Art History Exam 1

Question 1

Naturalism

Answer 1

art depicting the world in a realistic way

Question 2

optical view

Answer 2

you see it with your eyes, replicate it in art, realistic

Question 3

composite view

Answer 3

artist is truer to the object, conveys more than just what the essence of the object is, more complete view/more abstract (people have their face in profile and their body straight on)

Question 4

hand dots

Answer 4

hand prints made with the palm of the hand

Question 5

Pigment

Answer 5

natural resources used to act as a color in paints

Question 6

Abstract

Answer 6

non-objective art form that doesn’t depict reality, but instead uses shapes, colors, forms, and gestural marks to create an effect

Question 7

Polychrome

Answer 7

the art of practice of combining different colors, especially brilliant ones, in an artistic way/ charcoal, ochre, haematite

Question 8

Megaliths

Answer 8

big rock monuments

Question 9

trilithic

Answer 9

three stones arrangements common (post and lintel)

Question 10

dolem

Answer 10

megalithic tomb

Question 11

cromlen

Answer 11

circles of stones, often around a tomb or place of worship

Question 12

menhir

Answer 12

marked by rows/lines of megaliths

Question 13

post-and-lintel

Answer 13

two posts with a crossbeam

Question 14

cuneiform

Answer 14

earliest writings, pictograms pressed into clay

Question 15

mud brick

Answer 15

common building material, doesn’t last long

Question 16

ziggurats

Answer 16

squat, stepped pyramids that served as a foundation for a temple (a platform)

Question 17

cella

Answer 17

room at the center of the temple

Question 18

lamassu

Answer 18

gateway figures, winged bulls with the heads of men, made from a single piece of stone, a relief carving, kind of a flex of power for the king

Question 19

low relief scultpure

Answer 19

written cuneiform in the Akkadian language about about 300 laws and consequences to those laws (eye for an eye)

Question 20

nebuchanezzar

Answer 20

warrior king. great military leader in the Neo-Babylonian empire

Question 21

Orthostats

Answer 21

large stone slabs, have stories told through carved relief, colored. Part of a structure, wall, foundation, etc. (Military conquests, power)

Question 22

glazed brick

Answer 22

ceramic bricks that have a glossy coating, often used in architecture to add color and shine to structures

Question 23

Faience

Answer 23

how they colored the Ishtar gate blue, used glazed brick, put glass on brick and then fire them

Question 24

Code of Hammurabi

Answer 24

Babylonian law code that is also an art piece. The code is inscribed on a black stone stele, or pillar, that depicts the king receiving the laws from the sun god

Question 25

Frontality

Answer 25

representation of the front view of a figure or object

Question 26

votive statues

Answer 26

figures of attentive viewers supposedly made to constantly make prayers to the gods

Question 27

Registers

Answer 27

horizontal stacking story planes (found on Royal standard of Ur)

Question 28

hieratic scale

Answer 28

Used to delineate who the most important is via Size to show that importance

Question 29

cylinder seals

Answer 29

decorative objects that would be rolled up in clay to prevent unauthorized access to documents like a signature

Question 30

Stele

Answer 30

tall carved object, has relief at the top

Question 31

buttress technique

Answer 31

an architectural element used to reinforce walls

Question 32

jambs

Answer 32

the vertical side posts of a doorway or window frame that can be decorated with sculptures or carvings

Question 33

capitals

Answer 33

top of a colum, used for support and decor details

Question 34

nomad’s gear

Answer 34

smaller items of artwork that can be transported (weapons, bridles, buckles)

Question 35

Fibulae

Answer 35

a clasp/safety pin used to close cloaks

Question 35

Iconography

Answer 35

the process of interpreting symbols in art

Question 36

Blind arcades

Answer 36

row of arches but they are fake, you can not go through them

Question 37

Book of the Dead

Answer 37

a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary texts and illustrations that were written on papyrus and used to guide the deceased into the afterlife, spells and incantations

Question 38

Arch

Answer 38

curved structure in an opening for support

Question 39

Obelisk

Answer 39

type of stele, four sided tower, pyramid on top, often has carvings in it

Question 40

Glaze

Answer 40

thin layer of pigment

Question 41

rhyton

Answer 41

ceramic cup

Question 42

hypostle hall

Answer 42

hall/room full of columns

Question 43

palette

Answer 43

used to mix pigments and makeup

Question 44

sarcophagus

Answer 44

stone coffin, would often include objects for the next life in Egyptian culture

Question 45

Imhotep

Answer 45

define high priest of RA, made first step pyramid

Question 46

Hieroglyphs

Answer 46

writing revolving around pictorial characters, used for decorative or ceremonial purposes

Question 47

Necropolis

Answer 47

a large cemetery, they would replicate the actual city for the dead

Question 48

Pectoral

Answer 48

Jewelry from egyptian age, put them on people’s chest (mummies), were large pendants

Question 49

triad statues

Answer 49

had three people

Question 50

pictographs

Answer 50

images or drawings that represent words or ideas, often painted on rocks or in caves

Question 51

Serdab

Answer 51

enclosed room w/o entrance, ka sealed in so it could live on (ka was like a statue of the soul)

Question 52

Mastaba

Answer 52

egyptian tomb, burial chamber is underneath

Question 53

Canon

Answer 53

guidelines for rendering a human figure, based on the size of a closed fist

Question 54

papyrus

Answer 54

paper made from papyrus plants

Question 55

nemes headdress

Answer 55

headdress used to protect from the sun

Question 56

negative images

Answer 56

used a straw to blow pigment and make negative images

Question 57

pylons

Answer 57

a monumental gateway or tower that marked the entrance to an egyptian temple

Question 58

Apotropaic devices

Answer 58

device that can ward off evil (wide open eyes)

Question 59

Block statue

Answer 59

a statue that has a head resting on a block, limbs included in the cubic body, used as a fuenraray monument, covered in hieroglyphs

Question 60

Ka statue

Answer 60

used to hold the spirit of a person