ArT History Midterm

The arrangement of the windows of a building.

Fenestration

Contracting an object in the direction of depth so that illusion of projection of extension in space is obtained.

Foreshortening

An object's shape and structure, either in two dimensions (i.e. a figure painted on a flat surface) or in three dimensions (i.e. a statue)

Form

A vault formed by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults of equal size, requiring buttressing to support its structural integrity.

Groin Vault

The name of a specific color

Hue

A technique in painting that employs the thick application of paint so as to apple both color and texture.

Impasto/ Painterly

A mark that forms part of the formal design of a picture distinguished from the shading or color.

Line

The most common type of perspective in which all parallel lines of surface edges converge on one, two, or three vanishing points located on the horizon line of the picture, and associated objects are rendered smaller and farther from the viewer as they are intended to seem.

Linear Perspective

A horizontal crosspiece over an opening supported by two vertical posts (i.e. post and lintel)

Lintel

The shaping of fashioning of three-dimensional forms in a soft material, such as clay; also, the gradations of light and shape reflected from the surfaces of matter in space, or the illusion of such gradations produced by the alterations or value in a drawing, paint, or print.

Modeling

The porch or vestibule of a church preceding the nave.

Narthex

The central passage of a church stretching from the entrance to the choir and separated from flanking aisles by piers or columns.

Nave

An abstract idea represented in bodily form.

Personification

A method of presenting an illusion of the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensinal surface.

Perspective

A vertical, free-standing masonry support.

Pier

A rectangular vertical member projecting only slightly from a wall, with a base and a capital.

Pilaster

In sculpture, figure projecting from a background of which they are a part.

Relief

A relatively slender, molded masonry arch that projects from a surface; in Gothic architecture forming the framework of a vault.

Rib

The purity/brightness or dullness of a specific color

Saturation

Emphasizing an object/individual's importance in a work of art by rendering the figure larger in size than other compositional elements.

Scale Hierarchy

Freestanding figure carved or modeled in three dimensions.

Sculpture in the Round

The process that artists employ to create form, as well as the distinctive personal ways they handle their materials and tools.

Technique

The part of a cruciform church with an axis crossing the main axis at right angles.

Transept

The band of decorative or functional arcades set below the clerestory.

Triforium

French for "fools the eye." A technique for illusionistic painting that aims to deceive viewers into believing that they are seeing real objects rather than a representation of those objects.

Trompe I'oeil

The degree of lightness or darkness in a specific color.

Value

A masonry roof or ceiling constructed on the principle of the arch.

Vault

A wooden block (and its resulting print) on the surface of which those parts not intended to print are cut away, leaving the design raised.

Woodcut

The process of incising a design onto a metnal plate and the resultant print form that design.

Engraving

A kins of engraving in which the design is incised into a layer of wax on a metal plate. The exposed metal is then eaten away (etched) with acid, resulting in an engraved surface that can be utilized for printing.

Etching

A passageway that flanks the central nave of a church and separated from it by a row of columns of piers.

Aisle

A recess, usually singular and semi-circular, in the wall of a basilica or at the east end of a christian church.

Apse

A series of arches supported by piers or columns often flanking a nave and/or an aisle.

Arcade

A curved structural member that spans an opening and transmits force down flanking posts, columns or piers.

Arch

The illusion of distance created by the grater diminution of color intensity, the shift in color towards an almost neutral blue, and the blurring of contours as the intended distance between eye and object increases.

Atmospheric/ Aerial Perspective

A vault semi-cylindrical in its cross section resembling a deeply recessed arch of uninterrupted series of arches.

Barrel Vault

A church structure based on a rectangular or axial plan extending from the opening on one end to the apse at the other.

Basilica (Longitudinal Church)

An exterior masonry structure that opposes the lateral thrust of an arch or vault.

Buttress

In drawing or painting, the treatment and use of light and dark, especially the gradations of light that produce the effect of modeling.

Chiaroscuro

The space reserved for the clergy in the church, often just east of the transept through occasionally merging into the nave.

Choir

The fenestrated section of a building that rises above the roofline of the other parts of the structure to allow light to pass into the main vessel.

Clerestory

A sunken panel, often ornamental in a vault or a ceiling.

Coffer

A slender, upright structure, often support for a building.

Column

The way in which an artist organizes forms in an artwork, either by placing shaped on a flat surface of arranging forms in space.

Composition

The transfer of weight from one side of the body to the next (Usually in the legs and hips) creating a counter balance in the body with tension on one side and relaxation on the other.

Contrapposto

A church structure bearing a central nave that is intersected with a transept; a church that is cross-shaped in architectural plan.

Cruciform Church