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Art History exam II
Question | Answer |
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Polytheism | the belief in multiple gods |
Monotheism | the worship of one all powerful god |
Baptistery | in Christian architecture, the building used for baptism, usually situated next to a church. Also the designated area or hall within a church for baptismal rites. |
catacombs | subterranean networks of rock-cut galleries and chambers designed as cemeteries for the burial of the dead. |
Martyr | a person who chooses to die rather than deny his or her religious belief |
Orants | in Early Christian art, a figure with both arms raised in the ancient gesture of prayer |
Typology | in Christian theology, the recognition of concordances between events, especially between episodes in the Old and New Testaments |
Basilica/Basilica plan Roman | in Roman architecture, a public building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan with an entrance usually on a long side. |
Basilica/basilica plan Christian | In Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling the Roman basilica, usually entered from one end with an apse at the other |
Nave | the central area of an ancient Roman basilica, or of a church, demarcated from aisles by piers or columns |
apse | a recess, usually semicircular, in the wall of a building, commonly found at the east end of a church |
side aisle | the portion of a basilica flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers |
transept | the part of a church with an axis that crosses the nave at a right angle |
narthex | a porch or vestibule of a church, generally colonnaded or arcaded and preceding the nave. |
plan | the horizontal arrangement of the parts of a building or of the buildings and streets of a city or town, or a drawing or diagram shwoing such an arrangement |
central plan | the parts of the structure are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center |
ambulatory | the covered walkway, outdoors (as in a church cloister) or indoors,especially the passageway around the apse and the choir of a church |
iconoclasm | the destruction of religious or sacred images. In Byzantium, the period from 726-843 when there was an imperial ban on such images. |
iconoclast | destroyers of religious or sacred images |
iconophiles | those opposed to the ban of religious or sacred images |
mosaic | patterns or pictures made by embedding small pieces (tesserae) of stone or glass in cement on surfaces sucha s walls and floors; the technique of making such works |
tesserae | Greek, "cube" A tiny stone or piece of glass cut to the desired shape or size for use in forming a mosaic |
pendentive | a concave, triangular section of a hemisphere, four of which provide the transition from a square area to the circular base of a convering dome. they appear to hang from a dome, however they actually support the dome |
icon | a portrait or image, especially in Byzantine churches, a panel with a painting of sacred personages that are object of veneration. In the visual arts, a painting, piece of sculpture, or even a building regarded as an object of veneration |
monastticism | the way of life characteristic of monks or nuns, in which they withdraw entirely or in part from society to devote themselves to prayer, solitude, and contemplation |
Theotokos | Greek, "she who bore God." the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus |
Katholikon | octogan shaped dome, Hoisos Loukas, Greece first quarter of the 11th century |
Pantokrator | Greek, "ruler of all." Christ as ruler and judge of heaven and earth |
relic | the body parts, clothing, or objects associated with a holy figure, such as the Buddha or Christ or a Christian saint |
reliquary | a container for holding relics |
Koran | Islam's sacred book, composed of surahs (chapters) divided into verses |
Kaaba | Arabic, "cube." a small cubical building in Mecca, the Islamic world's symbolic center |
surah | a chapter of the Koran, divided into verses |
caliph | Islamic rulers, regarded as successors of Muhammad |
mosque | the Islamic building for collective worship, from the Arabic word masjid, meaning a "place for bowing down" |
qibla | the direction, toward Mecca, that Muslims face when praying |
mihrab | a semicircular niche set into the qibla wall of a mosque |
maqsura | in some mosques, a screened area in front of the mihrab reserved for the ruler |
minaret | a distinctive feature of mosque architecture, a tower from which the faithful are called to worship |
Umayyads | established the capital in Damascus and were responsible for the formulation of the first Islamic buildings and sacred spaces. |
Abbasids | responsible for overthrowing the Umayyads, but also moving the capital to Baghdad and designed the city's circular plan that still exists today-built mosques using Umayyad prototype |
Kufic | an early form of Arabic script, characterized by angularity, with the uprights forming almost right angles with the baseline |
cloisonne | a decorative metalwork technique employing cloisons, also, decorative brickwork in later Byzantine architecture |
psalter | a book containing the Psalms |
Visigoths | German people that invades Spain, responsible for stone churches that were basilican in form, but often have multiple square apses |
Carolingian | pertaining to the empire of Charlemagne (Latin, "Carolus Magnus") and his successors |
westwork | German, "wester entrance structure." the facade and towers at the westernend of a medieval church, principally in Germany. In contemporary works the westwork is called a castellum or turris. |
Ottonians | pertaining to the empire of Otto I and his successors |
Romansque | "Roman-like" a term used to describe the history, culture, and art of medieval western Europe from ca. 1050-1200. |
feudalism | the medieval political, social and economic system held together by the relationship between landholding liege lords and the vassals who were granted tenure of a portion of their land in turn swore allegiance to the liege lord |
radiated chapels | in medieval churches, chapels for the display of relics that opened directly onto the ambulatory and the transept |
barrel vault | tunnel vault, semicylindrical in cross-section, is in effect a deep arch or uninterrupted series of arches, one behind the other, over an oblong space (vault-a masonry or roof or ceiling constructed on the arch priniciple/concrete roof of the same shape |
groin vault | formed at the point at which two barrel vaults intersect at right angles |
engaged columns | a half round column attached to a wall |
compound piers | a pier with a group or cluster, of attached shafts, or responds, especially characteristic of Gothic architecture |
cloister | a monastery courtyard, usually with covered walks or ambulatories along its sides |
trumeau | in church architecture, the pillar or center posts supporting the lintel in the middle of the doorway |
voussoirs | a wedge shaped stone block used in the construction of a true arch, the central voussoir which sets the arch is called the keystone |
tympanum | the space enclosed by a lintel and an arch over a doorway |
lintel | a horizontal beam used to span an opening |
jambs | in architecture, the side posts of a doorway |
throne of wisdom | term used in the west, and adaptation of the Byzantium Theotokos (Romanesque period)--Virgin Mary |
Gothic | Originally a derogatory term named after the Goths, used to describe the history, culture and art of western Europe in the 12th to 14th centuries. Typically divided into periods designated Early (1140-1194), High (1194-1300) and Late (1300-1500) |
pointed arch | a narrow arch of pointed profile, in contrast to a semicircular arch |
ribbed vaults | a vault in which the diagonal and transverse ribs compose a structural skeleton that partially supports the masonry web between them |
Scholasticism | the Gothic school of philosophy in which scholars applied Aristotle's system of rational inquiry to the interpretation of religious belief |
flying buttress | an exterior mansonry structure that opposes the lateral thrust of an arch or vault. a flying buttress consists of an inclined member carried on an arch or a series of arches and a solid buttress to which it transmits lateral thrust |
Abbot Suger | French architect, whose writings on light and height influenced the construction of taller structures where light was seen not just as a pragmatic way to see on the inside, but the presence of God--St Denis |
Rayonnant style | the 'radiant' style of Gothic architecture, dominant in the second half of the 13th century and associated with the French royal court of Louis IX at Paris |