South America

This geographical region features known but unexplored historical sites.

Chauvet Cave

This cave is the site of Old Stone Age cave paintings in southeastern France.

Red ochre, black charcoal, and a bit of yellow

These three colors appear in the Chauvet Cave paintings.

Animals such as horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalos, and mammoths

These beings are the subjects of the Chauvet Cave paintings.

Lascaux and Altamira

These caves are the two most famous cave painting sites.

Human hands

This part of the human body is depicted in Lascaux and Altamira.

Venus of Willendorf

This Old Stone Age statuette exhibits exaggerated female features.

Fertility statue

Historians suspect that this use may be the purpose of Venus of Willendorf.

Rock shelters

These dwellings developed during the Middle Stone Age.

Depiction of the human figure

This detail distinguished rock shelter paintings from older cave paintings.

Megaliths

These large rock constructions were built during the New Stone Age.

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England

This location is the home of Stonehenge.

Sarsen

Stonehenge uses this form of sandstone.

Tigris and Euphrates

These two rivers border Mesopotamia.

Ziggurats

Sumerians built these stepped pyramids for religious purposes.

King of Ur

This neo-Sumerian ruler reasserted control of Sumer after the Guti conquest.

Shamash

This sun-god appears upon the stone stele of the Code of Hammurabi.

Relief carvings depicting battles, sieges, hunts, and other important events

These carvings are the most notable Assyrian artworks from 900 to 600 B.C.E.

Bel

The Ishtar Gate is dedicated to this Babylonian deity.

Persepolis

Location of Persian palace constructed of stone, brick, and wood in an Egyptian architectural style

Alexander the Great

This man conquered Egypt in 332 B.C.E.

Queen Nefertiti

This Egyptian queen's portrait bust is among Ancient Egypt's most recognizable works.

Hierarchical scale

This manner of depicting figures in an artworkportrays those with greater social status in a larger scale.

Palette of King Narmer

This Egyptian artifact used for mixing cosmetics displays hierarchical scale.

Fractional representation

This Egyptian painting method depicts each part of the body as clearly as possible.

Elaborate burials

This Egyptian custompreserved rich stores of objects.

Tutankhamen

This Egyptian boy king's tomb contained a wealth of artifacts.

Gold, blue glass, and semi-precious stones

These three materials appear on Tutankhamen's burial mask.

Nubia

This kingdom south of Egypt once ruled its northern neighbor.

Simplified, geometric nude females

The Cycladic culture is famous for these sculptures.

Knossos on Crete

The Minoan culture was centered on this city.

Minotaur

This half-man, half-bull creature was rumored to live in a Minoan maze.

Mycenaean culture

This culture arose and replaced the Minoans.

Gold

The best-known Mycenaean artifacts are made from this metal.

Limestone and marble

The Greeks used these two types of stone to create freestanding sculptures.

Doric and Ionic

These two architectural styles were used in building Greek temples between 660 and 474 B.C.E.

Corinthian style vases

Figures are portrayed against a floral background in this style of vase.

Large, linear black figures

These types of figures appeared on Athenian style vases.

Roman replicas of Greek art

Information about Doric columns has survived in this manner.

Contrapposto

This manner of posing standing figures by shifting their weight onto one leg was developed by the Greeks.

Persians

This culture was responsible for destroying the Parthenon.

Peloponnesian War

This war signaled the beginning of the Late Classical Period and the decline of architecture.

Venus de Milo and the Laocoön Group

These two statues are notable artworks of the Hellenistic Period.

Brick and wood

Etruscan structures were built from these two materials.

Ceramic models

Information about Etruscan buildings has survived in this manner.

Clay and bronze

Most surviving Etruscan art is constructed from these two media.

Concrete

This Roman discovery allowed the construction of huge domed buildings.

Curved arch

This development allowed the Romans to construct bridges and aqueducts.

The Pantheon and the Colosseum

These two buildings, still standing in Rome, represent the genius of Roman engineering.

Relief sculptures portraying Roman emperors or military victories

These artworks often sit atop Roman triumphal arches.

Carrying small carved images of the deceased

This funereal ritual became common in the Roman Republic.

Mosaics made from small ceramic tiles.

Byzantine artists are best known for these artworks

Ravenna

This Italian city is famous for its Byzantine mosaics.

Latin

This language was the international language in the medieval period.

Book of Kells and the Coronation Gospels

These two books are notable examples of medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Germanic peoples

These early medieval people were famous for their metalwork

Vikings

This medieval culture was famous for itsimmense wooden ships.

Saint-Sernin

This famous Romanesque church is in Toulouse, France.

Vault

This arch-shaped structure can be used as a ceiling or to support a roof.

Ribbed vaults

This term refers to a framework of thin stone arches or ribs beneath intersections of vaulted portions of Gothic ceilings.

Flying buttresses

This term refers to arches or bracing materials placed on the outsides of buildings.

Chartres Cathedral

This French Gothic cathedral is famous for its large stained-glass windows and flying buttresses.

Giotto di Bondone

This Florentine fresco painter is famous as a transitional artist between the Gothic and Renaissance.

Paper money

This innovation allowed the Medici family to acquire a vast fortune.

Intellectual figures of high status

Artists played this role during the Renaissance.

Baptistery

A competition was held in Florence to design the doors for this building.

Twenty-five years

The "Gates of Paradise" required this number of years for for Lorenzo Ghiberti to complete them.

Double-shelled dome

This type of structure was Filippo Brunelleschi's winning design for the dome of the cathedral in Florence.

Linear and aerial

These two types of perspective were used by Masaccio in frescoes.

A bronze statue of David

This statue is Donatello's most well-known work.

The Birth of Venus

This work by Botticelliestablished a long-lasting image of female beauty.

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo

These two men inspired the term "Renaissance Man."

Locks which control water flow through canals

These prototypes designed by da Vinci are still used today.

The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa

These two paintings of da Vinci's have become well known in popular culture.

Sfumato

This term refers to the use of mellowed colors and blurred outlines allowing colors to blend subtly in paintings.

David

Michelangelo created this sculpture from an immense piece of cracked marble.

Pope Julius II

This religious leader commissioned Michelangelo to design first his tomb and then the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.

Raphael Sanzio

This High Renaissance artist painted frescoes, including the School of Athens, and influential images of the Madonna.

Giorgione

This Venetian painter is credited with making landscapes viable subject matter for paintings.

Titian Vecelli

This Venetian portraitist, known as an influential colorist, used columns or drapes as backgrounds for portraits.

Mannerism

This painting style featured warped perspective and acidic colors.