Ancient Art and Architecture Glossary: Terms, Styles, and Concepts

The earliest preserved art object to date to the Paleolithic period, which occurred between 44000 and 9000 BCE.

The inhabitants of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia established the earliest city-states.

Hierarchy of scale is used to indicate the greater importance of figures by either size or position.

The Neolithic architecture in northern Europe is described as megalithic because it uses large stones.

The two centuries of peace that began under the reign of the emperor Augustus are called the Pax Romana.

Any sculpture that is completely detached from its original material so that it can be seen from all sides is called a sculpture in the round.

Ancient Mesopotamia is situated in the so-called “fertile crescent” between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

A ziggurat is a tiered Mesopotamian temple platform, which often formed the center of Sumerian cities.

Contrapposto is a sculpture position in which the head is turned slightly.

The painting technique used during the Archaic period is known as Black Figure.

Created in ancient Greece, the Kritios Boy is the first sculpture to introduce contrapposto.

The Akkadians were the first Mesopotamian rulers to call themselves kings.

Possibly intended as a fertility figure, the Venus of Willendorf is the earliest female figurine.

During the Byzantine period, artists used the color gold in images to conjure up a spiritual world.

The earliest dated Aegean artwork came from the Cyclades Islands.

Minoan painting introduced the first pure landscape.

The walls and ceiling of early Christian churches and Islamic mosques were decorated with pictures called mosaics.

A cromlech is a megalithic structure in which groups of monoliths form a circle or semi-circle.

The so-called Archaic smile in Greek sculpture likely signified life.

A carved stone slab used to mark graves and to commemorate historical events is called a stele.

The first golden age of Byzantine art began in the reign of the emperor Justinian.

In ancient Rome, wealthy patricians commissioned portrait busts to celebrate elevated status.

Both Stonehenge and the Lion Gate at Mycenae used a post and lintel building system.

Kouros is the Greek word for "boy".

The artistic method in which bodies are represented at angles to the picture plane, producing the illusion that one part of the body is further away than the other, is called foreshortening.

The L'Arringatore is a hollow-cast bronze statue with a characteristic pose that represents the transition between Etruscan and Roman art.

Two early major column types we see originating in ancient Greece are Doric and Ionic.

The Pantheon is an important example of Roman architectural engineering.

Pendentive construction is the most important contribution made by the Byzantines to architecture.

Calligraphy is the most highly regarded and most fundamental artistic element in Islamic books.

The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia influenced many buildings in the Islamic world.

The word Byzantine is used to describe the art, territory, history, and culture of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The empress Theodora was a powerful figure in Byzantine history.

The most important architectural forms to emerge during the Romanesque period were the rounded arch and the barrel vault.

A rose window is a decorated circular window, often found in Gothic architecture.

Flying buttresses are a characteristic feature in Gothic architecture.