Greek And Roman Art Vocab

Question 1

Amphora

Answer 1

An ancient Greek or Roman jar for storing oil or wine, with an eggshaped body and two curved handles.

Question 2

Black-figure

Answer 2

A technique of ancient Greek ceramic decoration in which black figures are painted on a red clay ground

Question 3

Stoa

Answer 3

In Greek architecture, a long roofed walkway, usually having columns on one long side and a wall on the other.

Question 4

Caryatid

Answer 4

A sculpture of a draped female figure acting as a column supporting an entablature

Question 5

Pedestal

Answer 5

The block found below the base of a Classical column (or colonnade), serving to raise the entire element off the ground

Question 6

Entablature

Answer 6

The horizontal elements above the columns and capitals. Consists of (from bottom to top) an architrave, a frieze, and a comice

Question 7

Doric Order

Answer 7

The column shaft can be fluted or smooth-surfaced and has no base. Capital consists of an undecorated echinus and abacus. Entablature has a plain architrave, a frieze with metopes and triglyphs, and a simple cornice.

Question 8

Ionic Order

Answer 8

The column has a base, a fluted shaft, and a capital decorated with volutes. Entablature consists of an architrave of three panels and moldings, a frieze usually containing sculpted relief ornament, and a cornice with dentils.

Question 9

Architrave

Answer 9

The bottom element in an entablature, beneath the frieze and the cornice.

Question 10

Capital

Answer 10

The sculpted block that tops a column.

Question 11

Pediment

Answer 11

A triangular gable found over major architectural elements such as the Classical Greek porticos, windows, or doors. Formed by an entablature and the ends of a sloping roof or a raking cornice.

Question 12

Temenos

Answer 12

An enclosed sacred area reserved for worship in ancient Greece

Question 13

Porches

Answer 13

The covered entrance on the exterior of a building. With a row of columns or colonnade, also called a portico.

Question 14

Elevations

Answer 14

The arrangement, proportions, and details of any vertical side or face of a building

Question 15

Corinthian Order

Answer 15

The most ornate of the orders; includes a base, a fluted column shaft with a capital elaborately decorated with acanthus leaf carvings. Its entablature consists of an architrave decorated with moldings, a frieze often containing relief sculpture, and a cornice with dentils

Question 16

Cella

Answer 16

The principal interior room at the center of a Greek or Roman temple within which the cult statue was usually housed. Also called naos

Question 17

Abacus

Answer 17

The flat slab at the top of a capital, directly under the entablature

Question 18

Entasis

Answer 18

A slight swelling of the shaft of a Greek column. The optical illusion of entasis makes the column appear from afar to be straight

Question 19

Pronaos

Answer 19

The enclosed vestibule of a Greek or Roman temple, found in front of the cella and marked by a row of columns at the entrance

Question 20

Terra cotta

Answer 20

A medium made from clay fired over a low heat and sometimes left unglazed (orange-brown color)

Question 21

Kore

Answer 21

An Archaic Greek statue of a young woman

Question 22

Kouros

Answer 22

An Archaic Greek statue of a young man or boy

Question 23

Archaic smile

Answer 23

The curved lips of an ancient Greek statues in the Archaic period, usually interpreted as a way of animating facial features

Question 24

Red-figure

Answer 24

A technique of ancient Greek ceramic decoration characterized by red clay-colored figures on a black blackground. The figures are reserved against a painted background and details are drawn, not engraved

Question 25

Symposium

Answer 25

An elite gathering of wealthy and powerful men in ancient Greece that focused principally on wine, music, poetry, conversation, games, and love making

Question 26

Contrapposto

Answer 26

Classical convention of representing human figures with opposing alternations of tension and relaxation on either side of a central axis to imbue figures with a sense of the potential for movement

Question 27

Acropolis

Answer 27

The citadel of an ancient Greek city, located at its highest point and housing temples, a treasury, and sometimes a royal palace

Question 28

Idealization

Answer 28

A process in art through which artists strive to make their forms and figures attain perfection, based on pervading cultural values and/or their own personal ideals

Question 29

Agora

Answer 29

An open space in a Greek town used as a central gathering place or market

Question 30

Orthogonal

Answer 30

Any line running back into the represented space of a picture perpendicular to the imagined picture plane

Question 31

Barbarian

Answer 31

All foreigners outside their cultural orbit

Question 32

Expressionism

Answer 32

Artistic styles in which aspects of works of art are exaggerated to evoke subjective emotions rather than to portray objective reality or elicit a rational response