 | Term | Definition |
| |
westwork |
the facade and towers at the western end of a medieval church |
| |
ambulatory |
passageway around the apse and choir of a church |
| |
tympanum |
lunette-shaped space above the portals of Romanesque and Gothic churches |
| |
clerestory |
a row of windows in the upper part of a wall |
| |
barrel vault |
deep arch or an uninterrupted series of arches |
| |
groin vault |
vault formed at the point at which two barrel vaults intersect at right angles |
| |
crypt |
a vaulted space usually located under the apse of a church |
| |
vellum |
calfskin prepared as a surface for writing or painting |
| |
diptych |
a two-paneled painting or altarpiece |
| |
triptych |
three-paneled painting or altarpiece |
| |
predella |
the painted or sculpted lower portion of an altarpiece that relates to the subjects of the upper portion |
| |
chiaroscuro |
treatment and use of light and dark, especially by gradations of light that produce the effect of mottling |
| |
cartoon |
a full-size preliminary drawing from which a painting is made |
| |
ecorche |
a figure painted or sculpted to show the muscles of the body as if without skin |
| |
orthogonal |
a line imagined to be behind and perpendicular to the picture plane |
| |
intaglio |
a graphic technique in which the design in incised, or scratched, on a metal plate |
| |
impasto |
technique in which the artist applies thick layers of oil paint |
| |
Japonisme |
the French fascination with all things Japanese |
| |
avant-garde |
late 19th and 20th century artists whose work emphasized innovation and challenged established conventions |
| |
Bauhaus |
a school of architecture in Germany in the 1920s under the leadership of Walter Gropius |
| |
ready-made |
an ordinary object that, when an artist gives it a new context and title, is transformed into an art object |
| |
cantilever |
a beam or structure that is anchored at one end and projects horizontally beyond its vertical support |
| |
biomorphic |
forms that resemble or suggest shapes found in nature |
| |
assemblage |
an artwork constructed from existing objects |
| |
photomontage |
a composition made by pasting together pictures or parts of pictures, especially photographs |
| |
stupa |
a large, mound-shaped Buddhist shrine |
| |
pagoda |
a multistoried Chinese tower, usually associated with a Buddhist temple, having a multiplicity of projected eaves |
| |
pueblo |
a communal multistoried dwelling made of stone or adobe brick by the Native Americans of the Southwest |
| |
Mudrah |
in Buddhist and Hindu iconography, a stylized and symbolic hand gesture |
| |
Ukiyo-e |
Japanese for "pictures of the floating world" |
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