Classical Painting Quiz

Armature: a metal framework for a stained-glass window; a fixed inner framework supporting a sculpture made of a more flexible material.

Base: that on which something rests; the lowest part of a wall or column, considered as a separate architectural feature.

Capital: the decorated top of a column or pilaster, providing a transition from the shaft to the entablature.

Cella: the main inner room of a temple, often containing the cult image of a diety.

Column: a cylindrical support, usually with three parts—base, shart, and capital.

Convention: a custom, practice, or principle that is generally recognized and accepted.

Cuneiform: a form of writing, consisting of wedge-shaped characters, used in ancient Mesopotamia.

Facing: an outdoor covering or sheathing.

Glaze: in oil painting, a layer of translucent paint or varnish; in pottery, a material applied in a thin layer that, when fired, fuses with the surface to produce a glossy, nonporous effect.

Glyptic art: the art of carving or engraving, especially on small objects such as seals or precious stones.

Heirarchical proportion: the representation of more important figures as larger than less important ones.

Intaglio: a printmaking process in which lines are incised into the surface of a plate or print form.

Lamassu: in Assyrian art, figures and bulls or with wings and human heads.

Lapis lazuli: a semiprecious blue stone, used to prepare the blue pigment known as ultramarine.

Load-bearing construction: a system of construction in which solid forms are superimposed on one another to form a tapering structure.

Pillar: a large vertical architectural element, usually freestanding and load bearing.

Provenience: origin; the act of coming from a particular source.

Shaft: the vertical, cylindrical part of a column that supports the enablature.

Stele: an upright stone slab or pillar, usually carved or inscribed for commemorative purposes.

Ziggurat: a trapezoidal stepped structure representing a mountain in ancient Mesopotamia.