ARTH 205 Final Exam Vocab- Proff. Maddox- 2025

Clerestory

In a basilica, the topmost zone of a wall with windows, extending above the aisle roofs. Provides direct light into the nave.

Narrative image

A picture that recounts an event drawn from a story, either factual or fictional.

Iconic image

A picture that expresses or embodies an intangible concept or idea.

Synagogue

Can be any large room where the Torah scrolls are kept and read.

Mosque

A building used for communal Islamic worship.

Cathedral

The principal Christian church in a diocese, the bishop's administrative center and housing his throne.

Transept

The arm of a cruciform church perpendicular to the nave. The point where the nave and transept intersect is called the crossing.

Apse

A large semicircle or polygonal recess on an end wall of a building. In a Christian church, it often contains the altar.

Narthex

The vestibule or entrance porch of a church.

Nave

The central space of a church, two or three stories high and usually flanked by aisles.

Ambulatory

The passage around the apse in a church, especially a basilica, or around the central space in a central-plan building.

Iconography

Identifying and studying the subject matter and conventional symbols in works of art.

Typology

A way of interpreting the Bible in such a way that people and events in the Old Testament are interpreted as prefigurations of persons and events in the New Testament.

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a being who has attained enlightenment but chooses to remain in this world in order to help others advance spiritually.

Atman

The spiritual life principle of the universe, especially when regarded as inherent in the real self of the individual.

Brahman

A member of the highest Hindu caste, that of the priesthood.

Maya

Illusion.

Karma

The sum of one's deeds (thoughts and actions).

Dharma

(In Indian religion) the eternal and inherent nature of reality, regarded in Hinduism as a cosmic law underlying right behavior and social order.

Samsara

The cycle of death and rebirth to which life in the material world is bound.

Nirvana

The extinction of samsara for oneself.

Moksha

"Escape from samsara".

Bhakti

Devotional worship directed to one supreme deity.

Garbhagriha

From the Sanskrit word meaning 'womb chamber', a small room or shrine in a Hindu temple containing its principal holy image.

Darshan

Form of worship, generally performed to obtain a deity's favor in the hopes that this favor will lead to liberation.

Puja

Form of worship, generally performed to obtain a deity's favor in the hopes that this favor will lead to liberation from samsara.

Stupa

In Buddhist architecture, a bell-shaped or dome-like religious monument, made of piled earth, brick, or stone, and containing sacred relics.

Axis mundi

A concept of an axis of the world, which marks sacred sites and denotes a link between the human and celestial realms.

Lakshana

The 32 marks of the historical Buddha. The Buddhas golden body, his long arms, the wheel impressed on his palms and the soles of his feel, the urna between his eyes, and the ushnisha on his head

Mudra

A symbolic hand gesture in Buddhist art, that demonstrates certain behaviors, actions, and feelings.

Kalpa

A Hindu term referring to an eon (amounting to many millions of years).

Li

Principle or idea.

Dao

The Ultimate Way, the way of the universe.

Mantra

a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation.

Raigo

A painted image that depicts the Amida Buddha and other Buddhist deities welcoming the soul of the dying believer to paradise.

Mandala

An image of the cosmos represented by an arrangement of circles or concentric geometric shapes containing diagrams or images.

Ch'i yün

Cosmic consonance.

Dainichi

The supreme cosmic Buddha in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, also known as the 'Great Sun Buddha'.

Cloisonné

An enameling technique in which artists affix wires or stripes to a metal surface to delineate designs and create compartments that they subsequently fill with enamel.

Scriptorium

A room in a monastery for writing or copying manuscripts.

Tempera

A painting medium used by blending egg yolks with water, pigments, and occasionally other materials, such as glue.

Illuminated manuscript

A painting on paper or parchment used as an illustration or decoration in a manuscript or album.

Historiated capital

Displaying a figural composition and/or narrative scenes.

Compound pier

A pier or large column with attached columns or pilasters.

Buon fresco

The plaster is painted when wet, the color is absorbed by the plaster, becoming a permanent part of the wall.

Mysticism

Vague or ill-defined religious or spiritual belief.

Tympanum

A semi-circular area over a door, framed by an arch and lintel.

Jamb

In architecture, the vertical element found on both sides of an opening in a wall, and supporting an arch or lintel.

Jamb column

Column conjoined with the door jamb.

Archivolts

The curved molding formed by the voussoirs making up an arch.

Voussoirs

Wedged-shaped stone block used to build an arch. The topmost voussoir is called a keystone

Trumeau

A column, pier, or post found at the center of a large portal or doorway, supporting the lintel.

Chevet

Trefoil

A Gothic decorative feature with three foils (circular lobes).

Marginalia

Writing, decoration or images in the margins of a manuscript.