Early Christian & Byzantine Art
This is the large, centrally planned dome church in Constantinople, famous for its massive dome and mosaics, consecrated in 537 CE.
What is the Hagia Sophia?
This distinctive architectural element, shown in structures like the Chartres Cathedral, helped distribute the weight of the walls and ceilings outward, allowing for thinner walls and more windows.
What are Flying Buttresses?
This Renaissance artist used linear perspective to create the illusion of deep space and classic balance in the fresco The School of Athens.
Who is Raphael?
This term describes the extreme use of light and shadow, seen in paintings like Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew, that makes figures dramatically emerge from the dark background.
What is Tenebrism?
In the Mosque of Selim II, the dome's vast size and elaborate decoration were intended to symbolize the power of the Ottoman Empire over this previously conquered Christian city.
What is Constantinople?
In the Catacombs of Priscilla, this specific painting technique was used on the walls and ceilings.
What is a Fresco?
The term for the container, often richly decorated with gold and gems, used to hold sacred relics, like the Reliquary of Sainte-Foy.
What is a reliquary?
The Pazzi Chapel in Florence, designed by Brunelleschi, demonstrates the Renaissance revival of Classical design through the use of these two colors.
What are white and gray?
Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa was strategically placed in the Cornaro Chapel to act like a stage set. This historical art movement sought to inspire emotional religious devotion through such theatricality.
What is the Counter-Reformation?
Artworks like A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal by Jan Vermeer were produced during a period in the Dutch Republic when the lack of religious patronage led to the rise of this new art consumer.
Who ae the middle-class art patrons?
Figures in Byzantine mosaics, like those in San Vitale, are typically depicted as highly stylized, frontal, and looking directly at the viewer to emphasize this idea.
What is their divinity or spiritual status?
These massive west entrances of Gothic cathedrals like Chartres often feature a semicircular carved area above the door.
What are Tympanum?
This technique, perfected in the Northern Renaissance (like in the Annunciation Triptych), allowed for greater detail, luminosity, and richness of color than tempera.
What is oil painting?
In Colonial Art, the Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene is a type of folding screen inspired by this non-European art form.
What are Japanese folding screens?
This term describes the blending of European and indigenous artistic traditions, seen in Colonial works like the Virgin of Guadalupe.
What is syncretism (or hybridization)?
This term refers to images of holy saints and religious figures depicted in Byzantine art.
What is an icon?
The Bayeux Tapestry is unique among medieval art because it documents this specific event in 1066.
What is the Norman conquest of England (or the Battle of Hastings)?
This artist often depicted domestic scenes with hidden religious undertones and symbolism.
Who is Johannes Vermeer?
This artist was known for his incredibly treatment of marble portraying complex multifigure scenes.
Who is Bernini?
The Alhambra palace complex in Spain features decorative, intricate stuccowork, and carved wood reflecting this traditional avoidance of figural imagery in religious and courtly art.
What is aniconism?
Name the emperor and empress whose powerful, shimmering mosaics are featured in the apse of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.
Who are Justinian and Theodora?
The Lindisfarne Gospels is an example of Hiberno-Saxon art known for its dense, abstract, non-figurative decoration, characteristic of this page type.
What is a Cross-carpet page?
This term is used to describe the artistic device used by Leonardo da Vinci in the Mona Lisa to create a soft, hazy quality by blurring the lines and edges of the painting.
What is sfumato?
This king built the Palace of Versailles to display his wealth and status as the "Sun King"
Who is Louis XIV?
What is Mannerism?