Flashcards - Ancient Greek Art and Architecture

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, styles, techniques, and monuments discussed in the lecture on Ancient Greek art and architecture.

Kouros

Archaic Greek statue of a young noble male, often representing Apollo; used as grave markers or victory memorials and influenced by Egyptian prototypes.

Kore

Archaic statue of a clothed maiden, shown standing with one leg advanced, grasping her dress and holding an offering.

Archaic Greek Art

600–480 BCE artistic period featuring static kouros/kore figures, black-figure pottery, and the first monumental stone temples.

Geometric Style

Early Greek (Dark Age) pottery style decorated with geometric patterns and shapes.

Orientalizing Style

Transitional Greek art phase incorporating Near-Eastern animal and floral motifs, preceding black-figure techniques.

Black-Figure Pottery

Technique painting black silhouettes on red clay vessels; reached its height in the mid-6th century BCE.

Red-Figure Pottery

Pottery style begun c. 530 BCE with red figures against a black background, allowing finer interior details.

Agora

Central open space of a Greek polis used as marketplace, political center, and social hub.

Stoa

Long, roofed colonnade bordering the agora that sheltered market stalls and gatherings.

Classical Greek Art

510–323 BCE period emphasizing harmony, proportion, realistic movement, and rejection of earlier eastern influences.

Doric Order

Sturdy, plain Greek architectural style with fluted columns, simple capitals, and triglyph-metope frieze.

Ionic Order

Slender, ornate architectural order with column bases and volute (scroll) capitals; exemplified by the Erechtheion.

Entasis

Subtle bulging of a column’s shaft to correct optical illusion of concavity and enhance visual strength.

Parthenon

Marble temple of Athena on the Acropolis; Doric core with Ionic features and sophisticated optical refinements.

Pediment

Triangular gable found at each end of a classical temple, often filled with narrative sculpture.

Caryatid

Sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support in place of a column.

Erechtheion

Ionic temple on the Acropolis sacred to Poseidon Erechtheus, famous for its Caryatid porch.

Triglyph

Three-grooved rectangular block in a Doric frieze, echoing the ends of ancient wooden beams.

Stylobate

Stepped platform forming the floor of a Greek temple, subtly raised at the center for optical effect.

Treasury

Small Archaic stone building at sanctuaries used to house votive offerings from a specific polis.

Hellenistic Art

323–31 BCE art characterized by variety, emotional intensity, and dramatic realism beyond Classical restraint.

Laocoön

Hellenistic sculptural group portraying Laocoön and his sons battling serpents, epitomizing anguish and movement.

Terra-cotta Figurines

Mass-produced molded clay figures popular in the Hellenistic world that depict all ages and social classes.

Nike of Samothrace

Dramatic Hellenistic statue of winged Victory landing on a ship’s prow, noted for wind-swept drapery and dynamic energy.