Altarpiecea Panel, Painted Or Sculpted, Situated Above and Behind an Altar

Art 1 Vocabulary

Gothic Art

altarpieceA panel, painted or sculpted, situated above and behind an altar.

arcadeA series of arches supported by piers or columns.

archivoltThe continuous molding framing an arch. In Romanesque or Gothic architecture, one of the series of concentric bands framing the tympanum.

breviaryA Christian religious book of selected daily prayers and psalms.

buttressAn exterior masonry structure that supports an arch or a vault. A pier buttress is a solid mass of masonry; a flying buttress consists of an inclined member carried on an arch or a series of arches and a solid buttress.

camesThe lead strips in stained-glass windows that join separate pieces of colored glass.

cathedralA bishop’s church.

clerestoryIn Roman basilicas and medieval churches, the windows that form the nave’s uppermost level below the timber ceiling or the vaults.

compound pierA pier with a group, or cluster, of attached shafts, or responds, especially characteristic of Gothic architecture.

crossing towerThe tower over the crossing of a church.

cryptA vaulted space under part of a building, wholly or partly underground; in churches, normally the portion under an apse.

Flamboyant styleA Late Gothic style of architecture superseding the Rayonnant style and named for the flamelike appearance of its pointed bar tracery.

GothicOriginally a derogatory term named after the Goths, used to describe the history, culture, and art of Western Europe in the 12th to 14th centuries.

lancetIn Gothic architecture, a tall narrow window ending in a pointed arch.

leadingIn the manufacture of stained-glass windows, the joining of colored glass pieces using lead cames.

nave arcadeIn basilica architecture, the series of arches supported by piers or columns separating the nave from the aisles.

pendantThe large hanging terminal element of a Gothic fan vault.

PietàA painted or sculpted representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ.

pinnacleIn Gothic churches, a sharply pointed ornament capping the piers or flying buttresses; also used on church facades.

quatrefoilA shape or plan in which the parts assume the form of a cloverleaf.

RayonnantThe “radiant” style of Gothic architecture, dominant in the second half of the 13th century and associated with the French royal court of Louis IX at Paris.

ribA relatively slender, molded masonry arch that projects from a surface. In Gothic architecture, the ribs form the framework of the vaulting. A diagonal rib is one of the ribs that form the X of a groin vault. A transverse rib crosses the nave or aisle at a 90-degree angle.

rose windowA circular stained-glass window.

springingIn Gothic vaulting, the lowest stone of a diagonal or transverse rib.

triforiumIn a Gothic cathedral, the blind arcaded gallery below the clerestory; occasionally the arcades are filled with stained glass.

trumeauIn church architecture, the pillar or center post supporting the lintel in the middle of the doorway.

webIn Gothic architecture, the masonry blocks that fill the area between the ribs of a groin vault.