Arts 2A Midterm Exam

Distorts, exaggerates or simplifies the natural world to provide essence or universal.

The presenting again – in different and substitute form – of something observed. The word "representational," when used to describe a work of art, means that the work depicts something easily recognized by most people.

A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally; a composite view.

It is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table). Most date from the early Neolithic period (4000 to 3000 BCE). Dolmens were usually covered with earth or smaller stones to form a barrow, though in many cases that covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone "skeleton" of the burial mound intact.

A painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand in paintings and reliefs.

Huge, often undressed stone used in various types of Neolithic monuments.

P.10 The basis for the conventional division of prehistory into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods is the development of stone implements. The Paleolithic period corresponds roughly to the age of food gathering, and the Mesolithic period, the last phase of that age, is marked by intensified food gathering and the taming of the dog. In the Neolithic period, agriculture and stock raising became humankind’s major food sources.

In this system of construction, vertical uprights (posts) support a horizontal element (the lintel). The figure is a diagram of the most basic single post-and-lintel form, called a trilithon. In later eras, this simple system was elaborated into highly complex structures.

The determination of the approximate age of an organic object by measuring the amount of carbon 14 it contains. The technique is most accurate for material no more than 50,000 years old.

In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part. The degree of relief is designated high, low or sunken.

A type of sculpture that is surrounded on all sides by space. Also called sculpture in-the-round.

Nude woman, from willendorf, Austria, ca. 28,000-25,000 BCE. Limestone, 4 1/4" high. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna.
The anatomical exaggerations in this tiny figurine from Willendorf are typical of Paleolithic representations of women, whose child-bearing capabilities ensured the survival of species.

From Laussel, France, ca. 25,000-20,000 BCE. Painted limestone, 1' 6" high. Musee d' Aquitaine, Bordeaux.
One of the oldest known relief sculptures depicts a woman who holds a bison horn and whose left arm draws attention to her belly. Scholars continue to debate the meaning of the gesture and the horn.