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APAH Vocabulary Ch. 5
vocabulary for Ancient Greece.
152
Art History
Undergraduate 1
03/29/2011
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Term

Abacus

 

 Definition
The uppermost portion of the capital of a column
Term
Achilles Painter
 Definition

(470 BCE - 425 BCE)

Greek vase painter.  The name comes from an Attic red-figure amphora depicting Achilles.  Did mostly red figure, though also did some white background works.
Term
Acropolis
 Definition
Greek, “high city.” In ancient Greece, usually the site of the city’s most important temple(s).
Term
Agora
 Definition
An open square or space used for public meetings or business in ancient Greek cities.
Term
Aisle
 Definition
The portion of a basilica flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers.
Term

Alexandros Of Antioch-on-the-Meander

 

 Definition
Sculptor of Aphrodite or Venus de Milo, ca. 150-125 BCE. The base, which was inscripted with the artist's name, is now lost.
Term
Amazonomachy
 Definition
In Greek mythology, the legendary battle between the Greeks and Amazons.
Term
Amphiprostyle
 Definition
The style of Greek building in which the colonnade was placed across both the front and back, but not along the sides.
Term

Andokides Painter

 

 Definition

(525 BCE - [510/511] BCE)

Greek vase painter, named after the painter Andokides, who was his employer.  Only approximately 20 vases have survived that feature his work.
Term
Andron
 Definition
Dining room in a Greek house
Term
Antae
 Definition
The molded projecting ends of the walls forming the pronaos or opisthodomos of an ancient Greek temple.
Term

Apse

 

 Definition
A recess, usually semicircular, in the wall of a Roman basilica or at the east end of a church.
Term
Apsidal
 Definition
Rounded; apse shaped.
Term
Arch
 Definition
A curved structural member that spans an opening and is generally composed of wedge-shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit the downward pressure laterally.See also thrust.
Term
Architrave
 Definition
The lintel or lowest division of the entablature; also called the epistyle.
Term
Arrises
 Definition
In Doric columns, the raised edges of the fluting.
Term

Athenodoros

 

 Definition
(10 CE - 20 CE)  Greek sculptor, originally from Rhodes, the sculptor emigrated  to Italy sometime during the Early Empire.  Best known for the sculpture of Laocoon and his Sons.
Term
Attic
 Definition
The uppermost story of a building.
Term
Balustrade
 Definition
A railing held up by small posts, as on a staircase.
Term
Basilica
 Definition
In Roman architecture, a civic building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan with an entrance usually on a long side. In Christian architecture, a church somewhat resembling the Roman basilica, usually entered from one end and with an apse at the other.
Term
Bilingual Vases
 Definition
Experimental Greek vases produced for a short time in the late sixth century BCE; one side featured black-figure decoration, the other red-figure.
Term
Black-figure Painting
 Definition
In early Greek pottery, the silhouetting of dark figures against a light background of natural, reddish clay, with linear details incised through the silhouettes.
Term
Caduceus
 Definition
In ancient Greek mythology, a magical rod entwined with serpents carried by Hermes (Roman, Mercury), the messenger of the gods.
Term
Canon
 Definition
A rule, for example, of proportion. The ancient Greeks considered beauty to be a matter of “correct” proportion and sought a canon of proportion, for the human figure and for buildings.
Term
Capital
 Definition
The uppermost member of a column, serving as a transition from the shaft to the lintel. In classical architecture, the form of the capital varies with the order
Term
Caryatid
 Definition
A female figure that functions as a supporting column.
Term
Cavea
 Definition
Latin, “hollow place or cavity.” The seating area in ancient Greek and Roman theaters and amphitheaters.
Term
Cella
 Definition
The chamber at the center of an ancient temple; in a classical temple, the room (Greek, naos) in which the cult statue usually stood.
Term
Centaur
 Definition
In ancient Greek mythology, a fantastical creature, with the front or top half of a human and the back or bottom half of a horse.
Term
Centauromachy
 Definition
In ancient Greek mythology, the battle between the Greeks and centaurs.
Term
Chiton
 Definition
A Greek tunic, the essential (and often only) garment of both men and women, the other being the himation, or mantle.
Term
Chryselephantine
 Definition
Fashioned of gold and ivory
Term

Cire Perdue

(lost-wax process)

 Definition
A bronze casting method in which a figure is modeled in wax and covered with clay; the whole is fired, melting away the wax and hardening the clay, which then becomes a mold for molten metal.
Term
Column
 Definition
A vertical, weight-carrying architectural member, circular in cross-section and consisting of a base (sometimes omitted), a shaft, and a capital.
Term
Contrapposto
 Definition
The disposition of the human figure in which one part is turned in opposition to another part (usually hips and legs one way, shoulders and chest another), creating a counterpositioning of the body about its central axis. Sometimes called “weight shift” because the weight of the body tends to be thrown to one foot, creating tension on one side and relaxation on the other.
Term
Corinthian Capital
 Definition
A more ornate form than Doric or Ionic; it consists of a double row of acanthus leaves from which tendrils and flowers grow, wrapped around a bell-shaped echinus. Although this capital form is often cited as the distinguishing feature of the Corinthian order, there is, strictly speaking, no Corinthian order, but only this style of capital used in the Ionic order.
Term
Cornice
 Definition
The projecting, crowning member of the entablature framing the pediment; also, any crowning projection.
Term
Course
 Definition
In masonry construction, a horizontal row of stone blocks
Term
Cuneus (Pl. Cunei)
 Definition
In ancient Greek and Roman theaters and amphitheaters, wedge-shaped sections of stone benches separated by stairs
Term
Daedalic
 Definition
Refers to a Greek Orientalizing style of the seventh century BCE named after the legendary Daedalus.
Term
Demos
 Definition
The Greek word meaning “the people, “ from which the word democracy is derived.
Term
Dipteral
 Definition
A double row of columns all around the Cella and porch of Ancient Greek architecture.
Term
Doric
 Definition
One of the two systems (or orders) evolved for articulating the three units of the elevation of an ancient Greek temple the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature). The Doric order is characterized by, among other features, capitals with funnel-shaped echinuses, columns without bases, and a frieze of triglyphs and metopes. See also Ionic.
Term
Drum
 Definition
One of the stacked cylindrical stones that form the shaft of a column; the cylindrical wall that supports a dome.
Term
Echinus
 Definition
In architecture, the convex element of a capital directly below the abacus.
Term
Elevation
 Definition
In architecture, a head-on view of an external or internal wall, showing its features and often other elements that would be visible beyond or before the wall.
Term
Emblema
 Definition
The central section or motif of a mosaic
Term
Encaustic
 Definition
A painting technique in which pigment is mixed with wax and applied to the surface while hot.
Term
Entablature
 Definition
The part of a building above the columns and below the roof. The entablature of a classical temple has three parts: architrave or epistyle, frieze, and pediment.
Term
Entasis
 Definition
The convex profile (an apparent swelling) in the shaft of a column.
Term
Epigonos
 Definition

(250 BCE - 200 BCE) Greek sculptor.  Employed by Attalid pergamon Kings to create monumnents to Permagese victories. 

None of his pieces survive, however, the Dying Gaul may be taken from Epigonos's Trumpeter.
Term
Ergotimos
 Definition
approx. (570 BCE - 560 BCE) Greek potter.  Worked with the painter Kleitias.  Most famous work is the Volute Krater, aka the Francois Vase.
Term
Euphronios
 Definition
(520 BCE - 500 BCE)  Greek potter and painter.  Signed eight vases of his own, two calyx kraters signed by Euxitheos, two cups by the potter Kachrylion, in addition to another 12 cups painted by other painters.
Term
Euthymides
 Definition

(515 BCE - 500 BCE)

Greek Vase Painter.

Signed eight Athenian vases.

Explored the red-figure technique.

 
Term
Exekias
 Definition

(540 BCE - 520 BCE)

Greek Vase painter.

Signed two Attic Black-figure vases as painter and potter, and 11 as simply the potter.

About 40 of his pieces survive.
Term
Fasciae
 Definition
In the Ionic order, the three horizontal bands that make up the architrave.
Term
Fillets
 Definition
In Ionic columns, the flat ridges of the fluting.
Term
Flute or Fluting
 Definition
Vertical channeling, roughly semicircular in cross-section and used principally on columns and pilasters.
Term
Foreshortening
 Definition
The use of perspective to represent in art the apparent visual contraction of an object that extends back in space at an angle to the perpendicular plane of sight
Term

Fret

(or Meander)

 

 Definition
An ornament, usually in bands but also covering broad surfaces, consisting of interlocking geometric motifs. An ornamental pattern of contiguous straight lines joined usually at right angles.
Term
Frieze
 Definition
The part of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice; also, any sculptured or painted band in a building.
Term
Gigantomachy
 Definition
In ancient Greek mythology, the battle between gods and giants.
Term
Glaze
 Definition
A vitreous coating applied to pottery to seal and decorate the surface; it may be colored, transparent, or opaque, and glossy or matte. In oil painting, a thin, transparent, or semitransparent layer put over a color to alter it slightly.
Term
Gnosis
 Definition

(350 BCE - 300 BCE)

Greek Mosaicist.
Term
Gorgon
 Definition
In ancient Greek mythology, a hideous female demon with snake hair. Medusa, the most famous gorgon, was capable of turning anyone who gazed at her into stone
Term
Graver
 Definition
An incising tool used by engravers and sculptors.
Term
Hagesandros
 Definition

(10 CE - 20 CE)

Greek sculptor

Best known for the sculpture Laocoon and his Sons.
Term
Hellenes
 Definition
The name the ancient Greeks called themselves as the people of Hellas
Term
Hellenistic
 Definition
The term given to the culture that developed after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and lasted almost three centuries, until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 31 BCE.
Term
Herm
 Definition
A bust on a quadrangular pillar.
Term
Himation
 Definition
An ancient Greek mantle worn by men and women over the chiton and draped in various ways.
Term
Hippodamian plan
 Definition
A city plan devised by Hippodamos of Miletos ca. 466 BCE, in which a strict grid was imposed on a site, regardless of the terrain, so that all streets would meet at right angles.
Term
Hydria
 Definition
An ancient Greek threehandled water pitcher.
Term
Hypaethral
 Definition
A building having no pediment or roof, open to the sky
Term
Iktinos
 Definition

(mid - 5th Century BCE)

Greek Architect.

Architect of the Temple of Apollo at Bassae.
Term
In Antis
 Definition
In ancient Greek architecture, between the antae
Term
In Situ
 Definition
In place; in the original position.
Term
Interaxial
 Definition
The distance between the center of the lowest drum of a column and the center of the next.
Term
Ionic
 Definition
One of the two systems (or orders) evolved for articulating the three units of the elevation of a Greek temple: the platform, the colonnade, and the superstructure (entablature). The Ionic order is characterized by, among other features, volutes, capitals, columns with bases, and an uninterrupted frieze.
Term
Kallikrates
 Definition
Kallikrates was one of the two architects of the Parthenon, active mid-5th century BC. He was responsible for the Temple of Athena Nike, also on the Acropolis.
Term
Kleitias
 Definition

(570 BCE - 560 BCE)

Greek Vase Painter.

worked in collaboration with the potter Ergotimos.  Most famous pieces is the Volute Krater (aka the Francois Vase).
Term

Kore (Pl. Korai)

 

 Definition
Greek, “young woman.” An Archaic Greek statuary type depicting a young woman.
Term
Kouros (Pl. kourai)
 Definition
Greek, “young man.” An Archaic Greek statuary type depicting a young man
Term
Krater
 Definition
An ancient Greek wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water.
Term
Kresilas
 Definition
(Crete, 5th Century BCE) Greek Sculptor.  Active mainly in Athens.
Term
Kylix
 Definition
An ancient Greek shallow drinking cup with two handles and a stem.
Term

Lekythos (Pl. Lekythoi)

 

 Definition
A flask containing perfumed oil; lekythoi were often placed in Greek graves as offerings to the deceased.
Term
Lysippos
 Definition

(370 BCE - 300 BCE)

Greek Sculptor.
Term
Mausoleum
 Definition
A monumental tomb. The name derives from the mid-fourth century BCE tomb of Mausolos at Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.
Term
Metope
 Definition
The panel between the triglyphs in a Doric frieze, often sculpted in relief
Term
Mnesikles
 Definition
Greek architect, 5th cent. b.c. He designed the propylaea, and the Erechtheum is also sometimes ascribed to him. Both are on the acropolis at Athens
Term
Modeling
 Definition
The shaping or fashioning of three-dimensional forms in a soft material, such as clay; also, the gradations of light and shade reflected from the surfaces of matter in space, or the illusion of such gradations produced by alterations of value in a drawing, painting, or print.
Term
Monolith
 Definition
A column shaft that is all in one piece (not composed of drums); a large, single block or piece of stone used in megalithic structures.
Term
Mosaic
 Definition
Patterns or pictures made by embedding small pieces (tesserae) of stone or glass in cement on surfaces such as walls and floors; also, the technique of making such works.
Term
Myron
 Definition

(480 BCE - 440 BCE)

Greek sculptor.  Contemporary of Phidias and Polyclitus.
Term
Naos
 Definition
The room at the center of the Cella in Ancient Greek Architecture.
Term
Necking
 Definition
A groove at the bottom of the ancient Greek Doric capital between the echinus and the flutes that masks the junction of capital and shaft.
Term
Niobid Painter
 Definition

(470 BCE - 45 BCE)

Greek vase painter
Term
Nymphs
 Definition
In classical mythology, female divinities of springs, caves, and woods
Term
Onesimos
 Definition

(505 BCE - 480 BCE)

Greek Vase Painter.  Active in Athens, he specialized in decorating cups. 
Term
Opisthodomos
 Definition
In Greek architecture, a porch at the rear of a temple, set against the blank back wall of the cella.
Term
Orchestra
 Definition
Greek, “dancing place.” In ancient Greek theaters, the circular piece of earth with a hard and level surface on which the performance took place.
Term
Order
 Definition
In classical architecture, a style represented by a characteristic design of the columns and entablature. See also superimposed orders
Term
Orientalizing
 Definition
The early phase of Archaic Greek art, so named because of the adoption of forms and motifs from the ancient Near East and Egypt.
Term
Orthogonal
 Definition
A line imagined to be behind and perpendicular to the picture plane; the orthogonals in a painting appear to recede toward a vanishing point on the horizon.
Term
Orthogonal plan
 Definition
The imposition of a strict grid plan on a site, regardless of the terrain, so that all streets meet at right angles. See also Hippodamian plan.
Term
Paionios of Ephesos
 Definition
One of the architects, with Daphnis of Miletos, of the Temple of Apollo, Didyma, Turkey, begun 313 BCE
Term
Palaestra
 Definition
An ancient Greek and Roman exercise area, usually framed by a colonnade.
Term
Pebble Mosaic
 Definition
Mosaic made of irregularly shaped stones of various colors.
Term
Pediment
 Definition
In classical architecture, the triangular space (gable) at the end of a building, formed by the ends of the sloping roof above the colonnade; also, an ornamental feature having this shape
Term
Peplos
 Definition
A simple long woolen belted garment worn by ancient Greek women
Term
Peristyle
 Definition
In ancient Greek architecture, a colonnade all around the cella and its porch(es). A peripteral colonnade consists of a single row of columns on all sides; a dipteral colonnade has a double row all around.
Term
Peripteral
 Definition
A peripteral colonnade consists of a single row of columns on all sides
Term
Phiale Painter
 Definition

(450 BCE - 425 BCE)

Greek Vase Painter
Term
Phidias
 Definition

(490 BCE - 430 BCE)

Athenian Sculptor

Artistic director of the sculpting of the Parthenon

 
Term
Philoxenos of Eretria
 Definition

(late 4th Century BCE)

Greek painter
Term

Pinakotheke

 

 Definition
Greek, “picture gallery;” a room or building for the exhibition of paintings on wooden panels.
Term
Plan
 Definition
The horizontal arrangement of the parts of a building or of the buildings and streets of a city or town, or a drawing or diagram showing such an arrangement. In an axial plan, the parts of a building are organized longitudinally, or along a given axis; in a central plan, the parts of the structure are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center.
Term
Polis (Pl. Poleis)
 Definition
An independent city-state in ancient Greece.
Term
Polydoros of Rhodes
 Definition

(10 CE - 20 CE)

Greek Sculptor. 

Famous for the sculpture Laocoon and his Sons.
Term
Polyeuktos
 Definition

(3rd Century BCE)

Greek Sculptor.  Active in Athens during the Hellenistic period.
Term
Polykleitos
 Definition

(450 BCE - 415 BCE) Greek Sculptor

Most important sculptor in bronze.

Wrote a manual on the Canon (rule of proportions)
Term
Polykleitos the Younger
 Definition

(350 BCE)

A renowned sculptor, architect of the Tholos at Epidauros
Term
Portico
 Definition
A roofed colonnade; also an entrance porch
Term
Praxiteles
 Definition

(400 BCE - 330 BCE) Born and died in Athens.

A Greek Sculptor.

Famous works: Cult statue of Dionysis, Demeter, Cult statue of Apollo, Drunkeness and a Satyr.
Term
Pronaos
 Definition
The space, or porch, in front of the cella, or naos, of an ancient Greek temple.
Term
Prostyle
 Definition
A style of ancient Greek temple in which the columns are only in front of the cella and not on the sides or back.
Term
Provenance
 Definition
Origin or source; findspot.
Term
Raking Cornice
 Definition
The cornice on the sloping sides of a pediment
Term
Red-figure painting
 Definition
In later Greek pottery, the silhouetting of red figures against a black background, with painted linear details; the reverse of black-figure painting.
Term
Ridgepole
 Definition
The beam running the length of a building below the peak of the gabled roof.
Term
Satyr
 Definition
A part-human, part-goat male follower of the ancient Greek god Dionysos
Term
Shaft
 Definition
The tall, cylindrical part of a column between the capital and the base.
Term
Siren
 Definition
In ancient Greek mythology, a creature that was part bird, part woman.
Term
Skenographia
 Definition
Greek, “scene painting”; the Greek term for perspective painting
Term
Skiagraphia
 Definition
Greek, “shadow painting”; the Greek term for shading, said to have been invented by Apollodoros, an Athenian painter of the fifth century BCE
Term
Slip
 Definition
A mixture of fine clay and water used in ceramic decoration
Term
Stoa
 Definition
In ancient Greek architecture, an open building with a roof supported by a row of columns parallel to the back wall. A covered colonnade or portico.
Term
Stylobate
 Definition
The uppermost course of the platform of a Greek temple, which supports the columns.
Term
Symmetria
 Definition
Greek, “commensurability of parts.” Polykleitos’s treatise on his canon of proportions incorporated the principle of symmetria.
Term
Tesserae
 Definition
Greek, “cubes.” Tiny stones or pieces of glass cut to the desired shape and size to form a mosaic.
Term
Tetrachy
 Definition
Greek, “rule by four.” A type of Roman government established in the late third century CE by Diocletian in an attempt to establish order by sharing power with potential rivals.
Term
Theatron
 Definition
Greek, “place for seeing.” In ancient Greek theaters, the slope overlooking the orchestra on which the spectators sat
Term
Theodoros of Phokaia
 Definition
Architect attributed with the design of the Tholos in Delphi, Greece, ca. 375 BCE.
Term
Theotokos
 Definition
Greek, “bearer of God.” The Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus
Term
Thrust
 Definition
The outward force exerted by an arch or a vault that must be counterbalanced by a buttress
Term
Torque
 Definition
The neck band worn by Gauls.
Term
Treasury
 Definition
In ancient Greece, a small building set up for the safe storage of votive offerings.
Term
Trident
 Definition
The three-pronged pitchfork associated with the ancient Greek sea god Poseidon (Roman, Neptune).
Term
Volute
 Definition
A spiral, scroll-like form characteristic of the ancient Greek Ionic and the Roman Composite capital.
Term
White-ground painting
 Definition
An ancient Greek vase painting technique in which the pot was first covered with a slip of very fine white clay, over which black glaze was used to outline figures, and diluted brown, purple, red, and white were used to color them.
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