City-State

an independent, self-governing city

composition

the way in which an artist organizes forms in an
artwork, either by placing shapes on a flat surface or arranging forms
in space.

Register

one of a series of superimposed bands or friezes in a
pictorial narrative, or the particular levels on which motifs are placed.

Value Perspective

Size proportion

Votive Plaque

gift of gratitude to a deity

Stele

a carved stone slab used to mark graves or to commemorate historical events.

Attribute

the distinctive identifying aspect of a person, for example,
an object held, an associated animal, or a mark on the body.

Performative

the ways images could act in the world and the world
around them. Culturally embedded ideas.

Orthostat sculptures

upright stone or slab structure

Ziggurat

stepped pyramid. Monumental base for a temple. Held cult images. Only for priests and rulers. Sumerian.

Columned Hall

Large room with lines of columns of support columns
along the hall.

Red Crown

Crown of lower Egypt

Cosmic Hierarchy

Figures arranged in order of where they stand in
the grand sceheme of society

White Crown

Crown of upper Egypt. Shaped like a bowling pin.

Palette

a slate slab used for mixing makeup. Sometimes ornately
decorated.

Heraldic Composition

a composition that is symmetrically on either
side of a central figure.

Mastaba

an Egyptian rectangular brick or stone structure with
sloping sides erected over a subterranean tomb chamber connected with the outside of the shaft.

Serdab

a small concealed chamber in an Egyptian mastaba for the statue of the deceased.

Engaged column

a half-rounded column attached to a wall.

Free-standing column

Column not attached to a wall

Funerary Temple

A temple erected for the worship of a deceased
person

Pylon

the wide entrance gateway of an Egyptian temple,
characterized by its sloping walls

Ashlar Masonry

Carefully cut and regularly shaped blocks of stone
used in construction, fitted together without mortar.

Hypostyle Hall

A hall with a roof supported by columns. Temple of
Amon-Re at Karnak.

Block Statue

a cubic stone image with simplified body parts.

canon

A rule, for example, of proportion. PALATE OF NARMUR IS
CANON OF EGYPTIAN ART

Sunken relief

relief in which artist cuts the design. Goes into the piece.

Kamares ware

Minoan pottery, creamy white and reddish brown
against a black background. Sometimes abstract designs and patterns, repeating.

Priest King Fresco (Knossos)

Incorporates relief with fresco.
Figure projects from background of the wall. Figure has been reconstructed on other works of the era, such as the Chieftain cup. Standing upright in stride, arm behind body.

Snake goddess statue

Sculpture at Knossos, low fired and opaque,

painted, woman with exposed breasts holds snakes in both hands, flounced skirt[image]

Faience

Low-fired opaque glasslike silicate (Ex: Snake goddess statue)

Floral Style (Minoan)

Hard fired surface is turned into fragile
delicate piece with plants and reeds on it. Stylized flowery decorations. Elegant.

Marine Style (Minoan)

Dark figures on light ground. Sea creatures
like octopus depicted. Torsion, fit vessel perfectly. Impression of motion.

Palace Style

Incorporated Floral and Marine elements, but
also adds features, such as the practice of confining decor in reserves and bands, emphasizing the base and shoulder of the pot and the movement towards abstraction

Rhyton

Ceremonial vessel for drinking. Often shaped like an animal’s head.

Torsion

oblique placement of a design so the dynamic aspect is emphasized

Tholos Tomb (Mycenaean)

Beehive shaped tomb with a circular plan. Saved for the elite.

Dromos

Passage leading to a Tholos tomb

Cyclopean masonry

Method of stone construction, using massive irregular blocks without mortar. Used in Mycenaean sites.

Megaron

Large reception hall and throne room in a Mycenaean
palace. Fronted by an open 2 columned porch.

Propylon

monumental gateway, possibly leading to a temple

Corbeled Arch

courses of stone or brick that priject beyond the
beneath it. When two meet at a topmost point, creates a corbeled arch.

Relieving Triangle

Triangle opening above the lintel (opening) that
serves to lighten the weight carried by the lintel (opening).

Inanna

Major God in Mesopotamia. Goddess of fertility, love, war,
human sexuality. Depicted by bundles of reeds. (Uruk Vase) (Sumer)

Ianatum

In Stele of the Vultures, Won a minor skirmish (Sumer)

King Narmur

King Narmer- “United” Upper and Lower Egyptian Kingdoms. On Palate of King Narmer.

Imhotep

Architect of Steppe Pyramid of King Djoser at Zakara. First definitively recorded artist. Revered as nobility and Godlike.

Hatshepsut

First recorded female pharaoh of Egypt. New Kingdom.
Often times, depictions of her were destroyed or made to look like a man. Had great funerary monument.

Akhenaten

Pharaoh during Amarna period. Stele of Akhenaten.
Through out religious beliefs, worshipped sun disk Aten. Married to Nefertiti. Departure from accepted. Unorthodox.

Heinrich Schleimann

Rich German banker, used fortune to try to
research Homeric poems and prove they were fact. First to excavate Bronze Age Aegean sites

Sir Arthur Evans

The “Schliemann” of Knossos. Found Minoan
civilization and described Linear A and B. Contemporary and friend of Schliemann, continued his work after he died.