Ancient Greece Art Key Term

MoU Art Survey I

abacus

The flat slab that forms the topmost unit of a Doric column and on which the architrave rests. The uppermost portion of the capital of a column.

acanthus

A Mediterranean plant with prickly leaves, supposedly the source of foliage-like ornamentation on Corinthian columns.

Acropolis

Greek, "high city." In ancient Greece, usually the site of the city's most important temple(s).

agora

The open space in an ancient Greek town used as a marketplace or for general meetings.

aisle

The portion of a basilica flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers.

Amazonomachy

In Greek mythology, the legendary battle between the Greeks and Amazons.

amphiprostyle

The style of Greek building in which the colonnade was placed across both the front and back, but not along the sides.

amphora

An ancient Greek two-handled vessel for storing grain, honey, oil, or wine.

arch

A curved structural member that spans an opening and is generally composed of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit the downward pressure laterally.

Archaic smile

A stylized expression used in sculpture from 600 to 480 BCE to suggest a sense of lifelikeness in the subject.

architrave

The lowest unit of an entablature, resting directly on the capital of a column.

apse

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

balustrade

A series of balusters, or upright pillars, supporting a rail (as along the edge of a balcony or bridge).

base

The bottom most part of a column.

bilingual vases

Experimental Greek vases produced for a short time in the late sixth century BCE; one side featured black-figure decoration, the other red-figure.

black-figure painting

Describing a style of Greek pottery painting of the sixth century B.C., in which the decoration is black on a red background.

caduceus

In ancient Greek mythology, a magical rod entwined with serpents carried by Hermes (Roman, Mercury), the messenger of the gods.

canon

A rule, for example, of proportion. The ancient Greeks considered beauty to be a matter of 'correct' proportion and sought a canon of proportion, for the human figure and for buildings.

capital

The uppermost member of a column, serving as a transition from the shaft to the lintel.

caryatids

A supporting column in post-and-lintel construction carved to represent a human or animal figure. A female figure that functions as a supporting column.

cella

The main inner room of a temple, often containing the cult image of the deity.

centaur

In ancient Greek mythology, a fantastical creature, with the front or top half of a human and the back or bottom half of a horse.

centauromachy

In ancient Greek mythology, the battle between the Greeks and centaurs.

cire perdue

See lost-wax process.

colonnade

A series of columns set at regular intervals, usually supporting arches or an entablature.

column

A vertical, weight-carrying architectural member, circular in cross-section and consisting of a base (sometimes omitted), a shaft, and a capital.

columns in antis

The upright posts located between two pillars or piers on either side of a doorway or entrance to a Greek temple.

contrapposto

The disposition of the human figure in which one part is turned in opposition to another part, creating a counter positioning of the body about its central axis.

Corinthian capital

A more ornate form than Doric or Ionic; it consists of a double row of acanthus leaves from which tendrils and flowers grow, wrapped around a bell-shaped echinus.

cornice

The projecting horizontal unit, usually molded, that surmounts an arch or wall; the topmost member of a Classical entablature.

Daedalic

A style of sculpture during the Greek Orientalizing period noted for its use of patterns to create texture, as well as its reliance on geometric shapes and stiff, rigid bodily postures.

demos

The Greek word meaning 'the people,' from which the word democracy is derived.

Doric

One of the two systems (or orders) evolved for articulating the three units of the elevation of an ancient Greek temple: the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature). The Doric order is characterized by, among other features, capitals with funnel-shaped echinuses, columns without bases, and a frieze of triglyphs and metopes.

drum

(a) one of the cylindrical blocks of stone from which the shaft of a column is made; (b) the circular or polygonal wall of a building surmounted by a dome or cupola.

echinus

In the Doric Order, the rounded molding between the necking and the abacus.

encaustic

A painting technique in which pigment is mixed with a binder of hot wax and fixed by heat after application.

entablature

The lintel area of a temple portico. The portion of a Classical architectural Order above the capital of a column.

entasis

The slight bulging of a Doric column, which is at its greatest about one third of the distance from the base.

flutes, fluting

A series of vertical grooves used to decorate the shafts of columns in Classical architecture.

foreshortening

The use of perspective to represent a single object extending back in space at an angle to the picture plane.

frieze

(a) the central section of the entablature in the Classical Orders; (b) any horizontal decorative band.

Gaul

An ancient person from the region that roughly corresponds to modern France and Belgium.

geometric

(a) based on mathematical shapes such as the circle, square, or rectangle; (b) a style of Greek pottery made between c. 900 and 700 B.C., characterized by geometric decoration.

Geometric period

An era of abstract and stylized motifs in ancient Greek vase painting and sculpture. The period was centered in Athens and flourished from 900 to 700 BCE.

gigantomachy

The battle fought between the Titans and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. In ancient Greek mythology, the battle between gods and giants.

Hellenistic

The term given to the culture that developed after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and lasted almost three centuries, until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 31 BCE.

Humanism

An ideological or philosophical approach that stresses the importance of the human being, rather than divine or celestial forces, and the human being's potential for achievement or greatness in all things.

hydria

An ancient Greek or Roman water jar.

Ionic

One of the two systems (or orders) evolved for articulating the three units of the elevation of a Greek temple: the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature). The Ionic order is characterized by, among other features, volutes, capitals, columns with bases, and an uninterrupted frieze.

kore

A sculpture of a young woman from pre-Classical Greece. Greek word for 'young woman'; an Archaic Greek statue of a standing female, usually clothed.

kouros

Greek word for 'young man'; an Archaic Greek statue of a standing nude youth.

krater

A wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water in ancient Greece.

kylix

An ancient Greek drinking cup with a wide, shallow bowl.

Lekythos (pl. lekythoi)

An ancient Greek vessel with a long, narrow neck, used primarily for pouring oil. A flask containing perfumed oil; lekythoi were often placed in Greek graves as offerings to the deceased.

libation

The act of pouring a liquid or liquor, usually wine, either on the ground or on a victim in sacrifice, in honor of some deity.

lost-wax bronze casting (cire-perdue)

A bronze casting method in which a figure is modeled in wax and covered with clay; the whole is fired, melting away the wax and hardening the clay, which then becomes a mold for molten metal.

meander pattern

A fret or key pattern originating in the Greek Geometric period.

metope

The square area, often decorated with relief sculpture, between the triglyphs of a Doric frieze.

naos

The central room in the god's temple, where a cult statue of the god is erected.

Order

One of the architectural systems (Corinthian, Ionic, Doric) used by the Greeks and Romans to decorate and define the post-and-lintel system of construction.

Orientalizing

The early phase of Archaic Greek art, so named because of the adoption of forms and motifs from the ancient Near East and Egypt.

orthogonal

In linear perspective drawing, the diagonal line pointing to the vanishing point; sometimes referred to as vanishing or convergence line.

pathos

That quality or property of anything that touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; a contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; a pathetic quality.

patrician

An aristocrat or other elite member of society; it may also be used as an adjective.

pediment

(a) in Classical architecture, the triangular section at the end of a gable roof, often decorated with sculpture; (b) a triangular feature placed as a decoration over doors and windows.

peplos

An Ancient Greek garment, worn by women, made of a tubular piece of cloth that is folded back upon itself halfway down, until the top of the tube is worn around the waist, and the bottom covers the legs down to the ankles; the open top is then worn over the shoulders, and draped, in folds, down to the waist.

peripteral

Surrounded by a row of columns or peristyle.

peristyle

In ancient Greek architecture, a colonnade all around the cella and its porch(es). A peripteral colonnade consists of a single row of columns on all sides; a dipteral colonnade has a double row all around.

polis (pl. poleis)

An independent city-state in ancient Greece.

polychromy

The art or practice of combining different colors, especially brilliant ones, in an artistic way.

polytheistic

A religious system whose members worship many deities.

portico

(a) a colonnade; (b) a porch with a roof supported by columns, usually at the entrance to a building.

prostyle

A style of ancient Greek temple in which the columns are only in front of the cella and not on the sides or back.

red-figure painting

A style of painted pot from the Archaic Period (600-480 BCE). Describing a style of Greek pottery painting of the sixth or fifth century B.C., in which the decoration is red on a black background. In later Greek pottery, the silhouetting of red figures against a black background, with painted linear details; the reverse of black-figure painting.

scroll

(a) a length of writing material, such as papyrus or parchment, rolled up into a cylinder; (b) a curved molding resembling a scroll (e.g., the volute of an Ionic or Corinthian capital).

shaft

The vertical, cylindrical part of a column that supports the entablature. The tall, cylindrical part of a column between the capital and the base.

slip

In ceramics, a mixture of clay and water used (a) as a decorative finish or (b) to attach different parts of an object (e.g., handles to the body of a vessel).

stele

A tall, slender stone monument, often with writing carved into its surface.

stylobate

The top step of a stereobate, forming a foundation for a column, peristyle, temple, or other structure.

symmetria

Greek, "commensurability of parts." Polykleitos's treatise on his canon of proportions incorporated the principle of symmetria.

tesserae

A small piece of colored glass, marble, or stone used in a mosaic. Greek, "cubes." Tiny stones or pieces of glass cut to the desired shape and size to form a mosaic.

Theodoros Of Phokaia

Architect attributed with the design of the Tholos in Delphi, Greece, ca. 375 BCE.

torque

The neck band worn by Gauls.

treasury

In ancient Greece, a small building set up for the safe storage of votive offerings.

triglyph

In a Doric frieze, the rectangular area between the metopes, decorated with three vertical grooves (glyphs).

votive

A small religious offering deposited at a temple without the purpose of display or retrieval.

volute

In the Ionic order, the spiral scroll motif decorating the capital. A spiral, scroll-like form characteristic of the ancient Greek Ionic and the Roman Composite capital.

white-ground painting

Describing a style of Greek pottery painting of the fifth century B.C., in which the decoration is usually black on a white background. An ancient Greek vase painting technique in which the pot was first covered with a slip of very fine white clay, over which black glaze was used to outline figures, and diluted brown, purple, red, and white were used to color them.