Volume 2 Art vocab 1

Question 1

is a large upright standing stone. may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these areas, while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone.
An arrangement of megalithic stones in a circle, ofter surrounded by a ditch.

Answer 1

Menhir

Question 2

An arrangement of megalithic stones in a circle, often surrounded by a ditch.

Answer 2

Henge

Question 3

a megalithic tomb with a large flat stone laid on upright ones, found chiefly in Britain and France.

Answer 3

Dolmen

Question 4

A common element in construction and one which often found in an excavation environment. In simple terms, it is any kind of wall that has been built with an intentional slope; the word ‘batter’ in this context is an architectural term that refers to a particular type of angle.
Mastabas had slopping walls known as battered walls that are characteristic of much of Eqyptian architecture

Answer 4

Battered Wall

Question 5

is a technique used in art, mostly in sculpture and painting, in which the artist uses unnatural proportion or scale to depict the relative importance of the figures in the artwork.
An artistic convention in which greater size indicates greater importance.

Answer 5

Hierarchy of Scale

Question 6

The upper part of the nave, choir, and transepts of a large church containing a series of windows. It is clear of the roofs of the aisles and admits light to the central parts of the building.
The fenestrated part of a building that rises above the roofs of the other parts. The oldest known clerestories are Egyptian. In Roman basilicas and medieval churches, clerestories are the windows that form the nave’s uppermost level below the timer ceiling or the vaults.

Answer 6

Clerestory

Question 7

the art and craft of building and fabricating in stone, clay, brick, or concrete block. Construction of poured concrete, reinforced or unreinforced, is often also considered masonry.

Answer 7

Masonry Archecticture

Question 8

The Egyptians believed in permanent order, that nature and society are never changing. The had a name for this durable, stable order. Ma’at. One reason Egyptian culture survived for 3000 years was their belief in this permanent order.

Answer 8

Ma’at

Question 9

rectangular superstructure of ancient Egyptian tombs, built of mud-brick or, later, stone, with sloping walls and a flat roof.
Arabic for bench
were often grouped in complexes known as necropolis (cities of the dead)

Answer 9

Mastaba

Question 10

a granular, crystalline igneous rock commonly of acid plagioclase and hornblende, pyroxene, or biotite.

Answer 10

Diorite

Question 11

In architecture, an engaged column is a column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall, sometimes defined as semi or three-quarter detached.
A half-round column attached to a wall

Answer 11

engaged column

Question 12

A hall with a roof supported by columns.

Answer 12

Hypostyle hall

Question 13

were a people of diverse origins, possibly from Western Asia, who settled in the eastern Nile Delta some time before 1650 BC

Answer 13

Hyksos

Question 14

a principal aspect of the soul of a human being or a god

In ancient Egypt, the immortal human life force

Answer 14

Ka

Question 15

:is a building system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces between them.
A system of construction in which two post supports a lintel

Answer 15

Post and Lintel

Question 16

Some rock-cut architecture, mostly for tombs, is excavated entirely in chambers under the surface of relatively flat rock. If the excavation is instead made into the side of a cliff or steep slope, there can be an impressive facade, as found in Lycian tombs, Petra, Ajanta, and elsewhere.

Answer 16

Excavated architecture:

Question 17

The wide entrance gateway of an Egyptian temple, characterized by its sloping wall

Answer 17

pylon

Question 18

(from the Greek paleo, “old,” and lithos, “stone”), which began around 40,000 bce at the latest, was arguably the most important era in the entire history of art. It was then that humans invented the concept of recording the world around them in pictures, often painted on or carved into the walls of caves

Answer 18

Paleolithic Period

Question 19

involves the change from hunting to farming as a means of survival. Farming makes possible more stable and permanent communities and this brings about the settlement of communities and the possibility of monumental architecture

Answer 19

Neolithic Period

Question 20

When humans first gave up the dangerous and uncertain life of the hunter and gatherer for the more predictable and stable life of the farmer and herder, the change in human society was so significant

Answer 20

Neolithic Revolution

Question 21

is a kind of magic based on imitation or correspondence

Answer 21

sympathetic magic

Question 22

The ability to resist crushing. Compressive strength is the capacity of a material or structure to withstand loads tending to reduce size

Answer 22

compression strength

Question 23

the ability of a material to resist stretching

Answer 23

tension(tensile) Strength

Question 24

a government ruled by a god.

Answer 24

theocracy

Question 25

is a religion with many deities

Answer 25

Polytheistic religion

Question 26

small space for a statue of the deceased

Answer 26

Serdab

Question 27

that included above and below ground structures that replicated in appearance the governmental complex of Memphis where Djsoer ruled during his life. The complex was an administrative complex for the dead king.

Answer 27

Necropolis

Question 28

a column that is hewn from the living rock and serves no supporting function

Answer 28

reserve column

Question 29

is more humanistic and less rigid Then the old kingdom style.

Answer 29

Akhenaton style