Andalusia PAU History of Art key terms

The enclosed inner room of a Greek or Roman temple that houses the cult statue; the naos in Greek architecture, usually fronted by a porch of columns.

A pose in which the body's weight rests on one leg, so hips and shoulders tilt in opposing directions and the figure seems alive and balanced rather than rigidly symmetrical.

The convention of representing the most important figure largest, regardless of spatial depth, common in Egyptian and Mesopotamian relief and painting to signal rank and power.

Carving in which figures project only slightly from a flat background, as on Assyrian palace reliefs and Roman historical sarcophagi; also called low relief.

A Roman portrait type that records every wrinkle, wart and sign of age, valued for conveying gravitas and public service rather than idealised beauty.

Wall or floor decoration made from cut pieces of coloured marble arranged into geometric or figured patterns, widely used in Roman and later Byzantine and Islamic buildings.

An image or pattern built from small pieces of stone, glass or ceramic (tesserae) set into mortar; a defining medium of Roman, Early Christian and Byzantine art.

A portable painted panel of a holy figure venerated in Byzantine and Orthodox Christianity, treated as a window onto the sacred rather than a mere illustration.

The image of Christ as ruler of all, frontal and often holding a gospel book, placed in church domes and apses from Byzantine art onward.

An almond-shaped halo enclosing the whole body of Christ or a saint, used in Romanesque and Byzantine art to mark divine glory, especially in Majestas scenes.

The semicircular field above a doorway, enclosed by the lintel and arch, and a prime site for Romanesque and Gothic sculpture programmes that teach doctrine to the faithful.

Each of the concentric moulded bands framing a Romanesque or Gothic portal arch, frequently carved with figures that lead the eye toward the tympanum.

A vault whose intersecting stone ribs carry the weight of thin infill panels between them, allowing lighter, higher and more flexible Gothic church construction.

An external arched support that transfers the outward thrust of a high vault to a detached pier, letting Gothic walls be opened up into large windows.

A large circular window filled with radiating stone tracery and stained glass, typically set above the west door or in transept façades of Gothic churches.

A technique of blending tones so gradually that outlines dissolve into smoky shadow, producing soft transitions of light and form, most famously in Leonardo's paintings.

A system in which parallel lines receding into depth converge at a vanishing point on a horizon, creating the illusion of measurable three-dimensional space on a flat surface.

Painting designed to deceive the eye into taking depicted objects, architecture or textures for real ones, often used in Baroque ceilings and still-life detail.

An extreme form of chiaroscuro in which figures emerge from near-total darkness under a single harsh light source, associated with Caravaggio and his followers.

The deliberate contrast of light and dark to model volume and create drama, a fundamental device of Renaissance drawing and Baroque painting alike.

A painted or carved panel placed behind and above an altar, often with hinged shutters; a central format for Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque religious commissions.

The large structural screen of paintings, sculpture and gilding rising behind a Spanish altar, organising devotional images in tiers within a carved architectural frame.

A Spanish Baroque support shaped like an inverted tapering pyramid, stacked in tiers and richly carved, replacing the classical column in retablos and church interiors.

Carved plasterwork used to cover walls, arches and vaults with dense geometric, vegetal and epigraphic ornament, characteristic of Nasrid and Mudéjar interiors.

Stucco or stone vaulting made of cascading tiers of small niches, producing a honeycomb surface that dissolves structure into shimmering texture in Islamic architecture.

The niche in a mosque wall indicating the direction of prayer toward Mecca, usually the most richly decorated point of the interior, as in the Mezquita of Córdoba.

Art and architecture produced in Christian Spain by Muslim craftsmen or under Islamic stylistic influence, blending brick, plasterwork and tiled decoration with Christian building types.

A late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century movement reviving Greek and Roman forms, valuing clarity, restraint and archaeological correctness over Baroque exuberance.

The academically highest genre, depicting morally significant events from scripture, myth or national history with idealised figures, grand scale and noble gestures.

A mid-nineteenth-century approach that depicts ordinary contemporary life and labour without idealisation, often with unflinching attention to poverty and social conditions.

Paint applied thickly so that brush or palette-knife marks stand out from the surface, catching light and emphasising the materiality of the medium.

Painting outdoors directly from the motif, made practicable by portable paint tubes and central to Impressionist practice for capturing transient light and atmosphere.

A Post-Impressionist technique of building form from small separate dots of pure colour that blend optically when seen from a distance, associated with Seurat.

In Post-Impressionist theory, the deliberate simplification of form and flat areas of unmodulated colour to express an idea or mood rather than observed appearances.

An artwork made by pasting fragments of printed paper, cloth or other found material onto a surface, used by Cubists to question illusion and the boundary between art and life.

An ordinary manufactured object selected and presented as art by the artist, challenging the idea that skill or beauty defines the artwork, as in Duchamp's urinal.

A movement from the 1920s seeking to release the unconscious through dreamlike or irrational imagery, automatic processes and unexpected juxtapositions of familiar things.