AP Art History › Understanding terminology that describes Early Christian, Byzantine, and Early Medieval architecture
Semi-circular arches from the first millenneum CE are a common feature of European churches in the style of architecture known as __________.
Romanesque
Gothic
Classical
Byzantine
Romanesque churches dominated European architecture from sometime in the mid-to-late first millennium CE until about 1200. Romanesque churches were massive stone edifices that were marked out by having their doors and windows constructed out of simple semi-circular arches. Romanesque architecture was largely supplanted by the much more ornate and imposing Gothic style in the late Middle Ages.
The sides of a door or window frame, often decorated with sculpture in medieval churches, is called a _____________.
jamb
portal
tympanum
cornice
The side of a window frame or doorway in a medieval church is called a jamb. In medieval churches, the portal (or entrance way) often was elaborated with decorative sculpture on every available surface, including the jamb and the tympanum, the semi-circular or triangular wall space over a door.
What is a tribune?
Upper galleries over the inner aisle for overflow crowds
Designs of Biblical scenes woven into cloth
A series of radiating chapels
Monastery courtyard with covered walkways
Tribunes are galleries above the inner aisle that open down into the nave. These housed overflow crowds in Medieval churches, such as San Clemente in Rome.
A(n) ______________ is a processional walkway around the apse in a basilica church, or the central space in a centrally-planned church.
ambulatory
aisle
nave
clerestory
The processional walkway around the apse of a basilica church is called an ambulatory. It is a continuation of the aisles that run alongside the central space of the nave. Often individual shrines or altars for saints were set up along the ambulatory behind the main altar.
Which term refers to the style of art and architecture that emerged from the unification of Europe under a centralized Christian aesthetic, inaugurating a massive series of building projects as the Church became the chief patron of the arts?
Romanesque Architecture
Byzantine Architecture
Gothic Architecture
The International Style
The Romanesque movement inaugurated the great building projects of the church. Though Byzantine, Gothic, and International style movements are likewise responsible for many of Europe's greatest holy buildings, they are all continuations of and evolutions from the Romanesque style. This question requires students to know the chronology of their aesthetic movements.
The dome of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, built in 537 CE, was the first dome to be built using fully-developed __________.
pendentives
a cloistered vault
a double barrel vault
an oculus
Upon its completion, the Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world, and also contained the largest dome in the world. This dome was achieved through the use of fully-developed "pendentives," triangular elements of a sphere used as structural supports to allow a dome to be raised over a square room. The Hagia Sophia's architectural innovations were widely copied in Orthodox churches and Muslim mosques in successive centuries.
What type of vaulting has has six sections?
Sexpartite rib vaulting
Quadripartite vaulting
Fan vaulting
Barrel vaulting
Groin vaulting
In sexpartite rib vaulting, each vault is divided into six sections by three ribs.
What is the drum of a building?
Wall that supports a dome
Dome
Floor under a dome
Circular opening of a dome
The drum of a building is the circular wall that supports a dome.
What is a finial?
A crowning ornament on a building
A son or daughter depicted in an official portrait of a royal family
A decorative wall
A repeated design
A small piece in a mosaic
A finial is a crowning ornament on a pinnacle, tower, or roof of a building.
In a mosque, such as the mosque built in Cordoba by Islamic Umayyad royalty exiled from Damascus, the mihrab is __________.
a prayer niche indicating the wall of the mosque facing Mecca
a piece of devotional artwork in a geometric style
a dome built in a style foreshadowing Gothic cathedral construction
a horseshoe-shaped arch common in Islamic architecture
a raised area where the Imam stands during the call to prayer
The mihrab is a prayer niche set in the qibla wall of a mosque, or the wall facing Mecca. It indicates in which direction the congregation must pray.