A lettered words Flashcards
Abbey
A monastery for monks, or a covenant for nuns, and the church that is connected to it.
Abstract Expressionism
The first major American avant-garde movement. Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York City in the 1940s. The artists produced abstract paintings that expressed their state of mind and that they hoped would strike emotional chords in viewers. The movement developed along two lines: gestural abstraction and chromatic abstraction.
Abstract
Nonrepresentational; forms and colors arranged without reference to the depiction of an object.
Academy
An institution whose main objects include training artists in an academic tradition, ennobling the profession, and holding exhibitions.
Action Painting
Also called gestural abstraction. The kind of Abstract Expressionism practiced by Jackson Pollock, in which the emphasis was on the creation process, the artist’s gesture in making art. Pollock poured liquid paint in linear webs on his canvases, which he laid out on the floor, thereby physically surrounding himself in the painting during its creation.
Acropolis
Literally, “ high city,” a Greek temple complex built on a hill over a city.
Agora
A public plaza in a Greek city where commercial, religious, and societal activities are conducted.
Ahu
Ceremonial platforms.
‘Ahu’ula
“Red cloak” refers to the red color associated with royalty in Hawaiian feather cloaks.
Aisle
The portion of a basilica flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers.
Aka
The aka or Bayaka (also BiAka, Babenzele) are a nomadic Mbenga pygmy people. They live in the southwestern Central African Republic and in the northern Republic of the Congo.
Allegory
In a work of art, an image (or images) that symbolizes an idea, concept, or principle, often moral or religious.
Altarpiece
A painted or sculpted panel set atop an altarpiece in a church.
Altar Stone
THe largest of all the “foreign stones” at Stonehenge, it is a rectangular recumbent block of sandstone.
Amarna
Was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten. This era during the New Kingdom saw a shift in the art - with exaggerated, elongated figures.
Amazonomachy
A legendary battle between Greeks and Amazons, often depicted in Greek art, as on the West Metopes of the Parthenon.
Ambulatory
A passageway around the apse or an altar of a church.
Amphitheater
Greek, “double theater.” A Roman building type resembling two Greek theaters put together. The Roman amphitheater featured a continuous elliptical cavea around a central arena.
Amphora
A two-handled ancient Greek storage jar.
Anazasi
A member of an ancient North American people of the southwestern US, who flourished between c. 200 BC and AD 1500. The earliest phase of their culture is known as the Basket Maker period; the present-day Pueblo culture developed from a later stage.
Androgynous
Partly male and partly female in appearance; of indeterminate sex.
Aniconic
A symbolic representation without images of human figures, very often found in Islamic Art.
Animal Style
A medieval art form in which animals are depicted in a stylized and often complicated pattern, usually seen fighting with one another.
Annunciation
In Christianity, an episode in the book of Luke 1:26-38 in which Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would be the Virgin Mother of Jesus.
Anthropomorphic
Having characteristics of the human form, although the form itself is not human.
Apadana
Ceremonial hall with hypostyle architecture; also called the audience hall of Darius and Xerxes.
Apocalypse
Last book of the Christian Bible; sometimes called Revelations; which details God’s destruction of evil and consequent rising to heaven of the righteous.
Apotheosis
A type of painting in which the figures are rising heavenward.
Apse
The end point of a church where the altar is.
Aquatint
A kind of print that achieves a watercolor effect by using acids that dissolve onto a copper plate.
Arabesque
European term for a type of linear surface decoration based on foliage and calligraphic forms, thought by Europeans to be typical of Islamic art and usually characterized by flowing lines and swirling shapes.
Arcade
A series of arches supported by columns.
Arch
In architecture, a curved structural element that spans a space.
Archaeology
The scientific study of ancient people and cultures principally revealed through excavation.
Archaic
The earliest phases of a culture; the term is most frequently used by art historians to denote the period of artistic development in Greece from about 650 to 480 bc, the date of the Persian sack of Athens.
Architecture
The art or practice of designing and building structures.
Archivolt
A series of concentric moldings around an arch.
Arena
An enclosed area used for gladiator fights, public entertainment, activities, or political gatherings.
Art
The conscious use of the skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.
Art History
The academic study of the history and development of painting, sculpture, and the other visual arts.
Ashanti
Asante empire, Asante also spelled Ashanti. West African state that occupied what is now southern Ghana in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Ashlar Masonry
Carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of Masonry.
Atrium
A courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church.
Avant-garde
An innovative group of artists who generally reject traditional approaches in favor of a more experimental technique.
Axial Plan
A building with an elongated ground plan.
Aztec
The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious, and commercial organization that brought many of the region’s city-states under their control by the 15th century. Invaders led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire by force and captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica’s last great native civilization.
