Anjali Padmanaban
Art History/Criticism
Vocab #5:
Ambulatory: moving about or from place to place
Animal Style: Animal style art is characterized by its emphasis on animal and bird motifs
Apse: a semicircular or polygon termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted and used especially at the end of a choir in church
Atrium: the main or central room of an ancient Roman house, open to the sky at_the center and usually having a pool for the collection of rain water
Axial plan: the parts of a building are organized longitudinally, or along a given axis
Basilica: characterized by a planincluding a nave, two or four side aisles, a semicircular apse, a narthex, and often other
features, as a short transept, a number of small semicircular apses terminating the aisles, or an atrium
Catacomb: an underground cemetery, especially one consisting of tunnels and rooms with recesses dug out for coffins and tombs
Central plan: the parts of the structure are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center
Chalice: a cup for the wine of the Eucharist or Mass
Clerestory: a portion of an interior rising above adjacent rooftops and having windows admitting daylight to the interior
Coffer: one of a number of sunken panels, usually square oroctagonal, in a vault, ceiling, or soffit
Cubicula: a burial chamber, as in catacombs
Gospels: something regarded as true and implicitly believed
Loculi: a recess in an ancient catacomb or tomb, where a body or cinerary urn was placed
Lunette: an area enframed by an arch or vault
Narthex: an enclosed passage between the main entrance and the nave of a church
Nave: principal longitudinal area of a church, extending from the main entrance or narthex to the chancel, usually flanked by aisles of less height and breadth
Orant figure: a figure in art with extended arms or bodily attitude of prayer
Spolia: used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments
Synagogue: an assembly or congregation of Jews for the purpose of religious worship
Torah: the Pentateuch, being the first of the three Jewish divisions of the Old Testament
Transept: any major transverse part of the body of a church, usually crossing the nave, at right angles, at the entrance to the choir
Codex: a quire of manuscript pages held together by stitching: the earliest form of book, replacing the scrollsand wax
tablets of earlier times
Cathedral: the principal church of a diocese, containing the bishop's throne
Icon: a representation of some sacred personage, as Christ or a saint or angel, painted usually on a wood surface and
venerated itself as sacred
Iconostasis: a partition or screen on which icons are placed, separating the sanctuary from the main part of the church
Mosaic: a picture or decoration made of small, usually colored pieces of inlaid stone, glass, etc.
Psalter: the Biblical book of Psalms
Pantocrator: a title of Christ represented as the ruler of the universe, esp. in Byzantine church decoration
Squinch: small arch, corbeling, or the like, built across the interior angle between two walls, as in a square tower for
supporting the side of a superimposed octagonal spire
Pendentive: any of several spandrels, in the form of spherical triangles, forming a transition between the circular
Triptych: a hinged, three-leaved tablet, written on, in ancient times, with a stylus
Cloisonne: enamel work in which colored areas are separated by thin metal bands fixed edgewise to the ground
Cloister: a covered walk, especially in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade usually opening onto a courtyard
Horror Vacui: a fear or dislike of leaving empty spaces, esp. in an artistic composition
Scriptorium: a room, as in a monastery, library, or other institution, where manuscripts are stored, read, or copied
Westwork: a monumental western front to a church, treated as a tower or towers containing an entrance and vestibule
below and a chapel above