C lettered words Flashcards
Caliph
Islamic rulers, regarded as successors of Muhammad.
Calligraphy
Handwriting as an art form.
Camera Obscura
(Latin, meaning “dark room”) a box with a lens which captures light and casts an image on the opposite side.
Came
A lead strip in a stained glass window that joins separate pieces of colored glass.
Campanile
A bell tower of a church, usually, but not always, free standing.
Canon (“Egyptian Canon”)
A system of mathematical ratios based on measurements of the human body, designed to create ideal proportions of the human figure.
Cantilever
A projecting beam that is attached to a building at one end and suspended in the air at the other.
Canvas
A heavy woven material used as a surface for painting; first widely used in Venice.
Capital
The top element of the column.
Caprice
Usually a work of art that is an architectural fantasy; more broadly any work that has a fantasy element.
Cari
A drawing that uses distortion or exaggeration of someone’s physical features or apparel in order to make that person look foolish.
Cartoon
In painting, a full size preliminary drawing from which a painting is made.
Casta Paintings
Paintings from New Spain showing people of mixed races.
Caryatid
A column in a building that is shaped like a female figure.
Catacomb
An underground passageway used for burial.
Cathedral
The principal church of a diocese, where the bishop sits.
Cella
The main room of the temple where the god is housed.
Centaur
A creature from Greek mythology which was half-man and half-horse.
Centaurmachy
A contest in which centaurs take part; especially, a fight between centaurs and men.
Central Plan
A building having a circular plan with the altar in the middle.
Ceramic
A general term covering all types of wares made from fired clay, including porcelain.
Chakra
Sanskrit “circle” or “wheel.” A symbol of political rulership and sovereignty.
Chalice
A cup containing wine used in a Christian ceremony.
Chapter House
a building next to a church used for meetings.
Chasing
To ornament metal by indenting into a surface with a hammer.
Chateau
A French country house or residential castle. A chateau fort is a military castle incorporating defensive works such as towers and battlements.
Chavin Culture
The Chavin civilization flourished between 900 and 200 BCE in the northern and central Andes and was one of the earliest pre-Inca cultures.
Chiaroscuro
A gradual transition from light to dark in a painting; forms are not determined by sharp outlines, but by the meeting of lighter and darker areas.
Chevet
The east end of a Gothic church.
Chiton
A form of tunic that fastens at the shoulder, worn by men and women of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Choir
A space in a church between the transept and the apse for a choir or clergymen.
Chokwe
An ethnic group of Central and Southern Africa. They are found primarily in Angola, southwestern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Chryselephantine
Type of figural sculpture in which the flesh was made of ivory and the drapery of gold.
Cinquecento
The 1500s or sixteenth century in italian art.
Circumambulation
To walk around something especially an object of worship or veneration.
Cire Perdue (lost wax process)
A process by which a duplicate metal sculpture is cast from an original sculpture.
City State
Political system where an independent city serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territories.
Clerestory
A portion of an interior rising above adjacent rooftops and having windows admitting daylight to the interior.
Classical
Describes the arts and culture of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome.
Cloissonné
Enamelwork in which colored areas are seperated by thin bands of mental, usually gold or metal.
Codex
A manuscript book.
Coffer
In architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling.
Coiling
A method of creating pottery in ehich a rope-like strand of clay is wrapped and layered into a shape befrore being fired in a kiln.
Colonnade
An architectural feature from ancient Greece or Rome of a long row of columns.
Colophon
A commentary on the end panel of a Chinses scroll; an inscrption at the end of a manuscript containg relevant information on its publication..
Color
The value, or tonality, of a color is the degree of its lightness or darkness. The intensity, or saturation, of a color is its purity, its brightness or dullness.
Color Field Painting
A style of abstract painting characterized by simple shapes and monochromatic color.
Colossal Order
An architectural design in which the columns or pilasters are two or more stories tall. Also called a giant order.
Column
In architecture, a vertical element, usually a rounded shaft with a capital and a base, which in most cases serves as a support. A column may also be nonstructural, used for a decorative purpose or as a freestanding monument.
Composite View
A pose that combines two or more viewpoints in a single representation, a convention common in ancient Near Eastern and Eyptian art.
Compound Pier
A pier that appears to be a group or gathering of smaller piers put together.
Concrete
A versatile building material compound of sand, water, cement (a powdery substance made of calcined lime and clay) and aggregate (rubble, gravel, crushed stone). The ancient Romans pioneered the use of concrete in architecture.
Cong
A tubular object with a circular hole cut into a square-like cross section.
Conquistadores
Spanish military leaders who led the conquest of the New World in the 16th century.
Content
When discussing a work of art, the term can include all of the following: its subject matter; the ideas contained in the work; the artist’s intentention; and even its meaning for the beholder.
Context
The cultural background of an art object.
Continuous Narrative
A work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in a continuous succession.
Contrapposto
A graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees.
Corinthian
An order of ancient Greek architecture similar to the lonic, except that the capitals are carved in tiers of leaves.
Corinthian Order
An order of ancient Greek architecture similar to the lonic, except that the capitals are carved in tiers of leaves.
Cornice
A projecting ledge over a wall.
Course
In masonry construction, a horizontal row of stone blocks.
Coyolxauhqui
An Aztec Moon Goddess whose name means golden bells.
Cross Vault * also known as groin vault*
When two barrel vaults intersect at right angles.
Cubicula
A Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb.
Cubism
An early-20th-century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring compositions of shapes and forms abstracted from the conventionally perceived world. See also Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism.
Cuneiform
A system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge or arrowhead shape.
Cyborg
A fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond nornal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body.
