Vocabulary

  1. Fibula: metal dress-pin that not only was used as a clothes’ fastener, but also acted as a sign of an individual’s allegiance, wealth, and status

  2. Cloisonné: Decorative work in which enamel, glass, or gemstones are separated by stips of flattened wire placed edgeways on a metal backing. A cross between mosaic and stained glass

  3. Parchment: Animal skin dried and treated to provide a flat sheet for writing, painting, bookbinding, and other purposes. The terms parchment and vellum have long been used indiscriminately, but strictly speaking ‘vellum’ refers only to skins made from calves

  4. Ashlar: Dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked

  5. Carolingian Art: art associated with Charlemagne, King of the Franks, from the last quarter of the 8th century AD, and with his successors, to the beginning of the 10th century

  6. Westwork: A monumental façade incorporating two towers

  7. Romanesque: Stylistic term used to define the architecture of western Europe from the mid-10th to the the 12th century AD

  8. Choir: The area of the church between a transept and main apse. It is the area where the service is sung and clergy may stand, and the main or high altar is located. In some churches there is no choir, while in others, the choir is quite large and surrounded by an ambulatory

  9. Tribune/Gallery: An upper story over the aisle which opens onto the nave or choir. It corresponds in length and width to the dimensions of the aisle below it

  10. Pilgrimage Church: A church to which pilgrimages are regularly made, or a church along a pilgrimage route

  11. Engaged Column: A column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall

  12. Compound Pier: a clustered column or pier which consists of a central structural element to which engaged or semi-detached shafts have been attached

  13. Tympanum: Architectural term used to describe the vertical, triangular space enclosed by the horizontal and raking cornices of a pediment; also the space between the square head or lintel of a door or window and the round or pointed discharging arch above it

  14. Theophanic Vision: Appearance of a deity to humans

  15. Cloister: Center of an architectural ensemble within a monastery, especially in medieval western Europe. Reserved solely for the use of monks, the cloister consists of a yard (the garth), usually quadrilateral in shape and surrounded on all sides by covered passageways or galleries linking the major monastic buildings: church, refectory, dormitory, and chapter house

  16. Historiated Capital: A capital decorated with figures of animals, birds, or humans, used either alone or combined with foliage. THe figures need not have any meaning, although they may be symbolic or part of a narrative sequence; Historiated capitals were most commonly used in the Romanesque from the late eleventh to mid-twelfth centuries

  17. Blind Arch: An arch that is infilled and cannot serve as a passageway (door or window)

  18. Blind Arcade: Composed of a series of arches with no passageway; decorative element

  19. Dwarf Gallery: Arcaded gallery, usually below the roof line and recessed into the thickness of the wall

  20. Transverse Arch: supporting arch which runs across the vault from side to side; dividing the bays

  21. Groin Vault: two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles, folding the shell into two crossing diagonals

  22. Barrel Vault: vault based on the repeated arch

  23. Rib Vault: a masonry vault set within a framework of ribs

  24. Abbess: Female superior of a community of nuns

  25. Horror Vacui: a fear or dislike of leaving empty spaces, especially in artistic composition

  26. Reliquary: receptacle for the preservation of relics, principally the physical remains of a holy person or an object of particular veneration

  27. Repoussé: (of metal work) hammered into relief from the reverse side

  28. Baptistery: building used for the rite of baptism into the Christian Church

  29. Archivolt: bands or moldings surrounding an arched opening

  30. Triforium: a narrow passage in the thickness of the wall with arches opening ontario the nave it may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It can have an outer wall of glass rather than stone

  31. Flying Buttress: A free-standing buttress attached to the main vessel (nave, choir, or transept wall) by an arch or half arch which transmits the thrust of the vault to the buttress

  32. Lux nova: “New Light”

  33. Contrapposto: a  sculptural scheme, originated by the ancient Greeks, in which the standing human figure is poised such that the weight rests on one leg (called the engaged leg), freeing the other leg, which is bent at the knee. With the weight shift, the hips, shoulders, and head tilt, suggesting relaxation with the subtle internal organic movement

  34. Rayonnant (“Radiant”): Term applied to a particular phase of French Gothic architecture (. 1230s - 1300s) by 19th-century historians who were attempting to divide Gothic into distinct sub-styles based on the changing forms of window tracery. Other features: reduced mass and scale: elimination of prodigious structural and spatial speculations of High Gothic to concentrate of delicate two-dimensional effect

  35. Flamboyant: Architectural term referring to the sinuous, flickering patterns found in French tracery from the 14th century to the early 16th. By extension, it has come to designate French Late Gothic architecture

  36. Frontispiece: an illustration facing the title page of a book

  37. Psalter: a collection of psalms for liturgical or devotional use

  38. Miniature: term applied to encompass the small-scale painted illustrations in manuscripts

  39. Breviary: a book containing the service for each day, to be recited by those in orders in the Roman Catholic Church

  40. Enamel: Glass melted onto a metal surface