A Handful Of Basic Art Terms Trivia Quiz

Answer: architrave

You get an ogee when arches end in a point. A buttress is a wall support. Flying buttresses are wall supports too, but they are like half arches. The cornice is the projecting part on top of a building.

Answer: a direct joint between door or window units

Recesses in walls are called niches. Spiral forms used in decoration are called volutes. And zigzagged mouldings are chevrons.

Answer: the surface alteration caused by age

Not to be confused with the R.C. term paten ( from 'patena') for a small shallow plate or disc of precious metal used during Mass.

Answer: from Dutch maal-stok which means painting-stick

Malen is also a German verb for painting, but it was the Dutch painters whose painting-skill caused some Dutch words to be taken over by neighbouring languages. Another example is "easel" which derives from Dutch "ezel".

Answer: paint made using egg yolk

In former times paint making was a real personal skill of the painter who could not rely on paints made by the chemical industry.Specific colours required specific production techniques. "Vermillion" e.g. was a colour obtained by crushing...dried worms or "vermes". By the way vermicelli also got their name from "vermes": little worms.

Answer: apse

The nave (from Latin navis, which means ship) is the central and principal part of a Christian church extending from the entrance or narthex to the transepts. The chancel is that portion of a church that contains the choir, often at the eastern end. Originally it was the part beyond the transepts reserved for the clergy and separated from the rest of the church by "cancelli"(latticework) or by a screen.

A reredos is an ornamental screen or partition that is not directly attached to the altar table but affixed to the wall behind it.

A retable is any ornamental panel behind an altar. Looked at from the outside one could also define the apse as a projecting part of a church usually semicircular or polygonal in form and vaulted.

Answer: it is a separate building

A very famous campanile is the 'leaning tower' of Pisa. La Campania is also a province of Italy.

Answer: misericord

A stupa is a Buddhist burial mound. A portcullis is not a "butt-bearer" but an iron gate that opens vertically. A sedilia is a priest's seat , cut into the chancel. The term misericord of course derives from Latin for: "Lord have mercy". In this case : have mercy on the poor priest, monk or canon who has to stand and pray during holy office.

Answer: atlas

Dormant is an adjective and is used in heraldry to refer to the representation of an animal "as if sleeping".Compare: rampant: on hind legs. A gisant is a recumbent figure of the deceased. A caryatid is a draped female figure used instead of a column as a support.

The plural of atlas is atlantes. The term of course derives from the name of the Greek god Atlas who is usually represented as carrying a globe.

Answer: Rococo

Regency style refers to the style characteristic of George IV's regency when he was still Prince of Wales. Perpendicular Gothic refers to a medieval English Gothic style in which vertical lines predominated.
Baroque is the style typical of the 17th century. It has complex forms, bold ornamentation, contrasts, drama, movement, tension.The word derives from French "barroque", an irregularly shaped pearl.
Rococo is a further evolution of it, in which fanciful curved forms and elaborate ornamentation become even more complex, but lighter in tone. Derives from French rocaille which may either refer to complex-shaped rockforms or to such shellforms.