AP Art History › Understanding terminology that describes Ancient Grecian and Roman 2D art
Encaustic painting, a popular technique for Greek painters, can most basically be broken down into which of the following three steps?
Heat beeswax, add colored pigment, apply to wood surface.
Add pigment to water, mix egg yolk, apply to wet plaster.
Add pigment to water, mix egg yolk, apply to dry plaster.
Mix oils and pigments, apply to wood, heat to dry.
Mix pigment and water, add beeswax, cool and let dry.
The main ingredient of encaustic painting is beeswax, and the mixture is most often applied to wood, though it has other uses. Egg-yolk pigments are a characteristic of fresco, not encaustic painting.
A "tessera" is the main element in creating a __________.
mosaic
fresco
mural
stained glass window
Mosaics were one of the more common artistic forms of Ancient Greek and Roman art, being featured as key decorative elements in buildings on walls and floors. The key element of a mosaic is a "tessera" (plural "tesserae"), a Latin term for the small piece of stone or glass which is put together with others to make the much larger image of a full mosaic.
The technique of mixing pigment and egg yolk before applying it to a moistened plaster surface is called what?
Fresco-secco
Encaustic painting
Tempera
Buon Fresco
Chiaroscuro
Fresco-secco, or dry fresco painting, uses water-based pigment mixed with egg to paint a dry plaster surface that has only been moistened. This is not true fresco, or buon fresco, because in a true fresco the plaster would still be wet. Fresco painting was popular in Classical Greece.
The ________ of proportions allowed the Greeks to create idealized depictions of the human form.
canon
scale
ratio
body
table
The term to remember is "canon," as it directly refers to the proportion principles employed by both the Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Egyptians.
"Scale" was given as an option to throw off the test-taker; though scale of proportions fits into the sentence quite well, "canon" is the art history term used (for example, we say that paintings are of nude figures, not naked figures).
"Ratio" cannot be the answer since that is a synonym for "proportion." Body does not fit the sentence at all. Table would work, but it is not the answer for the same reason that scale is not.
The kind of artwork that features many pieces of glass or tile arranged into a portrait or other image is called a __________.
mosaic
diptych
devotional
fresco
mural
While "mosaic" is a very broad term, it refers to any artwork made by assembling together small pieces of glass and tile. Roman artists and architects frequently used mosaics to create artwork in homes and buildings, and these were frequently realistic depictions of people or landscapes. Mosaics are still used by artists today, but can often take on abstract forms.
_______________ refers to the representation of sequential moments in a story in a single image.
Continuous narrative
Collapsed narrative
Directional narrative
Abbreviated narrative
In a continuous narrative, sequential moments of a narrative or story are depicted in a single scene. This type of image is used to tell a whole story within a single image instead of through separate images. A continuous narrative often is distinguished by the reappearance of a single character or characters multiple times within the image.
In general, what is the art style of the Romans and Greeks referred to as?
Classical art
Ancient art
Art nouveau
Realism
Roman and Greek styles of art are referred to as Classical Art. Classical art is known for its simplicity, humanism and naturally beautiful style.