Basic Art Vocabulary

Questions Art Historians Ask: How old is it?

Leonardo Da Vinci, “La Gioconda” (Mona Lisa), 1503, Italy

And a copy of the Mona Lisa by an anonymous artist

Questions Art Historians Ask: What

is its style?

Regional style- Cathedrals in Florence, Italy and Beauvais, France, both from late 13th century.

Personal StyleAlbrecht Durer,

“Hare”, 1502, GermanJan Polack, “The Miracle of the Bear”, 1489, German

Questions Art Historians Ask: Who

made it?

The Achilles Painter 470-420 BC, Greece, “Oedipus and the Sphinx”, “Euphorbus and Oedipus”

Questions Art Historians Ask: Who

paid for it?

Michaelangelo, Sistene Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City, Italy, 1508-1512.

Commissioned by the Pope of the Catholic Church

Different ways of seeing

Words art historians use:

Form

Composition

Material

Technique

Line

Color

Texture

Space

Perspective

Foreshortening

Proportion

Scale

Form

Anonymous Tudor artist, “Elizabeth of York”, 1500, England

Composition

Jan Vermeer, The Music Lesson, 1662-65, Oil on canvas, Dutch

Material

Zhang Dexuan, portrait made from human hair, Chengdu, China

Technique

Escaping Criticism by Pere Borrell del Caso, 1874

An example of rompe-l’oil

Line

Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal Lines

Jacques Louis David, "Oath of the Horatii"

Color

The color wheel

Value

Texture

Van Gogh’s Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers,

France 1888

Space

Albrecht ALTDORFERRest on the Flight Into Egypt.1510

Perspective

Foreshortening

Proportion

Beth Bojarski, “A Safe Place to Land”, 2009

Scale