A lettered words

Question 1

Abbey

Answer 1

A monastery for monks, or a covenant for nuns, and the church that is connected to it.

Question 2

Abstract Expressionism

Answer 2

The first major American avant-garde movement. Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York City in the 1940s. The artists produced abstract paintings that expressed their state of mind and that they hoped would strike emotional chords in viewers. The movement developed along two lines: gestural abstraction and chromatic abstraction.

Question 3

Abstract

Answer 3

Nonrepresentational; forms and colors arranged without reference to the depiction of an object.

Question 4

Academy

Answer 4

An institution whose main objects include training artists in an academic tradition, ennobling the profession, and holding exhibitions.

Question 5

Action Painting

Answer 5

Also called gestural abstraction. The kind of Abstract Expressionism practiced by Jackson Pollock, in which the emphasis was on the creation process, the artist’s gesture in making art. Pollock poured liquid paint in linear webs on his canvases, which he laid out on the floor, thereby physically surrounding himself in the painting during its creation.

Question 6

Acropolis

Answer 6

Literally, “ high city,” a Greek temple complex built on a hill over a city.

Question 7

Agora

Answer 7

A public plaza in a Greek city where commercial, religious, and societal activities are conducted.

Question 8

Ahu

Answer 8

Ceremonial platforms.

Question 9

‘Ahu’ula

Answer 9

“Red cloak” refers to the red color associated with royalty in Hawaiian feather cloaks.

Question 10

Aisle

Answer 10

The portion of a basilica flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers.

Question 11

Aka

Answer 11

The aka or Bayaka (also BiAka, Babenzele) are a nomadic Mbenga pygmy people. They live in the southwestern Central African Republic and in the northern Republic of the Congo.

Question 12

Allegory

Answer 12

In a work of art, an image (or images) that symbolizes an idea, concept, or principle, often moral or religious.

Question 13

Altarpiece

Answer 13

A painted or sculpted panel set atop an altarpiece in a church.

Question 14

Altar Stone

Answer 14

THe largest of all the “foreign stones” at Stonehenge, it is a rectangular recumbent block of sandstone.

Question 15

Amarna

Answer 15

Was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten. This era during the New Kingdom saw a shift in the art - with exaggerated, elongated figures.

Question 16

Amazonomachy

Answer 16

A legendary battle between Greeks and Amazons, often depicted in Greek art, as on the West Metopes of the Parthenon.

Question 17

Ambulatory

Answer 17

A passageway around the apse or an altar of a church.

Question 18

Amphitheater

Answer 18

Greek, “double theater.” A Roman building type resembling two Greek theaters put together. The Roman amphitheater featured a continuous elliptical cavea around a central arena.

Question 19

Amphora

Answer 19

A two-handled ancient Greek storage jar.

Question 20

Anazasi

Answer 20

A member of an ancient North American people of the southwestern US, who flourished between c. 200 BC and AD 1500. The earliest phase of their culture is known as the Basket Maker period; the present-day Pueblo culture developed from a later stage.

Question 21

Androgynous

Answer 21

Partly male and partly female in appearance; of indeterminate sex.

Question 22

Aniconic

Answer 22

A symbolic representation without images of human figures, very often found in Islamic Art.

Question 23

Animal Style

Answer 23

A medieval art form in which animals are depicted in a stylized and often complicated pattern, usually seen fighting with one another.

Question 24

Annunciation

Answer 24

In Christianity, an episode in the book of Luke 1:26-38 in which Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would be the Virgin Mother of Jesus.

Question 25

Anthropomorphic

Answer 25

Having characteristics of the human form, although the form itself is not human.

Question 26

Apadana

Answer 26

Ceremonial hall with hypostyle architecture; also called the audience hall of Darius and Xerxes.

Question 27

Apocalypse

Answer 27

Last book of the Christian Bible; sometimes called Revelations; which details God’s destruction of evil and consequent rising to heaven of the righteous.

Question 28

Apotheosis

Answer 28

A type of painting in which the figures are rising heavenward.

Question 29

Apse

Answer 29

The end point of a church where the altar is.

Question 30

Aquatint

Answer 30

A kind of print that achieves a watercolor effect by using acids that dissolve onto a copper plate.

Question 31

Arabesque

Answer 31

European term for a type of linear surface decoration based on foliage and calligraphic forms, thought by Europeans to be typical of Islamic art and usually characterized by flowing lines and swirling shapes.

Question 32

Arcade

Answer 32

A series of arches supported by columns.

Question 33

Arch

Answer 33

In architecture, a curved structural element that spans a space.

Question 34

Archaeology

Answer 34

The scientific study of ancient people and cultures principally revealed through excavation.

Question 35

Archaic

Answer 35

The earliest phases of a culture; the term is most frequently used by art historians to denote the period of artistic development in Greece from about 650 to 480 bc, the date of the Persian sack of Athens.

Question 36

Architecture

Answer 36

The art or practice of designing and building structures.

Question 37

Archivolt

Answer 37

A series of concentric moldings around an arch.

Question 38

Arena

Answer 38

An enclosed area used for gladiator fights, public entertainment, activities, or political gatherings.

Question 39

Art

Answer 39

The conscious use of the skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.

Question 40

Art History

Answer 40

The academic study of the history and development of painting, sculpture, and the other visual arts.

Question 41

Ashanti

Answer 41

Asante empire, Asante also spelled Ashanti. West African state that occupied what is now southern Ghana in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Question 42

Ashlar Masonry

Answer 42

Carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of Masonry.

Question 43

Atrium

Answer 43

A courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian church.

Question 44

Avant-garde

Answer 44

An innovative group of artists who generally reject traditional approaches in favor of a more experimental technique.

Question 45

Axial Plan

Answer 45

A building with an elongated ground plan.

Question 46

Aztec

Answer 46

The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious, and commercial organization that brought many of the region’s city-states under their control by the 15th century. Invaders led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire by force and captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica’s last great native civilization.