Valencian Community PAU Artistic Foundations flashcards

38 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Figure-ground relationship

Perceptual principle by which the eye separates a dominant shape (figure) from its surrounding field (ground). Ambiguous cases, such as the Rubin vase, show that perception actively organises visual data.

Denotation and connotation

Denotation is the literal, descriptive meaning of an image; connotation is the cultural, symbolic or ideological meaning it evokes. Barthes used both levels to analyse advertising and photography.

Gestalt grouping laws

Principles describing how viewers group elements: proximity, similarity, continuity, closure and common fate. They explain why scattered marks are read as coherent forms in painting and design.

Functions of the image

Images can inform, persuade, express emotion, narrate, decorate, document or serve ritual. Identifying the dominant function helps explain an image's format, composition and intended audience.

Iconicity scale

Gradation from highly resembling signs (photographs) to highly arbitrary ones (abstract symbols, words). Most graphic design sits between these extremes, balancing recognition with simplification.

Chiaroscuro and sfumato

Chiaroscuro is the strong modelling of form through light and dark; sfumato is Leonardo's technique of soft, smoky transitions between tones. Both create volume and atmosphere in painting.

Additive vs subtractive colour

Additive colour mixes light (RGB), producing white at full intensity and used in screens. Subtractive colour mixes pigments or inks (CMY/CMYK), producing dark tones and used in printing.

Contrapposto

A pose in which weight rests on one leg, tilting the hips and shoulders in opposite directions. Introduced in classical Greek sculpture, it creates naturalistic balance and movement.

Linear perspective

System in which parallel lines recede to vanishing points on a horizon line, producing illusion of depth on a flat surface. Codified in fifteenth-century Florence by Brunelleschi and Alberti.

Dry drawing media

Graphite, charcoal, conté crayon and pastel, applied without liquid binder. They allow tonal blending and textured line; charcoal and pastel usually require fixative to prevent smudging.

Levantine rock art

Prehistoric schematic paintings of the Spanish Mediterranean arc, including Cova dels Cavalls in Valltorta (Castellón). They depict hunting, dance and animals with dynamic, naturalistic figures; UNESCO listed.

Lonja de la Seda

Late Gothic civil building in Valencia (fifteenth century) by Pere Compte, used for silk trade. Its helical columns and monumental hall make it a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sorolla's luminism

Valencian painting style of Joaquín Sorolla, using bright high-key colour and loose brushwork to capture Mediterranean light, beach scenes and everyday life with immediate optical effect.

Ribalta and Ribera

Valencian painters who introduced naturalistic tenebrism: Francisco Ribalta in Valencia and his follower José de Ribera, active in Naples, whose dramatic light influenced Baroque Europe.

Roman Valentia

Roman colony founded 138 BC on the Turia river. Excavations at La Almoina reveal forum, basilica, curia, thermal baths and a circus; Saguntum and Lucentum are other Valencian Roman sites.

Mudejar in Valencia

Architectural style by Muslim builders under Christian rule, using brick, glazed tiles and geometric ornament. Examples include church towers and ceilings across Valencia and Castellón.

Greek architectural orders

Doric has a plain capital and no base; Ionic has volutes and a base; Corinthian has an acanthus-leaf capital. The Parthenon is Doric peripteral with Ionic elements in its interior.

Gothic rib vault

Vault whose intersecting stone ribs carry the load and channel it to piers, allowing thinner webs and larger windows. Combined with pointed arches and flying buttresses, it defines Gothic architecture.

Byzantine mosaic

Wall and ceiling decoration of small glass or stone tesserae on gold ground. Figures are frontal, elongated and hierarchically scaled, as in Ravenna's San Vitale and Hagia Sophia.

Egyptian canonical convention

Rule governing Egyptian relief and painting: head in profile, shoulders frontal, legs in profile, with hieratic scale and register bands. It remained stable for millennia for ideological clarity.

Romanesque pilgrimage church

Plan with nave, side aisles, transept, ambulatory and radiating chapels to circulate relics. Thick walls, small windows, barrel vaults and carved tympana define the style.

Hellenistic pathos

Style of late Greek art emphasising dramatic emotion, twisting bodies, theatrical composition and detailed drapery, exemplified by the Laocoön group and the Pergamon Altar frieze.

Cubism

Avant-garde movement by Picasso and Braque that breaks objects into facets and multiple viewpoints. Analytic Cubism is monochrome and fragmented; synthetic Cubism introduces collage and brighter colour.

Tenebrism

Baroque technique of dramatic light emerging from deep shadow, used by Caravaggio and his followers. It intensifies narrative focus and psychological intensity in religious painting.

Readymade

Duchamp's term for an ordinary manufactured object presented as art, such as a urinal or bottle rack. It shifts artistic value from craft to selection and concept.

Guernica

Picasso's 1937 mural condemning the bombing of the Basque town, painted for the Paris Exposition. Its Cubist fragmentation, monochrome palette and screaming figures make it an anti-war icon.

Bauhaus

German school (1919–1933) founded by Gropius uniting art, craft and industry. Its teaching of form, colour and typography shaped modern design, architecture and functionalist aesthetics.

Typography terms

Kerning adjusts space between specific letter pairs; tracking adjusts overall letter spacing; leading controls line spacing. These govern legibility and hierarchy in graphic design and layout.

Bauhaus and functionalism

Design principle holding that form should follow use, material and mass production. Associated with Gropius, Breuer and later Dieter Rams, it values clarity, standardisation and absence of ornament.

Exposure triangle

Relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Aperture controls depth of field, shutter speed controls motion blur, and ISO controls sensitivity and digital noise; adjusting one requires compensating the others.

Soviet montage

Editing theory of Eisenstein and Kuleshov holding that meaning arises from juxtaposition of shots rather than from each shot alone. It underpins modern narrative and persuasive film editing.

Diegetic sound

Sound whose source exists within the film's story world, such as dialogue or a radio. Non-diegetic sound, such as a voice-over or score, comes from outside that world.

Panofsky's three levels

Method of art interpretation: pre-iconographic description of forms, iconographic identification of subjects, and iconological interpretation of cultural meaning. Each level requires greater contextual knowledge.

Formal analysis grid

Checklist for commentary: format, composition, line and colour dominance, light, perspective, texture, spatial treatment and figure treatment. It structures description before interpretation and context.

Comparison protocol

Method for paired works: state the shared theme, then contrast technique, form, function, context and style, closing with what the comparison reveals about each work's period.

Style identification heuristics

Diagnostic cues: frontality and hierarchy suggest medieval art; proportion and perspective suggest Renaissance; diagonal drama and strong light suggest Baroque; broken brushwork suggests Impressionism.

Iconography versus iconology

Iconography identifies subjects and symbols through conventions; iconology interprets their cultural, religious or ideological meaning within a period. The second depends on the first.

Presentism in art analysis

Anachronistic error of judging past works by current values or categories. Careful commentary reconstructs original patronage, function and viewing conditions before offering contemporary critique.