Vocabulary for Exam 1 Flashcards
Syncretism
combining and merging into something new out of old roots—a combination of different forms of belief or practice.
Oculus
The circular opening at the top of a dome
Drum
The circular wall that supports a dome;; also, one of the cylindrical stones of which a non-monolithic shaft of a column is made.
Rotunda
building or room within a building that is circular or oval in plan and covered with a dome.
• Coffered ceiling
coffer Is a sunken panel, often ornamental, in a vault or ceiling
• Clerestory
the windows that form the nave’s uppermost level below the timber ceiling or the vaults.
• Cruciform
Cross-shaped
• Mosaic
Patterns or pictures made by embedding small pieces of stone or glass (tesserae) in cement on surfaces such as walls and floors; also the technique of making such works.
• Colonnade
a series or row of columns, usually spanned by lintels
• Arcade
a series of arches supported by piers or columns
• Pier
A vertical, freestanding masonry support.
• Ambulatory
A covered walkway, outdoors as in a cloister or indoors; especially the passageway around the apse and the choir of a church.
• Orant
In early Christian art, a figure represented with hands raised in prayer. Often found in catacombs.
• Typology/typological scenes/typological relationships
in Biblical interpretation, anything that happens in the sacred texts (incl. Jewish texts), they can be interpreted on a number of levels. Christians believed that Old Testament stuff was related to Christian truths–Jonah being given up after 3 days–parallel or a precursor to Christ and 3 days in the tomb. meaningful relationships, not coincidental.
a doctrine of theological types; especially : one holding that things in Christian belief are prefigured or symbolized by things in the Old Testament
• Moscophoros
The Greek word for “calf-bearer”
• Doric Order:
One of the two systems (or orders) evolved for articulating the three units of the elevation of an ancient Greek temple—the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature). The Doric order is characterized by, e.g.,capitals with funnel-shaped echinuses, columns without bases, and a frieze of triglyphs and tetopes.
• Ionic Order
One of the two systems (or orders) evolved for articulating the three units of the elevation of an ancient Greek temple—the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature). The Ionic order is characterized by volutes, capitals, columns with bases, and an uninterrupted frieze.
• Iconostasis
The large icon-bearing chancel screen that huts off the sanctuary of a Byzantine Church from the rest of the church. In the Eastern Christian churches, a screen or partition, with doors and many tiers of icons, separating the sanctuary from the main body of the church.
• Corinthian Order
A more ornate form than Doric or Ionic. Consists of a double row of acanthus leaves from which tendrils and flowers grow, wrapped around a bell shaped echinus. Not technically an order, only used in the Ionic order.
• Vault
A masonry roof or ceiling constructed on the arch principle. A barrel or tunnel vault, semi cylindrical in cross section is, in effect, a deep arch or an uninterrupted series of arches, on behind the other, over an oblong space. A quadrant vault is a half barrel vault. A groin or cross vault is formed at the point at which two-barrel vaults intersect at right angles. In a ribbed vault, there is a framework of ribs or arches under the intersection of the vaulting sections.
• Basilica Format
Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling the roman basilica, usually entered from one end and with an apse at the other creating an axial plan.
Nave: Central aisle
Aisle: The portion of a church flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers.
Apse: A recess, usually singular and semi-circular, in the wall of a Roman basilica or at the east end of a Christian church.
Transept: The part of a cruciform church with an axis that crosses the main axis at right angles.
Narthex: A porch or vestibule of a church, generally colonnaded or arcaded and preceding the nave.
Atrium: The open, colonnaded court in front of and attached to a Christian basilica.
• Clerestory
Upper zone of the nave, below the timber ceiling or the vaults.
• Tesserae
Tiny stone or pieces of glass cut to desired shape and size to use in mosaics to create design and composition.
• “Triumphal Arch”
In Roman architecture, freestanding arches commemorating important events such as military victories.
• Eusebius’ canon tables
The System of dividing the four Gospels used between late antiquity and the middle ages.
• Transubstantiation
The change when the bread and wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist become not merely as by a sign or figure but in actuality blood and flesh.
• Mensa=table. Altar Mensa= Alter table. Based upon that used at the last supper.
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• Manuscripts
hand copied texts
• Rotulus
what we call a scroll. lots of Jewish texts like this. volumes: volumen. Predecessor to the codex
• Codex
started to become popular in Christian tradition—basically book. no page numbers! Codices themselves come to be symbolic for christianity, while rotulus is more symbolic of Jewish stuff or government.
• Illumination
adding images to text. Decoration with drawings.
• Miniature
means illuminated manuscript, different root of the word than our contemporary “mini” meaning. Small, individual paintings intended to be held in the hand and viewed by one or two individuals at one time.
• parchment
made of animal skin, prepared for writing
• vellum
made from unborn calves.
• Psalter
A book containing the Psalms of the Bible
Dome
A hemispheric vault, theoretically an arch rotated on its vertical axis.
• Pendentive
A concave, triangular piece of masonry, four of which provide the transition from a square area to the circular base of a covering dome
• Squinch
An architectural device used as a transition from a square to a polygonal or circular base for a dome. It may be composed of lintels, corbels, or arches.
• Iconoclasm
The destruction of images. In Byzantium the period from 726-843 when there was an imperial ban on images.
• Iconoclasts/iconodules
The destroyers of images were known as iconoclasts.
• Icon
A portrait or image; especially with Eastern Christian churches, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are objects of veneration.
• Diptych
Byzantine: hinged writing tablet
• Pantocrator
In Christian art, the image of Christa s ruler and judge of heaven and earth
• Hodegetria
An iconographic depiction of the Theotokos holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of salvation for mankind.
• Acheiropoetos
image not made by hand, something not made by a human painter
• Deësis
The traditional iconic representation of Christ in Majesty, or Christ Pantocrator: enthroned, carrying a book, and flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist and sometimes other saints and angels.
• Encaustic
crushed up mineral (your pulver-pulverized stuff that makes pigment) is suspended in molten wax
• Ex-voto
Votive offering to a saint or to a divinity. It is given in fulfillment of a vow
• Polemical
Of, relating to, or involving strongly critical, controversial, or disputatious writing or speech
• Cross-in-square
This dome style was the dominant architectural form of middle and late Byzantine churches, featuring a square center with an internal structure shaped like a cross, topped by a dome.
• Quincunx
A pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center.
• Tetraconch
A building with four apses, one in each direction, typically of equal size. Basic plan being of a Greek cross.
• Theotokos
the bearer of God. Mary.
• Historiated vs Iconic
scene that is placed in a time and a place withs lots of detail for the narrative.
• Caesaropapism
The emperor and pope being same person. Theocracy. The idea of combining the power of secular government twith the religious power, or making it superior to the spiritual authority of the church.
Eusebius’ canon tables
canon tables–like a concordance–to see which verses appear where
