1030à la grecque—French, “in Greek style.”
a secco—Italian, “dried.” See fresco.
abacus—The uppermost portion of the capital of a
column,usually a thin slab.
abbess—See abbey.
abbey—A religious community under the direction
of an abbot (for monks) or an abbess (for nuns).
abbot—See abbey.
abhaya—See mudra.
abrasion—The rubbing or grinding of stone or an-
other material to produce a smooth finish.
Abstract Expressionism—The first major Ameri-
can avant-garde movement, Abstract Expression-
ism emerged in New York City in the 1940s. The
artists produced abstractpaintings that expressed
their state of mind and that they hoped would
strike emotional chords in viewers. The move-
ment developed along two lines:gestural abstrac-
tion and chromatic abstraction.
acropolis—Greek,“high city.” In ancient Greece, usu-
ally the site of the city’s most important temple(s).
action painting—Also called gestural abstraction.
The kind ofAbstract 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.
additive light—Natural light, or sunlight, the sum of
all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum.See
also subtractive light.
additive sculpture—A kind of sculpture technique
in which materials (for example, clay) are built up
or “added” to create form.
adobe—The clay used to make a kind of sun-dried
mud brick of the same name; a building made of
such brick.
aerial perspective—See perspective.
agora—An open square or space used for public
meetings or business in ancient Greek cities.
ahu—A stone platform on which the moai of Easter
Island stand. Ahu marked burial sites or served
ceremonial purposes.
‘ahu ‘ula—A Hawaiian feather cloak.
GLOSSARY
airbrush—A tool that uses compressed air to spray
paint onto a surface.
aisle—The portion of a basilicaflanking the naveand
separated from it by a row ofcolumnsor piers.
akua’ba—“Akua’s child.” A Ghanaian image of a
young girl.
ala (pl.alae)—One of a pair of rectangular recesses
at the back of the atriumof a Roman house.
album leaf—A painting on a single sheet of paper
for a collection stored in an album.
alchemy—The medieval study of seemingly magical
changes, especially chemical changes.
altar frontal—A decorative panel on the front of a
church altar.
altarpiece—A panel, painted or sculpted, situated
above and behind an altar. See also retable.
alternate-support system—In church architecture,
the use of alternating wall supports in the nave,
usually piersand columnsor compound piersof al-
ternating form.
amalaka—In Hindu temple design, the large flat disk
with ribbed edges surmounting the beehive-
shaped tower.
Amazonomachy—In Greek mythology, the battle
between the Greeks and Amazons.
ambo—A church pulpitfor biblical readings.
ambulatory—A covered walkway, outdoors (as in a
church cloister) or indoors; especially the passage-
way around the apse and the choir of a church. In
Buddhist architecture, the passageway leading
around the stupain a chaitya hall.
amphiprostyle—A classicaltemple planin which the
columnsare placed across both the front and back
but not along the sides.
amphitheater—Greek, “double theater.” A Roman
building type resembling two Greek theaters put
together. The Roman amphitheater featured a
continuous elliptical caveaaround a central arena.
amphora—An ancient Greek two-handled jar used
for general storage purposes, usually to hold wine
or oil.
amulet—An object worn to ward off evil or to aid the
wearer.
Analytic Cubism—The first phase ofCubism,devel-
oped jointly by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque,in which the artists analyzed form from every
possible vantage point to combine the various
views into one pictorial whole.
anamorphic image—A distorted image that must
be viewed by some special means (such as a mir-
ror) to be recognized.
ancien régime—French, “old order.” The term used
to describe the political, social, and religious or-
der in France before the Revolution at the end of
the 18th century.
antae—The molded projecting ends of the walls
forming the pronaos or opisthodomos of an an-
cient Greek temple.
ante legem—Latin, “before the law.” In Christian
thought, the period before Moses received the Ten
Commandments. See also sub lege.
apadana—The great audience hall in ancient Persian
palaces.
apostle—Greek, “messenger.” One of the 12 disciples
of Jesus.
apotheosis—Elevated to the rank of gods, or the as-
cent to heaven.
apoxyomenos—Greek, “athlete scraping oil from his
body.”
apse—A recess, usually semicircular, in the wall of a
building, commonly found at the east end of a
church.
apsidal—Rounded;apse-shaped.
arcade—A series ofarchessupported by piersor
columns.
Arcadian (adj.)—In Renaissance and later art,
depictions of an idyllic place of rural peace and
simplicity. Derived from Arcadia, an ancient dis-
trict of the central Peloponnesos in southern
Greece.
arch—A curved structural member that spans an
opening and is generally composed of wedge-
shaped blocks (voussoirs) that transmit the down-
ward pressure laterally. See also thrust.
Archaic—The artistic style of 600–480 BCEin Greece,
characterized in part by the use of the composite
viewfor painted and relieffigures and of Egyptian
stances for statues.
Archaic smile—The smile that appears on all Ar-
chaicGreek statues from about 570 to 480 BCE.The