Art Vocabulary

Aesthetics

The philosophy of what makes art and beauty pleasing.

Romanesque

A medieval European artistic and architectural style (c. 1000–1150) charaMedieval building style with round arches, thick walls, and small windows.

Hierarchy of Scale (Hieratic Scale)

Making the most important figure bigger than everyone else.

Gothic Architecture

Medieval building style with pointed arches, tall stained glass windows, and flying buttresses.

Renaissance

European rebirth of classical art, focusing on realism and humanism.

Fresco

Painting directly onto wet or dry plaster walls.

Chiaroscuro

Using strong contrasts of light and dark to create 3D depth and drama.

Sfumato

Blurring edges with soft layers of paint to avoid sharp outlines.

Linear Perspective

An art technique used to make a flat, two-dimensional surface look three-dimensional with depth and distance.

Memento Mori

A symbol (like a skull) that reminds people that death is inevitable.

Avant-Garde

Art that is experimental, radical, or ahead of its time.

Abstract

Art that uses shapes and colors instead of showing realistic objects.

Trompe I’Oeil

An art technique (literally meaning "fool the eye") that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that depicted objects exist in three dimensions.

Motif

A repeating pattern, object, or theme in artwork.

Baroque

Art style full of intense emotion, drama, movement, and rich detail.

Mannerism

Art style with stretched figures, unnatural poses, and weird proportions.

Romanticism

Movement focusing on deep emotions, nature's power, and imagination. Instead of boring things (cold reasona nd logic)

Contrapposto

A natural standing pose where weight rests on one leg, shifting the hips.

Cubism

Breaking objects into geometric shapes and showing multiple angles at once.

Neoclassicism

A return to the clean, balanced style of ancient Greece and Rome.

Doric (Three main classical Greek Architectural orders)

Simple, sturdy column with a plain, unadorned capital and no base.

Ionic (Three main classical Greek Architectural orders)

Slender, elegant column characterized by scroll-like spirals (volutes) on its capital.

Corinthian (Three main classical Greek Architectural orders)

Decorative and elaborate column adorned with carved acanthus leaves on its capital.

Impressionism

Painting fast with loose brushstrokes to capture sunlight and brief moments.

Surrealism

Dream-like art that mixes strange, unreal objects together.