Castilla y León PAU History of Art key terms

The enclosed inner room of a Greek or Roman temple that houses the cult statue; the naos. Its plan, often with a pronaos in front, determines the temple's overall layout and typology.

A pose in which the weight of the body rests on one leg, so hips and shoulders tilt in opposite directions and the torso curves. It gives sculpture a natural, dynamic balance.

A free-standing nude male youth statue of Archaic Greek art, standing frontally with one foot forward and arms at the sides. Its rigid symmetry contrasts with later contrapposto figures.

A writing system of wedge-shaped marks pressed into damp clay with a reed stylus, used in Mesopotamia from the late fourth millennium BCE. It recorded administration, laws and literature on tablets.

A monumental Mesopotamian temple platform built of stacked, stepped mud-brick terraces with a shrine at the summit. It served as a raised meeting place between the deity and the community.

An upright stone slab carved with relief or inscription and set up as a monument. Examples include Mesopotamian law steles and Greek grave markers, combining image, text and commemorative function.

Relief sculpture in which the carved figures project only slightly from the background plane. It is common on steles, friezes and architectural panels, where it reads clearly in raking light.

The horizontal band of a classical entablature between architrave and cornice, often carved in relief. The term also describes any continuous sculpted or painted band of figures.

The upper horizontal section of a classical building carried by columns, comprising architrave, frieze and cornice. Its proportions and ornament vary with the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders.

A continuous row of columns surrounding a temple or enclosing a courtyard. In Greek temples it forms a colonnade around the cella; in Roman houses it frames a garden court.

Painting or relief designed to deceive the eye into perceiving real three-dimensional objects or space. Roman wall painting and later Baroque ceilings use it to extend architecture illusionistically.

Wall painting made by applying pigment to fresh lime plaster, so the colour bonds with the drying wall. True fresco (buon fresco) is durable; secco painting is added on dry plaster.

A surface decoration made by setting small pieces of stone, glass or ceramic (tesserae) into mortar. Used widely in Roman floors and Early Christian and Byzantine church interiors.

Roman mosaic technique using roughly cubical tesserae of similar size laid in mortar to form patterns or pictures. It is distinguished from opus sectile, which uses cut flat slabs.

A sacred panel image of Christ, the Virgin or a saint venerated in Byzantine and Orthodox tradition. Its frontal composition and gold ground signal the holy status of the figure.

A screen of icons and carved panels separating the sanctuary from the nave in Byzantine and Orthodox churches. It developed from the earlier templon and structures the view of the altar.

A longitudinal building type with a central nave flanked by aisles and lit by clerestory windows. Adopted by Early Christian churches, it later became the standard plan for Western churches.

The central longitudinal space of a church, between the side aisles or walls, extending from entrance to apse. It accommodates the congregation and directs movement toward the altar.

A semicircular or polygonal recess at the end of a church, usually covered by a half-dome and containing the altar or choir. It is a focal point of liturgical and decorative programmes.

A Byzantine image of Christ as ruler of the universe, shown frontal, blessing and holding the Gospels. It typically occupies the dome or apse of a church as the centre of its programme.

The semicircular area enclosed by the lintel and arch above a Romanesque or Gothic doorway. It usually carries a carved relief of the Last Judgement or a theophany.

A moulded band following the curve of an arch, often repeated in concentric rings around a portal. Romanesque and Gothic archivolts are frequently carved with figures or ornament.

A vault whose intersecting masonry ribs carry the web of stone between them. Developed in Romanesque and Gothic architecture, it concentrates loads on piers and permits lighter, taller structures.

An external arched support that transmits the thrust of a vault across open space to a pier. It allowed Gothic builders to raise naves with thin walls and large glazed windows.

The pointed arch characteristic of Gothic architecture, formed by two intersecting arcs. Its geometry reduces lateral thrust and permits vaults of varying span at a uniform height.

Coloured glass assembled with lead cames to form windows, often pictorial and didactic. Gothic churches used large glazed areas to fill interiors with coloured, symbolic light.

A large circular window with radiating stone tracery, common on Gothic church façades. Its geometric pattern frames stained glass and often centres on a Marian or Christological theme.

The intersecting stone bars that divide a Gothic window opening into geometric or flowing patterns. It supports the glass, frames it, and became a major vehicle of decorative design.

A niche in the qibla wall of a mosque indicating the direction of prayer toward Mecca. It is usually the most richly decorated element of the prayer hall.

The direction of Mecca, toward which Muslims pray; the wall of a mosque containing the mihrab. Its orientation governs the plan and axis of the prayer hall.

A tall tower attached to a mosque from which the call to prayer is given. Its height and silhouette make it a landmark in Islamic townscapes and a focus of architectural ornament.

An arch whose curve extends inward beyond a semicircle, narrowing at the springing. It is characteristic of Islamic and Mozarabic architecture in the Iberian Peninsula.

A style of Iberian Christian architecture and ornament made by Muslim craftsmen, using brick, tile and geometric decoration. It flourished from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries, especially in Castile and Aragon.

An ornate carved and painted wooden ceiling structure typical of Islamic and Mudejar architecture in Spain. Its geometric framework and decoration combine structural and decorative functions.

A system that represents three-dimensional space on a flat surface using a horizon line and vanishing points to which orthogonals converge. It structured Renaissance and later illusionistic painting.

The modelling of form through strong contrasts of light and shade. It creates volume and drama in painting and drawing and is central to Baroque naturalism and later expression.

An extreme form of chiaroscuro in which figures emerge from deep shadow lit by a single strong source. Caravaggio and his followers used it to heighten dramatic and devotional impact.

A technique of blending tones so softly that contours dissolve into hazy transitions, producing atmospheric depth. Leonardo da Vinci's portraits and landscapes exemplify it.

A style emerging in the sixteenth century that favours elongated figures, artificial colour, ambiguous space and virtuoso technique over Renaissance balance. It spread across European courts and into Spain.

A Cretan-born painter active in Toledo from 1577, known for elongated figures, flickering light and intense colour. His work fuses Byzantine icon tradition with Venetian and Mannerist painting.

The representation of subjects as they appear in observable reality, with attention to anatomy, light and setting. It underpins Renaissance and Baroque innovations and later Realist painting.

A nineteenth-century movement depicting contemporary life, especially labour and the working class, without idealisation. Its plain subjects and factual observation challenged academic conventions of history painting.

A French movement of the 1870s that painted outdoor light and fleeting moments with visible, broken brushwork. It favoured modern urban and rural subjects over academic history painting.

Painting outdoors directly from the motif rather than composing in the studio. Portable paint tubes and box easels made it practical and central to Impressionist and later landscape practice.

Artists or movements that reject established conventions and position themselves ahead of mainstream taste. The term describes early twentieth-century movements such as Cubism and Surrealism.

A movement initiated by Picasso and Braque around 1907 that breaks objects into facets and multiple viewpoints. It dissolved single-point perspective and reshaped twentieth-century representation.

An artwork made by pasting paper, newsprint or found materials onto a surface. Cubists used it to introduce everyday reality and to question the boundary between painting and object.

An ordinary manufactured object selected and presented as art by the artist, famously by Marcel Duchamp. It challenges authorship, craft and the definition of the artwork.

A movement of the 1920s that drew on dreams, the unconscious and automatism to release imagination. It produced dreamlike illusionism and automatic mark-making across Europe and beyond.

A tendency that distorts colour, form and brushwork to convey intense subjective emotion. It appears in early twentieth-century German groups and in painters such as Van Gogh and Munch.

A German school of art, design and architecture active 1919–1933 that united craft and industry. Its teaching and functionalist aesthetic shaped modern architecture and graphic design.

The principle that a building's form should be determined by its use, materials and construction. It guided modern architecture from the Bauhaus and International Style onward.

The study of the subject matter and symbolic meaning of images, including attributes, gestures and narrative motifs. It interprets works within their religious, literary and cultural traditions.

The description and interpretation of a work through its visual elements-line, shape, colour, texture, space, composition and scale-independent of subject matter. It grounds stylistic comparison and attribution.

The documented history of ownership and location of an artwork. It supports authentication, establishes legal title and is essential for identifying looted or disputed works.

The ascription of a work to a particular artist, workshop, period or school on the basis of style, documents and technical evidence. Attributions may be revised as evidence changes.