AP Art History Vocabulary

In the shape of a human

The Study of Artifacts

A view of the frontal and profile(side) together

What an art piece is made of

A hollow cylinder or cone enclosed in a rectangular body

A circle of standing stones

A prehistoric monument consisting of a circle of stone or wooden uprights

A horizontal support of timber, stone, concrete, or steel across the top of a door or window

A large stone that forms a prehistoric monument or part of one

A tall upright stone of a kind, erected in prehistoric times in Western Europe

A slot or recess, usually rectangular, cut into a piece of wood or stone, a projecting piece of wood made for insertion in a slot (definition above) of another piece.

A painting on a wall.

Human era before the development of agriculture

Two pillars supporting a Column above to make a large n shape. (Pillar and Column)

A technique to determine the age of organic material based on the 14C that the material acquired from the air.

Range of traditional beliefs and practices that include the abililty to cure, diagnose and sometimes cause suffering by creating a relationship with, or gaining control, over spirits.

To generalize something, for example: All popular girls have expensive clothes.

Unglazed, usually brownish-red earthenware used as ornamental building materials and in modeling.

Art created during the reign of Akhenaton, which features a more relaxed figure style than in Old and Middle Kingdom art

An Egyptian symbol of life

A building with an elongated ground plan

A cubic stone image with simplified body parts

A set of rules, principles, or standards accepted universally in a field of art. IE. the Egyptian Canon

A roof that rises above lower roofs and thus has window space beneath

A column that is not freestanding but attached to a wall

A painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling.

Egyptian writing using symbols or pictures as characters

A hall in an Egyptian temple that has a roof supported by a dense thicket of coolmns

A Latin expression that means that something is in its original locationo

The soul, or spiritual esseence, of a human being that either ascends to heaven or can live in an Egyptian statue itself

Arabic for "bench", a low, flat-roofed Egyptian tomb with sides slopng down to the ground

Literally, a "city of the dead", a large burial area

The striped headcloth worn by Pharoahs in Ancient Egypt

A tall aquatic plant whose fiber is used as writing surface in ancient Egypt

A colonnade surronding a building or enclosing a courtyard

A king of ancient Egypt

A picture representing a word, phrase, or idea. (Ex. Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform)

A monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple marked by two flat, sloping walls between which is a smaller entrance

A column that is cut away from rock but as no support function

A stone coffin

A carving in which the outlines of figures are deeply carved into a surface so that the figures seem to project forward

An audience hall in a Persian palace

Having the power to ward off evil or bad luck

A very shallow relief sculpture

The top element of a column

The main room of a temple where the god is housed

A city that has its own government in which controls all government affairs pertaining to that city.

A system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge, or arrowhead shape

The front of a building

A base line upon which figures stand

A system of representation that expresses a person's importance by the size of his or her representation in a work of art.

A colossal winged human-headed bull in Assyrian art

Empty space around an object or a person, such as the cut-out areas between a figure's legs or arms of a sculpture

A horizontal band, often on top of another, that tell a narrative story

Sculpture that projects from a flat background.

A stone slab used to mark a grave or a sit

Offered in fulfillment of a vow or a pledge

A pyramid-like building made of several stories that indent as the building gets taller, thus, ziggurats have terraces at each level

An order of Greek architecture that features columns with scrolled capitals and an upper story with sculptures that are in friezes

The tradition of depicting heads of figures on the same level

An oven used for making pottery

An archaic Greek sculpture of a standing youth

A large ancient Greek bowl used for mixing water and wine

A small relief sculpture on the facade of a Greek temple

A decoration using pieces of stone, marble, or colored glass, called tesserae, that are cemented to a wall or a floor

Ancient Greek goddess of victory

The model of a grieving mother; after boasting of her twelve children, jealous gods killed them.

A ceremonial road for a procession built to honor Athena during a festival

The triangular top of a temple that contains sculpture

A garment worn by women in ancient Greece, usually full length and tied at the waist

A colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a courtyard

An entranceway to a building having columns supporting a roof

A gateway leading to a Greek temple

The body of a column

An ancient Greek covered walkway having columns on one side and a wall on the other

An ancient Greek circular shrine

A projecting grooved element alternating with a metope on a Greek temple

King of the ancient Greek gods; known as Jupiter to the Romans; god of the sky and weather

A fine plaster used for wall decorations or moldings

A hard ceramic clay used for building or for making pottery

A dining table in ancient Rome that has a couch on three sides for reclining meals

A porous rock similar to limestone

An artificial mound of earth and stones placed over a grave

An order of ancient architecture featuring slender, smooth columns that sit on simple bases; no carvings on the frieze or in the capitals

Carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of masonry

A courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church

In Roman architecture, a large axially planned building with a nave, side aisles, and apses

A sculpture depicting a head, neck, and upper chest of a figure

In architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling

One that contains a combination of volutes from the Ionic order and acanthus leaves from the Corinthian Order

A work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in a single frame

A graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees

A Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb

A small dome rising over the roof of a building; in architecture, a _____ is achieved by rotating an arch on its axis

An ancient method of painting that uses colored waxes burned into a wooden surface

A visual effect in which an object is shortened and turned deeper into the picture plane to give the effect of receding in space

A public square or market place in a Roman city

A rectangular basin in a Roman house that is placed in the open-air atrium in order to collect rainwater

The center stone of an arch that holds the others in place

A circular window in a church, or a round opening at the top of a dome

Depth and recession in a painting or relief sculptures

A three-dimensionality in the two-dimensional world of the picture plane

All lines that draw the viewer back in space to a common point

The common point in which orthogonals draw viewers to

Landscapes that give the illusion of distance

A vertical support that holds up an arch or a vault

A triangular space enclosed by the curves of arches

A roof constructed with arches

When an arch is extending in space and forms a tunnel

When two barrel vaults intersect at right angles

Sculptures from the Roman Republic characterized by extreme realism of facial features

A passageway around the apse or altar of a church

The endpoint of a church where the altar is located

A courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church

A church with a long nave whose focus is the apse, so-called becaquse it is designed along an axis

In Christian architecture, an axially planned church with a long nave, side aisles, and an apse for the altar

An underground passageway used for burial

A church having a circular plan with the altar in the middle

The third, or window, story of a church

In architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling

The junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church.

Small underground rooms in catacombs serving as mortuary chapels

An individual leaf of paper or parchment, numbered on the recto or front side only, occurring either loose as one of a series or forming part of a bound volume

The first four books of the New Testament that chronicle the life of Jesus

A manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations.

Openings in the walls of catacombs to receive the dead

A crescent-shaped space, sometimes over a doorway, that contains sculpture or painting

The closest part of the atrium to the basilica, it serves as a vestibule, or lobby, of a church

The main aisle of a church

A figure with its hands raised in prayer

In art history, the reuse of architectural or sculptural pieces in buildings generally different from their original contexts

An aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave, where the clergy originally stood.

Fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf.

The principal church of a diocese, where a bishop sits

A manuscript book

A work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in a single frame

A projecting ledge over a wall

The bread sanctified by the priest at the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Support

First book of the Bible that details Creation, the Flood, Rebecca at the Well, and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, among other episodes

A devotional panel depicting the sacred image

A screen decorated with icons, which separates the apse from the transept of a church

A shrine built over a place of martyrdom or a grave of a martyred Christian Saint

A decoration using pieces of stone, marble, or colored glass, called tesserae, that are cemented to a wall or a floor

A plate, dish, or bowl used to hold the Eucharist at a Christian ceremony

A construction shaped like a triangle that transitions the space between flat walls and the base of a round dome

A copy of the biblical psalms

The polygonal base of a dome that makes a transition from the round dome to a flat wall

The Virgin Mary in her role as the Mother of God