Italian Viking
back next
Chapter 16 - GOTHIC
Altar→ ____ Table-like structure where religious rites are performed.
Altarpiece→ ____ Painted or carved panel or winged structure placed at the back of or behind an altar.  Contains religious imagery.
Apsidal→ ____ The condition of having a semicircular or polygonal space such as that of an apse.
Barbican→ ____ Defensive structure located at the gate to a city or castle; usually heavily fortified.
Bestiary→ ____ Book of moralizing tales about real and imaginary animals especially popular during the Middle Ages.
Cames→ ____ Lead strips used in making of leaded or stained-glass windows.
Colonnette→ ____ Small columnlike vertical element, usually found attached to a pier.  Decorative feature, contributing to the vertical effect of a Gothic cathedral.
Column Statue→ ____ Carved column, usually depicting a religious person, but also allegorical or mythological themes.
Crocket→ ____ Leaflike decorative element found in Gothic architecture.  Shaped like an open leaf that gently curves outward, its edges curling up.
Gesso→ ____ Thick medium of glue, gypsum and/or chalk, which -- when applied to raw canvas -- gives a smooth surface for painting and seals the absorbency of the canvas.
Giornata→ ____ The section of a fresco plastered and painted in a single day.
Grisaille→ ____ Painting executed primarily in various tones of gray.
Guild→ ____ Association of craftspeople.
Hall Church→ ____ A church with a nave and aisles of the same height, giving the impression of a large, open (hold onto your hats) HALL.
Lancet→ ____ Tall narrow window crowned by a sharply pointed arch, typical in Gothic architecture.
Mensa→ ____ Block-like table serving as the altar in a Christian church.
Mullion→ ____ Slender vertical element or colonnette that divides a window into subsidiary sections.
Pinnacle→ ____ In Gothic architecture, a steep pyramid decorating the top of another element, such as a buttress.
Polyptych→ ____ Altarpiece constructed from multiple panels, sometimes with hinges to allow for movable wings.
Predella→ ____ Lower zone, or base, of an altarpiece, decorated with painting related to the main theme of the altarpiece.
Quatrefoil→ ____ Four-lobed decorative pattern common in Gothic art.
Retablo→ ____ Screen placed behind an altar. Often built on a larger scale, with multiple painted panels and successive stories in the form of an altar.
Rib Vault→ ____ Found when the joining of curved sides of a groin vault is demarcated by a raised rib.
Rood Screen→ ____ The screen that separates the public nave from the private and sacred area of the choir. The screen supports a rood (sculpted crucifix).
Rose Window→ ____ A round window, often filled with stained glass, with tracery patterns in the form of wheel spokes.
Sinopia→ ____ A preparatory design, or underdrawing, of a fresco.
Stained Glass→ ____ Glass given a color, often cut into small pieces, precisely cut, and assembled into a design.
Tracery→ ____ Thin stone or wooden bars in a Gothic window, which create an elaborate decorative matrix or pattern.
Triforium→ ____ Interior of a church, the element found directly below the clerestory and consisting of a series of arched openings.
Triptych→ ____ Artwork made up of three panels, often hinged together so the side segments ("wings") fold over the central area.
Turret→ ____ A tall and slender tower.