Persia
A common motif in Persian art, these decorative ceramic pieces often featured elaborate patterns on ceilings and floors.
What are floral tiles?
In ancient China, artists used this pliable, earthy material to create detailed sculptures, including small animals.
What is clay?
The Egyptians created a paper-like material from the sliced and pressed stalks of this aquatic plant, which grew abundantly in the Nile Delta.
What is the papyrus plant?
Greek sculptors meticulously studied the human body to achieve these lifelike representations.
What are realistic proportions?
Roman artists created the illusion of three-dimensional space in their paintings by using this technique, which makes objects appear smaller the farther away they are.
What is perspective?
The Achaemenid Empire was known for its impressive palaces, such as Persepolis, which were adorned with these carved narrative panels, often depicting processions of figures.
What are bas-reliefs?
This traditional Korean garment is characterized by its vibrant colors, simple lines, wide pants for men and a high-waisted skirt for women.
What is a hanbok?
This system of pictorial writing was integral to Egyptian art, appearing on everything from tomb walls to sculptures, often identifying the subject or telling a story.
What are hieroglyphs?
This famous Athenian temple, dedicated to the goddess Athena, is a prime example of the relationship between Greek architecture and art.
What is the Parthenon?
Roman coins often featured this type of portrait of an emperor or other important figure on one side.
What is a profile image?
A design that is the same on one side as it is on the other, like a butterfly, has this.
What is symmetry?
The powerful and dynamic movements of this Korean martial art influenced the design of clothing to allow for a wide range of motion.
What is Taekwondo?
For very important art, like the famous mask of King Tut, Egyptian artists used this shiny, yellow metal.
What is gold?
A common symbol found in ancient Greek art, these creatures were also used to decorate early mosaics made from seashells
What are fish?
Small individual pieces assembled to create a larger image.
What is a mosaic?
Persian art tiles often used this color, which is the same color as the sky and the ocean.
What is blue?
In Japanese art, the striking combination of these two colors was often used to create a dramatic and elegant effect.
What are red and black?
When Egyptian artists drew people, they showed their head from the side, but their eye and shoulders from the...
What is the front?
Famous Greek buildings, like temples for their gods, are known for having many of these tall, strong posts to hold up the roof.
What are columns?
A practical technique used by ancient artists to accurately transfer a design for a mosaic or fresco.
What is a grid? (gridding)
When you draw the same shape over and over again, you are making this
A pattern
The special shiny paint used in Japan to make things smooth and beautiful is called this.
What is lacquer?
This color was created by Egyptians from malachite, a mineral made from copper carbonate.
What is green?
To make their statues of people look perfectly balanced, Greek artists would often use the size of the person's ______ to measure everything else.
To create the illusion of depth in a painting, artists would draw diagonal lines that converge at this single point on the horizon.
What is the vanishing point?