Art history
This discipline is dedicated to
reconstructing the various contexts in
which a work of art was produced.
Aesthetics
This term refers to the philosophical
inquiry into the nature and expression of
beauty.
Art criticism
This term refers to the explanation
of current art events to the masses.
Formal analysis
This type of analysis focuses on only
the visual qualities of an artwork.
Contextual analysis
In this type of analysis, critics look at the
environment surrounding a work of art's
creation and consumption.
Chronological
Art historians follow this
development pattern.
Close examination of
artwork
Art historians begin an
analysis with this act.
Photographs
These artworks appear flatter and lacking
in subtlety when reproduced in books.
Participant observation
This method of art historical study
is influenced by anthropology.
Pliny the Elder
This ancient Roman historian
wrote Natural History.
The Lives of the Artists
Giorgio Vasari wrote this
important art historical work.
Artistic genius
This concept developed during the
Renaissance and is discussed in The Lives
of the Artists.
Johann Joachim
Winckelmann
This German scholar emphasized the
study of stylistic development in relation
to historical context.
Feminist historians
This group of historiansrevised art
history to include more women.
Visual culture
This broad area of artistic concern
includes advertisements, television, etc.
Stone, metal, and fired clay
These three enduring materials reveal
much about early civilizations.
Papyrus
This delicate material survived in Egypt
due to its hot, dry climate.
Caves and tombs
These two types of sealed areas helped
preserve ancient artworks around the
world.
Western art was often
better preserved.
Art criticism has focused on
Western cultures for this reason.
Central and South America
This geographical region features known
but unexplored historical sites.
Chauvet Cave
This cave is the site of Old Stone Age cave
paintings in southeastern France.
Red ochre, black charcoal,
and a bit of yellow
These three colors appear in
the Chauvet Cave paintings.
Animals such as horses, rhinoceros,
lions, buffalos, and mammoths
These beings are the subjects
of the Chauvet Cave paintings.
Lascaux and Altamira
These caves are the two most
famous cave painting sites.
Human hands
This part of the human body is
depicted in Lascaux and Altamira.
Venus of Willendorf
This Old Stone Age statuette exhibits
exaggerated female features.
Fertility statue
Historians suspect that this use may be
the purpose of Venus of Willendorf.
Rock shelters
These dwellings developed
during the Middle Stone Age.
Depiction of the human
figure
This detail distinguished rock shelter
paintings from older cave paintings.
Megaliths
These large rock constructions were
built during the New Stone Age.
Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire,
England
This location is the home
of Stonehenge.
Sarsen
Stonehenge uses this form
of sandstone.
Tigris and Euphrates
These two rivers border
Mesopotamia.
Ziggurats
Sumerians built these stepped
pyramids for religious purposes.
King of Ur
This neo-Sumerian ruler reasserted
control of Sumer after the Guti conquest.
Shamash
This sun-god appears upon the stone
stele of the Code of Hammurabi.
Relief carvings depicting battles, sieges,
hunts, and other important events
These carvings are the most notable
Assyrian artworks from 900 to 600
B.C.E.
Bel
The Ishtar Gate is dedicated
to this Babylonian deity.
Persepolis
Location of Persian palace constructed of
stone, brick, and wood in an Egyptian
architectural style
Alexander the Great
This man conquered Egypt
in 332 B.C.E.
Queen Nefertiti
This Egyptian queen's portrait bust is
among Ancient Egypt's most recognizable
works.
Hierarchical scale
This manner of depicting figures in an
artworkportrays those with greater social
status in a larger scale.
Palette of King Narmer
This Egyptian artifact used for mixing
cosmetics displays hierarchical scale.
Fractional representation
This Egyptian painting method depicts
each part of the body as clearly as
possible.
Elaborate burials
This Egyptian custompreserved
rich stores of objects.
Tutankhamen
This Egyptian boy king's tomb
contained a wealth of artifacts.
Gold, blue glass, and semi- These three materials appear
on Tutankhamen's burial mask.
precious stones
Nubia
This kingdom south of Egypt once
ruled its northern neighbor.
Simplified, geometric nude
The Cycladic culture is
famous for these sculptures.
females
Knossos on Crete
The Minoan culture was
centered on this city.
Minotaur
This half-man, half-bull creature was
rumored to live in a Minoan maze.
Mycenaean culture
This culture arose and
replaced the Minoans.
Gold
The best-known Mycenaean
artifacts are made from this metal.
Limestone and marble
The Greeks used these two types of stone
to create freestanding sculptures.
Doric and Ionic
These two architectural styles were used
in building Greek temples between 660
and 474 B.C.E.
Corinthian style vases
Figures are portrayed against a floral
background in this style of vase.
Large, linear black figures
These types of figures appeared
on Athenian style vases.
Roman replicas of Greek
art
Information about Doric columns
has survived in this manner.
Contrapposto
This manner of posing standing figures
by shifting their weight onto one leg was
developed by the Greeks.
Persians
This culture was responsible for
destroying the Parthenon.
Peloponnesian War
This war signaled the beginning of the
Late Classical Period and the decline of
architecture.
Venus de Milo and the
Laocoön Group
These two statues are notable
artworks of the Hellenistic Period.
Brick and wood
Etruscan structures were built
from these two materials.
Ceramic models
Information about Etruscan buildings has
survived in this manner.
Clay and bronze
Most surviving Etruscan art is
constructed from these two media.
Concrete
This Roman discovery allowed the
construction of huge domed buildings.
Curved arch
This development allowed the Romans to
construct bridges and aqueducts.
The Pantheon and the
Colosseum
These two buildings, still standing in
Rome, represent the genius of Roman
engineering.
Relief sculptures portraying Roman
emperors or military victories
These artworks often sit atop
Roman triumphal arches.
Carrying small carved
images of the deceased
This funereal ritual became
common in the Roman Republic.
Mosaics made from small
ceramic tiles.
Byzantine artists are best
known for these artworks
Ravenna
This Italian city is famous for
its Byzantine mosaics.
Latin
This language was the international
language in the medieval period.
Book of Kells and the
Coronation Gospels
These two books are notable examples of
medieval illuminated manuscripts.
Germanic peoples
These early medieval people were
famous for their metalwork
Vikings
This medieval culture was famous
for itsimmense wooden ships.
Saint-Sernin
This famous Romanesque
church is in Toulouse, France.
Vault
This arch-shaped structure can be used as
a ceiling or to support a roof.
Ribbed vaults
This term refers to a framework of thin
stone arches or ribs beneath intersections
of vaulted portions of Gothic ceilings.
Flying buttresses
This term refers to arches or bracing
materials placed on the outsides of
buildings.
Chartres Cathedral
This French Gothic cathedral is famous
for its large stained-glass windows and
flying buttresses.
Giotto di Bondone
This Florentine fresco painter is famous
as a transitional artist between the Gothic
and Renaissance.
Paper money
This innovation allowed the Medici
family to acquire a vast fortune.
Intellectual figures of high
status
Artists played this role
during the Renaissance.
Baptistery
A competition was held in Florence to
design the doors for this building.
Twenty-five years
The "Gates of Paradise" required this
number of years for for Lorenzo Ghiberti
to complete them.
Double-shelled dome
This type of structure was Filippo
Brunelleschi's winning design for the
dome of the cathedral in Florence.
Linear and aerial
These two types of perspective were used
by Masaccio in frescoes.
A bronze statue of David
This statue is Donatello's
most well-known work.
The Birth of Venus
This work by Botticelliestablished a longlasting image of female beauty.
Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo
These two men inspired the
term "Renaissance Man."
Locks which control water
flow through canals
These prototypes designed by da
Vinci are still used today.
The Last Supper and the
Mona Lisa
These two paintings of da Vinci's have
become well known in popular culture.
Sfumato
This term refers to the use of mellowed
colors and blurred outlines allowing
colors to blend subtly in paintings.
David
Michelangelo created this sculpture from
an immense piece of cracked marble.
Pope Julius II
This religious leader commissioned
Michelangelo to design first his tomb and
then the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.
Raphael Sanzio
This High Renaissance artist painted
frescoes, including the School of Athens,
and influential images of the Madonna.
Giorgione
This Venetian painter is credited with
making landscapes viable subject matter
for paintings.
Titian Vecelli
This Venetian portraitist, known as an
influential colorist, used columns or
drapes as backgrounds for portraits.
Mannerism
This painting style featured warped
perspective and acidic colors.
Chiaroscuro
This term refers to dramatic contrasts of
dark and light in a painting.
Counter Reformation
The Catholic church launched this
movement, emphasizing lavish church
decoration and extreme emotion.
El Greco
This well-known Mannerist painter's
work emphasized the emotion of the
counter-reformation.
The Alps
This geographical feature divided the
Southern Renaissance from the stillGothic North.
Engravings
Copies of Italian Renaissance artworks
became available in the North through
this medium.
Germany
This country's upper-class merchants
traded considerably with Venice,
inspiring the Northern Renaissance.
Matthias Grünewald and
Albrecht Dürer
These two men are considered the
greatest artists of the Renaissance in
northern Europe.
Ten works
This number of Matthias Grünewald's
works are known to have survived.
Isenheim Altarpiece
This work, consisting of nine panels on
two sets of folding wings, is considered
Matthias Grünewald's masterpiece.
Albrecht Dürer
This man is considered the most famous
artist of Reformation Germany.
The naturalistic detail popular in the
north with the theoretical ideas of Italian
artists
Albrecht Dürer's artistic style aimed
to combine these two traits.
Theories of art
Albrecht Dürer wrote
about this topic.
Hans Holbein the Younger
This great Renaissance portraitist was
born in Germany but best known for his
work in England.
Henry VIII of England
Hans Holbein's portrait of this monarch
captures the subject's psychological
character.
Jesuits
This religious order founded in the
Baroque era focused on gathering
converts worldwide.
Maria Theresa of Austria, Peter the Great
and Catherine the Great of Russia, and
King Louis XIV of France
These four powerful Baroque
sovereigns ruled by divine right.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This Enlightenment author's work was a
protest against the concentration of
wealth.
Caravaggio
This Baroque artist used chiaroscuro so
extensively that his name is used to
describe extremes of dark and light.
Depiction of biblical figures as
poor people in ragged clothing
This naturalistic aspect of Caravaggio's
work caused some patrons to reject his
work.
Artemisia Gentileschi
This female baroque artist was the daughter
of a painter, and her works include paintings
of Old-Testament women.
Ecstasy of St. Theresa
This sculpture, done by Bernini for the
Cornaro Chapel, attempts to recreate
clouds and fabric in stone.
Rembrandt van Rijn
This Dutch Baroque artist was famous for
his painting, printmaking, and especially
draftsmanship.
Versailles
This lavish palace created for Louis XIV
allowed French culture and Baroque art
blossom.
Salon
This annual art exhibition, held in Louis
XIV's court, established rules for judging
art.
Diego Velázquez
This artist, the court painter of King
Philip I, painted figures out of patches of
color.
Versailles
Rococo art was centered at
this royal court.
Jean-Antoine Watteau
This French Rococo artist was
responsible for the creation of the fête
galante genre.
Madame Pompadour
This mistress to Louis XV was a
patron of Rococo art.
The French Revolution of
1789
This cataclysmic eventushered in
Neoclassicism to replace Rococo.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Despite his prior revolutionary leanings,
Jacques Louis David had no issues with
working for this man.
Romanticism
This artistic style emphasized emotions,
dreams, exotic and melodramatic events.
Eugène Delacroix, Théodore
Gericault, and William Blake
These three men are some of the
most important Romantic artists.
The Stonebreakers
This Realist painting by Gustave Courbet
depicts ordinary workmen repairing a
road.
Classical figures or women
in exotic settings
These contexts are the only two
appropriate settings for depicting female
nudes in Romantic-era paintings.
Impression: Sunrise
This painting by Claude Monet
gave Impressionism its name.
Claude Monet, Camille
Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley
These three artists are
noteworthy Impressionists.
Paul Cezanne
This artist redefined works in terms
of form, inspiring Cubism.
Searching for more and
more brilliant color
This trait unified PostImpressionists.
Optical mixing
In this process, the viewer's eye blends the
dots of color in a painting.
Vincent van Gogh
This artist used vivid color to
emphasize vice in Night Café.
Stockbroker
Paul Gauguin held this career prior
to discovering painting.
Chemically-based paints
and the paint tube
These two inventions allowed
Impressionists to take art outdoors
Japanese-style perspective and
photography's snapshot style
These two characteristics influenced
Edgar Degas' impressionist style.
Pre-Raphaelites
These English artists dissatisfied with the
Industrial Revolution shaped a new style
reminiscent of pre-Renaissance art.
Fauves, or "Wild beasts"
Modernist artists who used
arbitrary color extensively
Pablo Picasso and Georges
Braque
These two artists collaborated to analyze
form, eventually developing Cubism.
Emil Nolde and Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner
These two artists utilized arbitrary colors
and intense feelings along with their
group, Die Brücke.
Der Blaue Reiter
Vasily Kandinsky led this
German Expressionist group.
Piet Mondrian
This Dutch Expressionist artist's De Stijl
canvasses consist of flat fields of primary
color.
World War I and the rise of
Modern Art in the United States
These two events caused the center of the
art world to move from Paris to New
York.
The Armory Show
This exhibition was the first major
showing of modern art in the United
States.
Harlem
This area of New York was the center of
the African-American creative
renaissance in the United States.
LHOOQ, Fountain, and
Bull's Head
Marcel Duchamp created these
three Dadaist artworks.
Sigmund Freud
This psychologist's theories influenced
surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí.
Bauhaus Architecture
This architectural style aimed to
combine aesthetics with industry.
Painter, graphic artist, and
designer
Bauhaus School instructor Joseph Albers
held these three artistic professions.
Propaganda
This type of art was produced the
most during World War II.
Artists who were
developing abstraction
Art critic Harold Greenberg was an
advocate for this type of artist.
Jackson Pollock
This artist's work represented the
pinnacle of Abstract Expressionism.
Action-paintings
This type of Abstract Expressionist
painting involved dramatic brushstrokes
or dripping paint.
Robert Rauschenberg
This artist created "combines" from castoff objects he found around him.
Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and
Robert Indiana
These three famous Pop-Artists' paintings
included soup cans, comics, and
commercial stencils.
Acrylic paint and the
airbrush
These two inventions led to
"hard-edge painting."
Jeanne-Claude and Christo
These two Earthwork artists are
responsible for wrapping monuments in
plastic.
Guerilla Girls
This group of female artists wears gorilla
masks in protest of male-dominated art
world.
AT&T (Sony) Building
Philip Johnson added a
finial atop this building.
The Great Wall
This structure is considered the most
famous work of Ancient Chinese art.
Bronze
The dynasties succeeding the Qin in
China cast this type of metal with
mysterious methods.
Tang dynasty
During this Chinese dynasty, often
referred to as the "Golden Age,"
Buddhism had a profound effect.
People's Republic of China
This Chinese government regime forced
most artists to create propaganda.
Hinduism and Buddhism
These two religions have had the
greatest effect on Indian art.
Shiva
This Hindu god is often depicted in
sculpture dancing with raised arms.
Impressionism
This European artistic style influenced
Japanese art in the 19th
Impressionism (UARG:30,1,3) century.
Flat colors and overhead
viewpoint
These two aspects of Japanese prints
influenced French artists in the late
nineteenth century.
Nok civilization
This ancient African society located in
present-day Nigeria was renowned for its
life-like terracotta sculptures.
Benin Kingdom
This ancient African society was famous
for its bronze statues of the oba, or king.
Perception of traditional
artworks as pagan symbols
Europeans destroyed much
African art for this reason.
Art for art's sake
Traditional African art does not adhere to
this Western artistic concept.
Dan and Bwa
These two African cultures were
renowned for their mask making.
Polynesia, Melanesia, and
Micronesia
These three archipelagos
together constitute Oceania.
The Asmat
This Melanesian cultural group
practicedhead-hunting.
The Maori
This New Zealand culture is currently
seeking cultural renewal by placing old
traditions in modern contexts.
The Quran
This Islamic holy book contains the
teachings of Muhammed and is often
richly decorated.
Qibla
This wall in a mosque
always faces Mecca.
Anthropological and
archeological museums
These two types of museums initially
displayed Native American art
Pyramids and Pueblo
complexes
These two types of structures are
examples of extraordinary early
American architecture.
Line
This term refers to a path of a point
moving through space.
Vertical line
This type of line was included in medieval
churches to promote spiritual awe.
Shape
This term refers to the twodimensional area of an object.
Form
This term refers to the threedimensional area of an object.
Organic shapes
This term refers to freeform or
irregularly shaped objects.
Shading and highlighting
These two techniques are used on the
contours of a two-dimensional shape to
create the illusion of form.
Aerial perspective and
atmospheric perspective
These two terms refer to a type of perspective
which accounts for particles in the air
changing the appearance of distant objects.
Vanishing point
This term refers to a point in a painting
where lines converge and disappear.
Hue
This term refers to the
name of a color.
Secondary colors
This term refers to colors formed by
mixing two of the three primary colors.
Color wheel
Sir Isaac Newton invented this tool in the
seventeenth century to organize colors.
Value
This term refers to the lightness or
darkness of a color or neutral.
Neutrals
This term encompasses black,
white, and the grey continuum.
Intensity
This term refers to the
brightness or purity of a color.
Relativity
This property of color makes it look
different next to another color.
Optical color
This term refers to the effects of
special light upon colors.
Actual and visual
These terms refer to the two types
of texture in the context of art.
Rhythm
This term refers to the sense of movement
created in an artwork through repetition
of elements.
Motif
This term refers to a single element of a
pattern repeated to create rhythm.
Focal point
This term refers to a place in a
composition where the eye tends to rest.
Proportion
This term refers to the size relationships
among the parts of a composition.
The human figure
The Classical Greeks used this standard
as the measure of all things.
Paper
Modern artists most often draw upon
this common, wood-based surface.
Charcoal
This drawing medium is so soft the color
of the paper shows through in areas
where it is lightly applied.
Hatching and
crosshatching
These two types of shading
use lines.
Stippling
This shading technique
involves a pattern of dots.
Pastels
This soft drawing tool is popular for
portraiture and came into heavy use
around the 1700s.
Relief prints, intaglio prints,
lithographs, and screen prints
These four printmaking processes involve
a "matrix" upon which the printed image
is initially generated.
Intaglio printmaking
Lines are incised into a matrix in
this printmaking process.
Lithography
This printmaking process utilizes the
oil-resistant nature of water.
Screen printing
Ink is forced through stenciled silk with a
squeegee in this printmaking process.
Mexican Revolution
During this event, printmaking became a
way to disseminate mass-produced
images of social protest.
Pigments, binders, and
solvents
These three types of materials
combine to make paint.
Buon fresco
In this fresco technique, paint is
applied to wet plaster.
Diego Rivera
This Mexican muralist was famous for his
strongly political, early 20th century
frescos.
Quick-drying and narrow
tonal range
These two limitations are
characteristics of tempera paint
Impasto
This term refers to thickly
applied, lumpy oil paint.
Encaustic
This wax-based paint was fused with
irons to Egyptian grave markers.
Tempera, watercolor, and
gouache
These three paints are commonlyused types of water-based paint.
Oil paint and turpentine
Some artists are allergic to these two
substances, making acrylic paint
important.
Photography
This development at first caused painters
to strive for hyper-realism.
Carving, modeling, casting,
and construction
These four processes are the basic
ways of creating sculpture.
Carving
Bits of the original material are removed
in this subtractive sculpture process.
Alexander Calder
This artist created mobiles from wire
forms that move with the wind.
Communities and
government agencies
Two groups of people from whom
Environmental artists must gain approval
before they can begin their work.
Collage
In this type of mixed media art, the artist
combines any material that can be stuck
to a surface.
Joseph Cornell
This twentieth-century artist filled open
boxes with objects to make artistic
statements.
Masks and ceremonial
costumes
These two examples of traditional artwork
can be considered mixed media.
Performance art
This type of art emphasizes a
unique, unrepeatable experience.
Pinching, coiling, slab, and These four processes are types
of pottery processes.
throwing
Slip
This term refers to liquid clay applied to
solid clay pieces to make them stick
together.
Kiln
This term refers to a special oven
used for firing clay pieces.
Knitting, crocheting, and
braiding
These three weaving techniques
do not require a loom.
Silica
Glass is most often made
from this material.
Glassblowing
Artists can form vases and bottles
from glass through this method.
Boxes and house boards
Northwest Coast Indians commonly carve
these two items with traditional designs.
Architects
This term refers tospecialists who
design structures and buildings.
Climate
This feature dictated house-building
materials in ancient times.
Post-and-lintel
construction
In this important architectural development,
a long piece of stone or wood is placed
horizontally upon two upright pieces.
The Parthenon
This building is a famous Greek example
of post-and-lintel construction.
Thin walls and stainedglass windows
The invention of flying buttresses made
these two stylistic features of cathedrals
possible.
The Crystal Palace
This structure was constructed from glass
walls and slim iron rods for the World's
Fair in London.
Antonio Gaudi
This artist created organically-shaped
cut stone buildings in Spain.
Steel and concrete
These two types of materials are favored
for multi-family urban developments.