Abbey: a monastery for monks, or a convent for nuns, and the church that is connected to it (Figure 11.4a)
Abstract: works of art that may have form, but have little or no attempt at pictorial representation (Figure 22.14)
Academy: an institution whose main objects include training artists in an academic tradition, ennobling the profession, and holding exhibitions
Acropolis: literally, a “high city,” a Greek temple complex built on a hill over a city
Action painting: an abstract painting in which the artist drips or splatters paint onto a surface like a canvas in order to create the work (Figure 22.21)
Adobe: a building material made from earth, straw, or clay dried in the sun (Figure 27.2)
Agora: a public plaza in a Greek city where commercial, religious, and societal activities are conducted (Figure 4.15)
‘Ahu ‘ula: Hawaiian feather cloaks (Figure 28.4)
Aka: an elephant mask of the Bamileke people of Cameroon (Figure 27.12)
Aerial perspective: see Perspective
Altarpiece: a painted or sculpted panel set atop an altar of a church
Ambulatory: a passageway around the apse or an altar of a church (Figure 11.3)
Amphiprostyle: having four columns in the front and rear of a temple
Amphora: a two-handled ancient Greek storage jar
Anamorphic image: an image that must be viewed by a special means, such as a mirror, in order to be recognized (Figure 19.9)
Andachtsbild: an image used for private contemplation and devotion (Figure 12.7)
Animal style: a medieval art form in which animals are depicted in a stylized and often complicated pattern, usually seen fighting with one another (Figure 10.2a)
Ankh: an Egyptian symbol of life
Annunciation: in Christianity, an episode in the Book of Luke 1:26–38 in which Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would be the Virgin Mother of Jesus (Figure 14.1)
Anthropomorphic: having characteristics of the human form, although the form itself is not human (Figure 1.2)
Apadana: an audience hall in a Persian palace (Figure 2.16)
Apocalypse: last book of the Christian Bible, sometimes called Revelations, which details God’s destruction of evil and consequent rising to heaven of the righteous (Figure 12.9a)
Apotheosis: a type of painting in which the figures are rising heavenward (Figure 21.7)
Apotropaic: having the power to ward off evil or bad luck
Apse: the end point of a church where the altar is (Figure 7.2)
Aquatint: a kind of print that achieves a watercolor effect by using acids that dissolve onto a copper plate (Figure 21.7)
Arabesque: a flowing, intricate, and symmetrical pattern deriving from floral motifs (Figure 9.1)
Arcade: a series of arches supported by columns; when the arches face a wall and are not self-supporting, they are called a blind arcade
Arcadian: a simple rural and rustic setting used especially in Venetian paintings of the High Renaissance; it is named after Arcadia, a district in Greece to which poets and painters have attributed a rural simplicity and an idyllically untroubled world
Archaeology: the scientific study of ancient people and cultures principally revealed through excavation
Architrave: a plain nonornamented lintel on the entablature (Figure 4.14)
Archivolt: a series of concentric moldings around an arch (Figure 11.5)
Ashlar masonry: carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of masonry (Figure 23.7a)
Assemblage: a three-dimensional work made of various materials such as wood, cloth, paper, and miscellaneous objects (Figure 29.12)
Athena: Greek goddess of war and wisdom; patron of Athens
Atmospheric perspective: see Perspective
Atrium (plural: atria): a courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church (Figure 7.2)
Avant-garde: an innovative group of artists who generally reject traditional approaches in favor of a more experimental technique
Axial plan (Basilican plan, Longitudinal plan): a church with a long nave whose focus is the apse, so-named because it is designed along an axis (Figure 7.2)
Bandolier bag: a large heavily beaded pouch with a slit on top worn at the waist with a strap over the shouler (Figure 26.11)
Baptistery: in medieval architecture, a separate chapel or building generally in front of a church used for baptisms
Barrel vault: see Vault
Basilica: in Roman architecture, a large axially planned building with a nave, side aisles, and apses (Figure 6.10a). In Christian architecture, an axially planned church with a long nave, side aisles, and an apse for the altar (Figure 7.2)
Bas-relief: a very shallow relief sculpture (Figure 23.5b)
Bay: a vertical section of a church that is embraced by a set of columns and is usually composed of arches and aligned windows (Figure 11.2)
Bent-axis: an architectural plan in which an approach to a building requires an angular change of direction, as opposed to a direct and straight entry (Figure 2.1)
Bi: a round ceremonial disk found in ancient Chinese tombs; characterized by having a circular hole in the center, which may have symbolized heaven.
Biombos: folding free-standing screens (Figures 18.3a and 18.3b)
Biomorphism: a movement that stresses organic shapes that hint at natural forms
Bodhisattva: a deity who refrains from entering nirvana to help others (Figure 24.9c)
Bottega: the studio of an Italian artist
Buddha: a fully enlightened being; there are many Buddhas, the most famous of whom is Sakyamuni, also known as Gautama or Siddhartha (Figure 23.5)
Bundu: masks used by the women’s Sande society to bring girls into puberty (Figure 27.9)
Bust: a sculpture depicting a head, neck, and upper chest of a figure (Figure 6.14)
Byeri: in the art of the Fang people, a reliquary guardian figure (Figure 27.13)
Calligraphy: decorative or beautiful handwriting (Figure 9.2)
Calotype: a type of early photograph, developed by William H. F. Talbot, that is characterized by its grainy quality; a calotype is considered the forefather of all photography because it produces both a positive and a negative image
Camera obscura: (Latin, meaning “dark room”) a box with a lens which captures light and casts an image on the opposite side (Figure 20.7)
Caprice: usually a work of art that is an architectural fantasy; more broadly any work that has a fantasy element (Figure 20.2)
Cantilever: a projecting beam that is attached to a building at one end and suspended in the air at the other (Figure 22.15)
Canvas: a heavy woven material used as the surface of a painting; first widely used in Venice (Figure 17.11)
Capital: the top element of a column (Figure 3.3)
Caricature: a drawing that uses distortion or exaggeration of someone’s physical features or apparel in order to make that person look foolish
Caryatid (male: atlantid): a column in a building that is shaped like a female figure
Cassone (plural: cassoni): a trunk intended for storage of clothing for a wife’s trousseau (Figure 16.4)
Casta paintings: paintings from New Spain showing people of mixed races (Figure 18.5)
Catacomb: an underground passageway used for burial (Figure 7.1c)
Cathedral: the principal church of a diocese, where a bishop sits (Figure 11.4a)
Cella: the main room of a temple where the god is housed
Central plan: a building having a circular plan with the altar in the middle (Figure 9.12b)
Chacmool: a Mayan figure that is half-sitting and half-lying on its back
Chalice: a cup containing wine used in a Christian ceremony (Figure 8.6)
Chapter house: a building next to a church used for meetings (Figures 15.1a and 15.1b)
Chasing: to ornament metal by indenting into a surface with a hammer (Figure 10.1)
Chevet: the east end of a Gothic church (Figure 12.2)
Chiaroscuro: a gradual transition from light to dark in a painting; forms are not determined by sharp outlines, but by the meeting of lighter and darker areas (Figure 16.4)
Choir: a space in a church between the transept and the apse for a choir or clergymen (Figure 12.2)
Cinquecento: the 1500s, or sixteenth century, in Italian art
Cire perdue: the lost-wax process. A bronze casting method in which a figure is modeled in clay and covered with wax and then recovered with clay. When fired in a kiln, the wax melts away leaving a channel between the two layers of clay that can be used as a mold for liquid metal (Figure 21.15)
Clerestory: the third, or window, story of a church (Figure 12.4d); also, a roof that rises above lower roofs and thus has window space beneath (Figure 3.8b)
Cloissonné: enamelwork in which colored areas are separated by thin bands of metal, usually gold or bronze (Figure 10.1)
Close: an enclosed gardenlike area around a cathedral
Codex (plural: codices): a manuscript book (Figure 10.2a)
Coffer: in architecture, a sunken panel in a ceiling (Figure 6.5)
Coiling: a method of creating pottery in which a rope-like strand of clay is wrapped and layered into a shape before being fired in a kiln
Collage: a composition made by pasting together different items onto a flat surface
Colophon: 1) a commentary on the end panel of a Chinese scroll; 2) an inscription at the end of a manuscript containing relevant information on its publication (Figure 24.3a)
Color field: a style of abstract painting characterized by simple shapes and monochromatic color
Composite column: one that contains a combination of volutes from the Ionic order and acanthus leaves from the Corinthian order
Compound pier: a pier that appears to be a group or gathering of smaller piers put together (Figure 12.4c)
Confucianism: a philosophical belief begun by Confucius that stresses education, devotion to family, mutual respect, and traditional culture
Cong: a tubular object with a circular hole cut into a square-like cross section (Figure 1.3)
Continuous narrative: a work of art that contains several scenes of the same story painted or sculpted in continuous succession (Figure 8.7)
Contrapposto: a graceful arrangement of the body based on tilted shoulders and hips and bent knees (Figure 4.3)
Corbel arch: a vault formed by layers of stone that gradually grow closer together as they rise until they eventually meet (Figure 23.7a)
Corinthian: an order of ancient Greek architecture similar to the Ionic, except that the capitals are carved in tiers of leaves
Coyolxauhqui: an Aztec moon goddess whose name means “Golden Bells” (Figure 30.15)
Cornice: a projecting ledge over a wall (Figure 8.3b)
Cubiculum (plural: cubicula): a Roman bedroom flanking an atrium; in Early Christian art, a mortuary chapel in a catacomb (Figure 7.1c)
Cuneiform: a system of writing in which the strokes are formed in a wedge or arrowhead shape
Cupola: a small dome rising over the roof of a building. In architecture, a cupola is achieved by rotating an arch on its axis
Cyclopean masonry: a type of construction that uses rough massive blocks of stone piled one atop the other without mortar. Named for the mythical Cyclops
Daguerreotype: a type of early photograph, developed by Daguerre, which is characterized by a shiny surface, meticulous finish, and clarity of detail. A daguerreotype is a unique photograph; it has no negative (Figure 20.8)
Daoism: a philosophical belief begun by Laozi that stresses individual expression and a striving to find balance in one’s life
Darshan: in Hinduism, the ability of a worshipper to see a deity and the deity to see the worshipper
Di sotto in sù: “from the bottom up,” a type of ceiling painting in which the figures seem to be hovering above the viewers, often looking down at us (Figure 17.6)
Documentary photography: a type of photography that seeks social and political redress for current issues by using photographs as a way of exposing society’s faults (Figure 25.33)
Donor: a patron of a work of art who is often seen in that work
Doric: an order of ancient Greek architecture that features grooved columns with no grooved bases and an upper story with square sculpture called metopes (Figure 4.11)
Drypoint: an engraving technique in which a steel needle is used to incise lines in a metal plate. The rough burr at the sides of the incised lines yield a velvety black tone in the print.
Earthwork: a large outdoor work in which the earth itself is the medium (Figure 22.26)
Embroidery: a woven product in which the design is stitched into a premade fabric (Figure 11.7a)
Encaustic: an ancient method of painting using colored waxes that are burned into a wooden surface
Enconchados: shell-inlay paintings; tiny fragments of mother-of-pearl placed onto a wooden support and canvas and covered with a yellowish tint and thin glazes of paint (Figure 18.4)
Engaged column: a column that is not freestanding but attached to a wall (Figure 3.2)
Engraving: a printmaking process in which a tool called a burin is used to carve into a metal plate, causing impressions to be made in the surface. Ink is passed into the crevices of the plate, and paper is applied. The result is a print with remarkable details and finely shaded contours (Figure 14.3)
Entablature: the upper story of a Greek temple (Figure 4.14)
Entombment: a painting or sculpture depicting Jesus Christ’s burial after his crucifixion (Figure 16.5)
Escudo: a framed painting worn below the neck in a colonial Spanish painting (Figure 18.6)
Etching: a printmaking process in which a metal plate is covered with a ground made of wax. The artist uses a tool to cut into the wax to leave the plate exposed. The plate is then submerged into an acid bath, which eats away at the exposed portions of the plate. The plate is removed from the acid, cleaned, and ink is filled into the crevices caused by the acid. Paper is applied and an impression is made. Etching produces the finest detail of the three types of early prints (Figure 17.9)
Eucharist: the bread sanctified by the priest at the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper
Exemplum virtutis: a painting that tells a moral tale for the viewer (Figure 19.6)
Façade: the front of a building
Ferroconcrete: steel-reinforced concrete; the two materials act together to resist building stresses
Fête galante: an eighteenth-century French style of painting that depicts the aristocracy walking through a forested landscape
Fetish: an object believed to possess magical powers
Fibula (plural: fibulae): a clasp used to fasten garments (Figure 10.1)
Flood story: as told in Genesis 7 of the Bible, Noah and his family escape rising waters by building an ark and placing two of every animal aboard (Figure 16.2d)
Flying buttress: a stone arch and its pier that support a roof from a pillar outside the building. Flying buttresses also stabilize a building and protect it from wind sheer (Figure 12.1)
Foreshortening: a visual effect in which an object is shortened and turned deeper into the picture plane to give the effect of receding in space (Figures 6.12a and 6.12b)
Forum (plural: fora): a public square or marketplace in a Roman city (Figure 6.10a)
Fresco: a painting technique that involves applying water-based paint onto a freshly plastered wall. The paint forms a bond with the plaster that is durable and long-lasting (Figure 6.13)
Frieze: a horizontal band of sculpture
Garba griha: a “womb chamber,” the inner room in a Hindu temple that houses a god’s image
Gallery: a passageway inside or outside a church that generally is characterized as having a colonnade or an arcade (Figure 11.4b)
Genesis: first book of the Bible that details Creation, the Flood, Rebecca at the Well, and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, among other episodes (Figure 8.7)
Genre painting: painting in which scenes of everyday life are depicted (Figure 14.6)
Gigantomachy: a mythical ancient Greek war between the giants and the Olympian gods (Figure 4.9)
Glazes: thin transparent layers put over a painting to alter the color and build up a rich sonorous effect
Gospels: the first four books of the New Testament that chronicle the life of Jesus Christ (Figure 10.2a)
Grand manner: a style of eighteenth-century painting that features large painting with figures posed as ancient statuary or before classical elements such as columns or arches
Grand tour: in order to complete their education young Englishmen and Americans in the eighteenth century undertook a journey to Italy to absorb ancient and Renaissance sites
Groin vault: see Vault
Ground line: a base line upon which figures stand (Figure 2.3)
Ground plan: the map of a floor of a building
Haboku (splashed ink): a monochrome Japanese ink painting done in a free style in which ink seems to be splashed on a surface
Haggadah (plural: Haggadot): literally “narration”; specifically, a book containing the Jewish story of Passover and the ritual of the Seder (Figures 12.10a, 12.10b, and 12.10c)
Hajj: an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that is required as one of the five pillars of Islam
Hammerbeam: a type of roof in English Gothic architecture, in which timber braces curve out from walls and meet high over the middle of the floor (Figure 12.5)
Hanja: Chinese characters used in Korean script with a Korean pronunciation
Happening: an act of performance art that is intially planned but involves spontaneity, improvisation, and often audience participation
Harlem Renaissance: a particularly rich artistic period in the 1920s and 1930s that is named after the African-American neighborhood in New York City where it emerged. It is marked by a cultural resurgence by African-Americans in the fields of painting, writing, music, and photography
Henge: a Neolithic monument, characterized by a circular ground plan; used for rituals and marking astronomical events (Figure 1.12b)
Hierarchy of scale: a system of representation that expresses a person’s importance by the size of his or her representation in a work of art (Figure 3.4)
Hieroglyphics: Egyptian writing using symbols or pictures as characters (Figure 3.12)
Horror vacui: (Latin, meaning “fear of empty spaces”) a type of artwork in which the entire surface is filled with objects, people, designs, and ornaments in a crowded and sometimes congested way (Figure 23.5b)
Huitzilopochtli: an Aztec god of the sun and war; sometimes represented as an eagle or as a hummingbird
Humanism: an intellectual movement in the Renaissance that emphasized the secular alongside the religious. Humanists were greatly attracted to the achievements of the classical past and stressed the study of classical literature, history, philosophy, and art
Hypostyle: a hall that has a roof supported by a dense thicket of columns (Figure 3.8b)
Icon: a devotional panel depicting a sacred image (Figure 8.8)
Iconoclasm: the destruction of religious images that are seen as heresy (Figure 23.3)
Iconostasis: a screen decorated with icons, which separates the apse from the transept of a church
Ignudi: nude corner figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Ikenga: a shrine figure symbolizing traditional male attributes of the Igbo people (Figure 27.10)
Illuminated manuscript: a manuscript that is hand decorated with painted initials, marginal illustrations and larger images that add a pictorial element to the written text (Figures 10.2a, 10.2b and 10.2c)
Impasto: a thick and very visible application of paint on a painting surface
Impluvium: a rectangular basin in a Roman house that is placed in the open-air atrium in order to collect rainwater (Figure 6.7b)
In situ: a Latin expression that means that something is in its original location
Installation: a temporary work of art made up of assemblages created for a particular space, like an art gallery or a museum (Figure 22.25b)
Ionic: an order of Greek architecture that features columns with scrolled capitals and an upper story with sculptures that are in friezes (Figure 4.11)
Isocephalism: the tradition of depicting heads of figures on the same level (Figure 4.5)
Iwan: a rectangular vaulted space in a Muslim building that is walled on three sides and open on the fourth (Figure 9.13a)
Jali: perforated ornamental stone screens in Islamic art
Jamb: the side posts of a medieval portal (Figure 11.5)
Japonisme: an attraction for Japanese art and artifacts that were imported into Europe in the late nineteenth century
Ka: the soul, or spiritual essence, of a human being that either ascends to heaven or can live in an Egyptian statue of itself
Keystone: the center stone of an arch that holds the other stones in place (Figure 11.5)
Kiln: an oven used for making pottery
Kitsch: something of low quality that appeals to popular taste (Figure 29.10)
Kiva: a circular room wholly or partly underground used for religious rites
Kondo: a hall used for Buddhist teachings (Figure 25.1a)
Kouros (female: kore): an archaic Greek sculpture of a standing youth (Figures 4.1 and 4.2)
Krater: a large ancient Greek bowl used for mixing water and wine (Figure 4.19)
Kufic: a highly ornamental Islamic script (Figure 9.5)
Lamassu: a colossal winged human-headed bull in Assyrian art (Figure 2.5)
Lamentation: a scene that shows Jesus’ followers mourning his death; usually includes Mary, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene (Figure 13.1c)
Lancet: a tall narrow window with a pointed arch, usually filled with stained glass (Figure 12.8)
Lapis lazuli: a deep-blue stone prized for its color
Last Judgment: in Christianity, the judgment before God at the end of the world (Figure 13.1b)
Last Supper: a meal shared by Jesus Christ with his apostles the night before his death by crucifixion (Figure 16.1)
Linear perspective: see Perspective
Lintel: a horizontal beam over an opening (Figure 1.12)
Literati: a sophisticated and scholarly group of Chinese artists who painted for themselves rather than for fame and mass acceptance. Their work is highly individualized
Lithography: a printmaking technique that uses a flat stone surface as a base. The artist draws an image with a special crayon that attracts ink. Paper, which absorbs the ink, is applied to the surface and a print emerges (Figure 24.7)
Loculi: openings in the walls of catacombs to receive the dead
Lost-wax process: see Cire perdue
Lukasa: a memory board used by the Luba people of central Africa (Figure 27.11)
Lunette: a crescent-shaped space, sometimes over a doorway, which contains sculpture or painting
Madonna: the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ (Figure 15.3)
Madrasa: a Muslim school or university often attached to a mosque
Malagan: a traditional ceremony from Papua New Guinea, as well as the masks and costumes used in that ceremony (Figure 28.8)
Mana: a supernatural force believed to dwell in a person or in a sacred object (Figure 28.4)
Mandorla: (Italian, meaning “almond”) a term that describes a large almond-shaped orb around holy figures like Christ and Buddha (Figure 23.2)
Maniera greca: (Italian, meaning “Greek manner”) a style of painting based on Byzantine models that was popular in Italy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
Martyrium (plural: martyria): a shrine built over a place of martyrdom or a grave of a martyred Christian saint
Mastaba: (Arabic, meaning “bench”) a low flat-roofed Egyptian tomb with sides sloping down to the ground (Figure 3.1)
Mausoleum: a building, usually large, that contains tombs (Figure 9.17a)
Mblo: a commemorative portrait of the Baule people (Figure 27.7)
Mecca, Medina: Islamic holy cities; Mecca is the birthplace of Muhammad and the city all Muslims turn to in prayer; Medina is where Muhammad was first accepted as the Prophet, and where his tomb is located
Megalith: a stone of great size used in the construction of a prehistoric structure
Megaron: a rectangular audience hall in Aegean art that has a two-column porch and four columns around a central air well
Menhir: a large uncut stone erected as a monument in the prehistoric era
Mestizo: someone of mixed European and Native American descent (Figure 18.5)
Metope: a small relief sculpture on the façade of a Greek temple (Figure 4.14)
Mihrab: a central niche in a mosque, which indicates the direction to Mecca (Figure 9.10)
Minaret: a tall slender column used to call people to prayer (Figure 9.13a)
Minbar: a pulpit from which sermons are given
Mithuna: in India, the mating of males and females in a ritualistic, symbolic, or physical sense
Moai: large stone sculptures found on Easter Island (Figure 28.11)
Mobile: a sculpture made of several different items that dangle from a ceiling and can be set into motion by air currents
Modernism: a movement begun in the late nineteenth century in which artists embraced the current at the expense of the traditional in both subject matter and in media; modernist artists often seek to question the very nature of art itself
Moralized Bible: a Bible that pairs Old and New Testament scenes with paintings that explain their moral parallels (Figures 12.8a and 12.9b)
Mortise and tenon: a groove cut into stone or wood called a mortise that is shaped to receive a tenon, or projection, of the same dimensions
Mosaic: a decoration using pieces of stone, marble, or colored glass, called tesserae, that are cemented to a wall or a floor (Figure 8.5)
Mosque: a Muslim house of worship (Figure 9.14a)
Mudra: a symbolic hand gesture in Hindu and Buddhist art (Figure 23.1)
Muezzin: an Islamic official who calls people to prayer traditionally from a minaret
Muhammad (570?–632): the Prophet whose revelations and teachings form the foundation of Islam
Mullion: a central post or column that is a support element in a window or a door (Figure 15.2)
Muqarnas: a honeycomb-like decoration often applied in Islamic buildings to domes, niches, capitals, or vaults; the surface resembles intricate stalactites (Figure 9.15c)
Narthex: the closest part of the atrium to the basilica, it serves as a vestibule or lobby of a church
Nave: the main aisle of a church (Figure 11.4b)
Ndop: a Kuba commemorative portrait of a king in an ideal state (Figure 27.5a)
Necropolis (plural: necropoli): a large burial area; literally, a “city of the dead”
Negative space: empty space around an object or a person, such as the cut-out areas between a figure’s legs or arms in a sculpture
Neoplasticism: a term coined by Piet Mondrian to describe works of art that contain only the primary and neutral colors and straight, vertical, or horizontal lines intersecting at right angles
Nike: ancient Greek goddess of victory (Figure 4.8)
Niobe: the model of a grieving mother; after boasting of her twelve children, jealous gods killed them
Nirvana: an afterlife in which reincarnation ends and the soul becomes one with the supreme spirit
Nkisi n’kondi: a Kongo power figure (Figure 27.6)
Oculus: a circular window in a church or a round opening at the top of a dome (Figure 7.15)
Odalisque: a woman slave in a harem (Figure 20.3)
Ogee arch: an arch formed by two S-shaped curves that meet at the top (Figure 13.3)
Oil paint: a paint in which pigments are suspended in an oil-based medium. Oil dries slowly allowing for corrections or additions; oil also allows for a great range of luster and minute details (Figure 14.2)
Orans (or orant) figure: a figure with its hands raised in prayer
Orthogonal: lines that appear to recede toward a vanishing point in a painting with linear perspective
Pagoda: a tower built of many stories. Each succeeding story is identical in style to the one beneath it, only smaller. Pagodas typically have dramatically projecting eaves that curl up at the ends
Panathenaic Way: a ceremonial road for a procession built to honor Athena during a festival (Figure 4.15)
Papyrus: a tall aquatic plant used as a writing surface in ancient Egypt (Figure 3.12)
Parchment: a writing surface made from animal skins; particularly fine parchment made of calf skin is called vellum (Figures 10.2a, 10.2b and 10.2c)
Passover: an eight day Jewish festival that commemorates the exodus of Jews from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. So-called because an avenging angel of the Lord knew to “pass over” the homes of Jews who, in order to distinguish their houses from those of the pagan Egyptians, had sprinkled lamb’s blood over their doorways, thus preserving the lives of their first-born sons
Pastel: a colored chalk that when mixed with other ingredients produces a medium that has a soft and delicate hue
Paten: a plate, dish, or bowl used to hold the Eucharist at a Christian ceremony (Figure 8.5)
Pediment: the triangular top of a temple that contains sculpture (Figure 4.14)
Pendentive: a construction shaped like a triangle that transitions the space between flat walls and the base of a round dome (Figure 9.1)
Peplos: a garment worn by women in ancient Greece, usually full length and tied at the waist (Figure 4.2)
Peristyle: a colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a courtyard (Figures 4.16b, 6.7a)
Perspective: having to do with depth and recession in a painting or a relief sculpture. Objects shown in linear perspective achieve a three-dimensionality in the two-dimensional world of the picture plane. Lines, called orthogonals, draw the viewer back in space to a common point called the vanishing point. Paintings, however, may have more than one vanishing point, with orthogonals leading the eye to several parts of the work. Landscapes that give the illusion of distance are in atmospheric or aerial perspective
Pharaoh: a king of ancient Egypt (Figure 3.11)
Photogram: an image made by placing objects on photo-sensitive paper and exposing them to light to produce a silhouette
Pier: a vertical support that holds up an arch or a vault (Figure 11.4b)
Pietà: a painting or sculpture of a crucified Christ lying on the lap of his grieving mother, Mary (Figure 12.7)
Pietra serena: a dark gray stone used for columns, arches, and trim details in Renaissance buildings (Figure 15.1b)
Pilaster: a flattened column attached to a wall with a capital, a shaft, and a base (Figure 16.6a)
Pinnacle: a pointed sculpture on piers or flying buttresses (Figure 12.1)
Plein-air: painting in the outdoors to directly capture the effects of light and atmosphere on a given object
Porcelain: a ceramic made from clay that when fired in a kiln produces a product that is hard, white, brittle, and shiny (Figure 24.11)
Portal: a doorway; in medieval art they can be significantly decorated (Figure 11.5)
Portico: an entranceway to a building; it has columns supporting a roof
Potter’s wheel: a device that usually has a pedal used to make a flat, circular table spin, so that a potter can create pottery
Positivism: a theory that expresses that all knowledge must come from proven ideas based on science or scientific theory philosophy, promoted by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857)
Post-and-lintel: a method of construction with two posts supporting a horizontal beam, called a lintel (Figure 1.11)
Potlatch: a ceremonial feast among northwest coast American Indians in which a host demonstrates his or her generosity by bestowing gifts
Predella: the base of an altarpiece that is filled with small paintings, often narrative scenes (Figure 14.4a)
Propylaeum (plural: propylaea): a gateway leading to a Greek temple
Pueblo: a communal village of flat-roofed structures of many stories that are stacked in terraces. They are made of stone or adobe (Figure 26.3)
Puja: a Hindu prayer ritual
Pwo: a female mask worn by men of the Chokwe people (Figure 27.8)
Pyxis: (pronounced “pick-sis”) a small cylinder-shaped container with a detachable lid used to contain cosmetics or jewelry (Figure 9.4)
Pylon: a monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple marked by two flat, sloping walls between which is a smaller entrance
Qiblah: the direction toward Mecca which Muslims face in prayer
Quattrocento: the 1400s, or fifteenth century, in Italian art
Qur’an: the Islamic sacred text, dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel
Ready made: a commonplace object selected and exhibited as a work of art
Register: a horizontal band, often on top of another, that tells a narrative story (Figure 3.4)
Relief sculpture: sculpture which projects from a flat background. A very shallow relief sculpture is called a bas-relief (pronounced: bah-relief) (Figure 3.4)
Reliquary: a vessel for holding a sacred relic. Often reliquaries took the shape of the object they held. Precious metals and stones were the common material (Figure 11.6)
Repoussé: (French, meaning “to push back”) a type of metal relief sculpture in which the back side of a plate is hammered to form a raised relief on the front (Figure 26.7)
Reserve column: a column that is cut away from rock but has no support function
Rib vault: a vault in which diagonal arches form rib-like patterns; these arches partially support a roof, in some cases forming a weblike design (Figure 11.1)
Roof comb: a wall rising from the center ridge of a building to give the appearance of greater height (Figure 26.2a)
Rose window: a circular window, filled with stained glass, placed at the end of a transept or on the façade of a church (Figure 12.4d)
Sahn: a courtyard in Islamic architecture (Figure 9.16)
Sakyamuni: the historical Buddha, named after the town of Sakya, Buddha’s birthplace (Figure 23.3)
Salon: a government-sponsored exhibition of artworks held in Paris in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Sarcophagus (plural: sarcophagi): a stone coffin
Scarification: scarring of the skin in patterns by cutting with a knife. When the cut heals, a raised pattern is created, which is painted (Figure 27.7)
School: a group of artists sharing the same philosophy who work around the same time, but not necessarily together
Scriptorium (plural: scriptoria): a place in a monastery where monks wrote manuscripts
Seder: a ceremonial meal celebrated on the first two nights of Passover that commemorates the Israelites’ flight from Egypt as told in the Bible. It is marked by a reading of the Haggadah
Sfumato: a smoke-light or hazy effect that distances the viewer from the subject of a painting
Shaft: the body of a column (Figure 4.14)
Shamanism: a religion in which good and evil are brought about by spirits which can be influenced by shamans, who have access to these spirits
Shikara: a beehive-shaped tower on a Hindu temple (Figure 23.7a)
Shiva: the Hindu god of creation and destruction (Figure 23.6)
Sibyl: a Greco–Roman prophetess whom Christians saw as prefiguring the coming of Jesus Christ (Figure 16.2b)
Silkscreen: a printing technique that passes ink or paint through a stenciled image to make multiple copies (Figure 22.23)
Skeleton: the supporting interior framework of a building
Spandrel: a triangular space enclosed by the curves of arches (Figure 6.4)
Spire or Steeple: a tall pointed tower on a church (Figure 12.4b)
Spolia: in art history, the reuse of architectural or sculptural pieces in buildings generally different from their original contexts
Squinch: the polygonal base of a dome that makes a transition from the round dome to a flat wall (Figure 8.2)
Stele (plural: stelae): a stone slab used to mark a grave or a site (Figure 4.7)
Still life: a painting of a grouping of inanimate objects, such as flowers or fruit (Figure 17.11)
Stoa: an ancient Greek covered walkway having columns on one side and a wall on the other (Figure 4.15)
Stucco: a fine plaster used for wall decorations or moldings
Stupa: a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine (Figure 23.4a)
Stylized: a schematic, nonrealistic manner of representing the visible world and its contents, abstracted from the way that they appear in nature (Figure 1.2)
The sublime: any cathartic experience from the catastrophic to the intellectual that causes the viewer to marvel in awe, wonder, and passion (Figure 20.5)
Sunken relief: a carving in which the outlines of figures are deeply carved into a surface so that the figures seem to project forward
Tarashikomi: a Japanese painting technique in which paint is applied to a surface that has not already dried from a previous application (Figures 25.4a and 25.4b)
Tapa: a cloth made from bark that is soaked and beaten into a fabric (Figure 28.6)
Tapestry: a woven product in which the design and the backing are produced at the same time on a device called a loom
Tempera: a type of paint employing egg yolk as the binding medium that is noted for its quick drying rate and flat opaque colors (Figure 15.3)
Tenebroso/Tenebrism: a dramatic dark-and-light contrast in a painting (Figure 17.5)
Tepee: a portable Indian home made of stretched hides placed over wooden poles
Terra cotta: a hard ceramic clay used for building or for making pottery (Figure 5.5)
Tessellation: a decoration using polygonal shapes with no gaps (Figure 9.3)
Theotokos: the Virgin Mary in her role as the Mother of God (Figure 8.8)
Throwing: molding clay forms on a potter’s wheel
Tholos: (1) an ancient Mycenaean circular tomb in a beehive shape; (2) an ancient Greek circular building (Figure 4.12)
Tlaloc: ancient American god who was highly revered; associated with rain, agriculture, and war
T’oqapu: small rectangular shapes in an Inkan garment (Figure 26.10)
Torana: a gateway near a stupa that has two upright posts and three horizontal lintels. They are usually elaborately carved (Figure 23.4c)
Torons: wooden beams projecting from walls of adobe buildings (Figure 27.2)
Transept: an aisle in a church perpendicular to the nave (Figure 12.2)
Transformation mask: a mask worn in ceremonies by people of the Pacific Northwest, Canada, or Alaska. The chief feature of the mask is its ability to open and close, going from a bird-like exterior to a human-faced interior (Figures 26.12a and 26.12b)
Transverse arch: an arch that spans an interior space connecting opposite walls by crossing from side to side (Figure 11.4b)
Trecento: the 1300s, or fourteenth century, in Italian art
Triclinium: a dining table in ancient Rome that has a couch on three sides for reclining at meals or a room containing a triclinium (Figure 6.13)
Triforium: a narrow passageway with arches opening onto a nave, usually directly below a clerestory (Figure 11.2)
Trigylph: a projecting grooved element alternating with a metope on a Greek temple (Figure 4.14)
Triptych: a three-paneled painting or sculpture (Figure 14.1)
Trompe l’oeil: (French, meaning “fools the eye”) a form of painting that attempts to represent an object as existing in three dimensions, and therefore resembles the real thing (Figure 17.6)
Trumeau (plural: trumeaux): the central pillar of a medieval portal that stabilizes the structure. It is often elaborately decorated (Figure 11.5)
Tufa: a porous rock similar to limestone
Tuscan order: an order of ancient architecture featuring slender, smooth columns that sit on simple bases; no carvings on the frieze or in the capitals (Figure 5.2)
Tympanum (plural: tympana): a rounded sculpture placed over the portal of a medieval church (Figure 11.5)
Ukiyo-e: translated as “pictures of the floating world,” a Japanese genre painting popular from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries (Figure 25.5)
Urna: a circle of hair on the brows of a deity sometimes represented as the focal point (Figure 23.1)
Ushnisha: a protrusion at the top of the head, or the top knot of a Buddha (Figure 23.1)
Vairocana: the universal Buddha, a source of enlightenment; also known as the Supreme Buddha who represents “emptiness,” that is, freedom from earthly matters to help achieve salvation (Figure 23.2a)
Vanitas: a theme in still life painting that stresses the brevity of life and the folly of human vanity
Vault: a roof constructed with arches. When an arch is extended in space, forming a tunnel, it is called a barrel vault (Figure 6.1). When two barrel vaults intersect at right angles it is called a groin vault (Figure 6.2). See also rib vault
Venice Biennale: a major show of contemporary art that takes place every other year in various venues throughout the city of Venice; begun in 1895 (Figure 22.25b)
Veristic: sculptures from the Roman Republic characterized by extreme realism of facial features (Figure 6.14)
Vishnu: the Hindu god worshipped as the protector and preserver of the world (Figure 23.8c)
Votive: an object, such as a candle, offered in fulfillment of a vow or a pledge (Figure 2.2)
Voussoir: (pronounced “v
-swar”) a wedge-shaped stone that forms the curved part of an arch; the central voussoir is called a keystone (Figure 9.14d)
Wapepe: navigation charts from the Marshall Islands (Figure 28.3)
Wat: a Buddhist monastery or temple in Cambodia (Figure 23.8a)
Woodcut: a printmaking process by which a wooden tablet is carved into with a tool, leaving the design raised and the background cut away (very much as how a rubber stamp looks); ink is rolled onto the raised portions, and an impression is made when paper is applied to the surface; woodcuts have strong angular surfaces with sharply delineated lines (Figure 14.5)
Yakshi (masculine: yaksha): female and male figures of fertility in Buddhist and Hindu art (Figure 23.4c)
Yamato-e: a style of Japanese painting that is characterized by native subject matter, stylized features, and thick bright pigments
Yin and yang: complementary polarities; the yin is a feminine symbol that has dark, soft, moist, and weak characteristics; the yang is the male symbol that has bright, hard, dry, and strong characteristics (Figure 24.3c)
Zen: a metaphysical branch of Buddhism that teaches fulfillment through self-discipline and intuition
Zeus: king of the ancient Greek gods; known as Jupiter to the Romans; god of the sky and weather
Ziggurat: a pyramidlike building made of several stories that indent as the building gets taller; ziggurats have terraces at each level (Figure 2.1a)
Zoomorphic: having elements of animal shapes
Zoopraxiscope: a device that projects sequences of photographs to give the illusion of movement (Figure 21.5)