Introductory Vocabulary for the art historian

Introductory Vocabularyfor the art historian

All words are defined in the Introductory chapter of Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. The words in your book are italicized.

BRUCE NAUMAN, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), 1967. Neon with glass tubing suspension

Chronology =dating of objects, buildings

Imhotep

Pyramid and Mortuary of Djoser

Saqqara, Egypt

ca. 2,630-2,611 B.C.E.limestone

Physical evidence = examine actual materials of object to determine age

Ka-Aper

from his mastaba at Saqqara, Egypt

ca. 2,450-2,350 B.C.E.woodapproximately 43 in. high

Documentary Evidence = written records

Palette of King Narmer

from Hierakonpolis, Egypt

ca. 3,000-2,920 B.C.E.slateapproximately 25 in. high

Dinarius with Portrait of Julius Caesar, 44 B.C.E.silver3/4 in.

Visual Evidence = fashions of time

Portrait bust of a Flavian woman

from Rome, Italy, ca. 90 C.E.marble, 25 in. high

Head of a Roman patrician, ca. 75-50 B.C.E.marble, approximately 1 ft. 2 in. high

Mummy portrait from Faiyum, Egypt, ca. 160-170 C.E.encaustic on wood

Stylistic Evidence = artist’s style

Da Vinci's "Marriage Portrait of a Young Woman." ??????

A 19th-century German School portrait that sold for $21,850 at a Christie’s auction in 1998 has now been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci by some art and scientific experts. But the attribution has not gone unchallenged. The 13-by-9.4-inch work — which might be a betrothal portrait — did not cause a furor when it went on sale at Christie’s in New York. At the auction, it was bought by a dealer based in the United States, who sold it last year.If it is in fact a Leonardo, skeptics say, it went unrecognized by experts at the auction house, as well as the specialized dealers who attended the sale, including the one who bought it.

Is it a Leonardo?Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1474-1478, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art,

Period Style = characteristic manner of specific time within specific culture

Archaic Greek Classical GreekHellenistic Greek

Regional Style = style tied to geographic region

Northern Renaissance located in Flanders and Brugge

Italian Renaissance focused in Florence and Rome

Provenance = object’s place of originThe Euphronios krater, a renowned red-figured Greek vase from the sixth century B.C., is widely believed to have been illegally excavated in 1971 from an Etruscan tomb near Rome. In 1972 a dealer in classical artifacts sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for $1 million. Questions soon rose about its provenance, and The New York Times tried to follow the vase’s trail; the Met said at the time that it did not believe that the object had been smuggled. But in 2005, Italy stepped up an aggressive public campaign to lay claim to antiquities in foreign museum collections that it suspected had been looted. After long negotiations, the Met and the Italian government brokered an accord in February 2006 providing for the handover of 21 antiquities to Italy, including the Euphronios, in exchange for long-term loans from Italy to the museum

Met Gives Back Euphronios Krater to Italy

Personal style = style of individual artists

FRIDA KAHLO, The Two Fridas, 1939. Oil on canvas,

Georgia O'KeeffeJack-in-the-Pulpit No. IV, 1930

Narrative = art that tells a story

Assyrian archers pursuing enemies from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Kalhu (modern Nimrud), ca. 875-860 B.C.E.

Pilate Washing his Hands, Christ Carrying the Cross, Denial of Peter

from a casketca. 420ivory

Genre = scenes from daily life

JAN STEEN, The Feast of Saint Nicholas, ca. 1660–1665. Oil on canvas

Landscape = depiction of a place

JACOB VAN RUISDAEL, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen, ca. 1670.

Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains, Ming dynasty, 1617. Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Still life = arrangement of inanimate objects

WILLEM KALF, Still Life with a Late Ming Ginger Jar, 1669. Oil on canvas RACHEL RUYSCH, Flower Still Life,

after 1700. Oil on canvas

Iconography means writing of images, look at content and symbol use

GIOTTO, Madonna in Glory c. 1311Tempera on panel

Menkaure and Khamerenebty

from Gizeh, Egypt

ca. 2,490-2,472 B.C.E.

Symbols = images that stand for ideas

Hatshepsutwith offering jars, Deir el-Bahri,

Egypt, ca. 1,473-1,458 B.C.E.

MARSDEN HARTLEY, Portrait of a German Officer, 1914.

Personifications = abstract ideas embodied in persons

To Attribute – give credit to a specific artist based on style, often works are not signed.

Athenian bilingual amphora, red-figure side, clay, painted by "The Andokides Painter," c. 525 B.C.

Athenian bilingual amphora, black-figure side, clay, painted by "The Andokides Painter," c. 525 B.C.

Connoisseur – an expert in analyzing the hand of the artist: which self-portrait was painted by Rembrandt?

Rembrandt WorkshopPortrait of Rembrandt, 1650

Rembrandt van RijnSelf-Portrait, 1659

School = artists working in same style during same historical period, same geographic location

Dutch School Spanish School

Patrons = people or institutions who paid for art

Head Reliquary of Saint Alexander from Stavelot Abbey, Belgium, 1145, silver repoussé, gilt bronze, gems, enamel

Portrait of Augustus as general

from Primaporta, Italy

ca. 20 B.C.E.

William WaltersHenry Walters

Formal analysis – specialized visual analysis, considering qualities such as line, shape, color, space,

light, texture, form,

Composition = how an artwork is organized visually

Meiping vase, 960-1127 C.E.Stoneware

Mihrab from the Madrasa ImamiIsfahan, Iran, ca. 1354glazed mosaic tilework

STUART DAVIS, Lucky Strike, 1921. Oil on canvas

Technique = how artists handle materials

Lavender Mist, Jackson Pollock, oil, enamel, aluminum on canvas, 1950

Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle, Lot, France, ca. 22,000 BCE.

Contour line – continuous outer line defining artwork’s shape or form

Incised shell gorget, Mississippian, from Sumner County, Tennessee, ca. 1250–1300 CE. 4” wide.

Value = degree of lightness or darkness

DOROTHEA LANGE, Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, 1935. Gelatin silver print.

Hue = Color Primary colors – red, yellow, blue

Secondary colors – orange, green, purple

Complementary colors – opposite on the color wheel: red/green, purple/yellow, orange/blue

Saturation = brightness or dullness of color

ELLSWORTH KELLY, Red Blue Green, 1963. Oil on canvas

MORRIS LOUIS, Saraband, 1959. Acrylic resin on canvas

Texture = quality of surface

Colossal head, Olmec, La Venta, Mexico, 900–400 BCE. Basalt,

Collage = combination of different materials & textures, using mixed media

PABLO PICASSO, Maquette for Guitar, 1912. Cardboard, string, and wire (restored)

Illusionistic space = space painters depict on 2D object to represent 3D space

The School of Athens, Raphael,1510, fresco

Mass = 3D space, building, sculpture

Colosseum, Rome, Italy

ca. 70-80 C.E.

Volume = space enclosed or divided by a building, sculpture, pottery, furniture, interior

Ziggurat

at Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar) Iraq

ca. 2,100 B.C.E.mud brick

Perspective = pictorial device for organizing space, creates illusion of depth on 2D surface, commonly used in Western art

ANNIBALE CARRACCI, Flight into Egypt, 1603–1604

Foreshortening = a kind of perspective which puts forms close to the picture plane, shows forms at an angle that implies depth

CARAVAGGIO, Conversion of Saint Paul, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy, ca. 1601. Oil on canvas

Proportion = relationship of size of parts to the whole

Portrait of Constantine

from the Basilica Nova, Rome, Italy

ca. 315-330 C.E.

Canon of proportion = ideal proportions for representing human figures, constructing buildings

Goats Treading Seed and Cattle Fording a Canal

Saqqara, Egypt - Mastaba of Ti

ca. 2450-2350 B.C.E.painted limestone

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), ca. 450-440 B.C.E.

Hierarchy of scale = intentional use of disproportion to emphasize importance of king or leader

Ti watching hippopotamus hunt

from Saqqara, Egypt

ca. 2,450-2,350 B.C.E.

Victory stele of Naram-Sin

from Susa, Iran

ca. 2,254-2,218 B.C.E.sandstone

Carving: subtractive and additive

Semnut with Princess Nefrua from Thebes, Egypt, ca. 1470-1460 B.C.E.granite

Guang, probably from Anyang, China, Shang dynasty, twelfth or eleventh century BCE. Bronze,

Mold:hollow form used for

shaping or casting a fluid substance such as bronze

Head of an Akkadian ruler

from Ninevah (modern Kuyunjik) Iraq

ca. 2,250-2,200 B.C.E.

Sculptures in the round = freestanding sculptures

Nike of Samothrace, ca. 190 BCE

UMBERTO BOCCIONI, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931). Bronze

Relief sculptures = sculptures project from background but are still attached to it

Ashurbanipal hunting lions from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal,

Ninevah (modern Kuyunjik) Iraq, ca. 645-640 B.C.E.gypsumapproximately 5 ft. high

Sunken Relief = sculptor cuts into background to make relief.

Akhenaton sacrificing a duck

ca. 1,353-1,335 B.C.E.limestone

Low relief = projection is slight, barely raised from background surface

Ashurbanipal hunting lions

from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Ninevah (modern Kuyunjik) Iraq

ca. 645-640 B.C.E.

High relief = forms project high, some parts of relief are actually in the round

Replica of Western Frieze of Pantheon, Nashville, TN.

Repoussé – relief made of metal from hammering from behind, pushing subject out from background

Head of Sasanian King (Shapur II?)

from Ctesiphon, Iraq

ca. 350 C.E.silver with mercury gilding

Plan – a map of a floor, shows masses of building & volume of space

Old Saint Peter’s Basilica (plan)

Rome, Italy

ca. 320

Section = shows mass of building by cutting through the 3D rendering of it

Old Saint Peter’s Basilica (section)

Rome, Italy, ca. 320

Elevation = head-on view of an external or internal wall

Tympanum of the south portal of Saint-Pierre

Moissac, France

marbleca. 1115-1135

Cutaway = combines interior and exterior views

Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece

ca. 500-490 B.C.E.