Must-know sheet

Art History must-know sheet

All 250 required works with the identifiers the course description gives them, plus the exam format and the words you need to describe and analyze art. The exam gives you no reference sheet, so learn each work's title, artist or culture, date and materials, along with what it was for and why it matters.

The exam at a glance

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Section I: 80 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour (50%): Taken on a computer in the Bluebook app, like the whole exam. Four choices, A–D. Some questions stand alone and some come in sets of 2–3 on color images. Images include required works and works beyond the 250, so practice applying what you know to unfamiliar works.
Section II: 6 free-response questions in 2 hours (50%): Two long essays, then four short essays. Questions 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 show images; question 2 shows none, so you must know a work well enough to describe it from memory.
Q1 Comparison: 8 points, about 35 minutes: A required work is shown; you choose a second work and compare them. Points: identify your work (1), describe a visual feature of each (2), explain two similarities or differences with specific visual evidence (2), and a claim about what a similarity or difference means, backed by specific contextual evidence from each work (3).
Q2 Visual/Contextual Analysis: 6 points, about 25 minutes: No image. Pick a work from the list or another work from the named content area. Points: identification (1), defensible claim (1), two pieces of evidence (2), explaining how the evidence supports the claim (1), and corroborating or qualifying the claim (1).
Q3 Visual Analysis: 5 points, about 15 minutes: An image of a work beyond the 250. Describe its visual features, explain how the artist's choices create an effect, and connect it to a tradition, style or practice.
Q4 Contextual Analysis: 5 points, about 15 minutes: An image of a required work. Describe it and its context (setting, function, patron, audience) and explain how that context shaped the artist's choices or the work's meaning.
Q5 Attribution: 5 points, about 15 minutes: An image of a work you haven't studied. Name the artist, culture or style it belongs to, then justify that with specific visual evidence: similarities to other works by the same artist or culture, such as a required work you know well. Recent exams also ask how the work reflects its culture's beliefs or values.
Q6 Continuity and Change: 5 points, about 15 minutes: An image of a required work. Explain how it continues and how it changes an earlier tradition, style or practice, with specific evidence.
Identifying a work you choose: Aim to give title or designation, artist, culture, date and materials. You need at least two accurate identifiers for the point, and if you choose from a list you need two beyond what the prompt gives. Wrong extra identifiers don't cost you, and dates get a range of leeway that's wider for older works.
How much each unit counts: About 4% for Unit 1, 15% for Unit 2, 21% each for Units 3 and 4, 6% each for Units 5 and 6, 4% for Unit 7, 8% for Unit 8, 4% for Unit 9 and 11% for Unit 10. Units 2–4 together are more than half the exam.
The eight skills: 1 visual analysis, 2 contextual analysis, 3 comparing works, 4 artistic traditions (continuity and change), 5 visual analysis of unknown works, 6 attribution of unknown works, 7 art-historical interpretations, 8 argumentation.
The five big ideas: Culture (CUL), interactions with other cultures (INT), theories and interpretations (THR), materials, processes and techniques (MPT), and purpose and audience (PAA). Every topic is built on one of them, so they make good essay angles.
Changes to the required works for 2026–27: Work 141 is now titled The Migration Series, Panel 49; work 175 is now the Sande Sowei mask; work 227 (Summer Trees) is now dated 1979. Works 61, 64 and 94 each show two images whose captions had been reversed; they are now matched to the right images. Older review books may still use the old versions.
No reference sheet: Nothing is provided on exam day, and you can't use a calculator. Everything here comes from memory, so learn each work's identifiers along with what it was for and why it matters.

Unit 1: Global Prehistory, 30,000–500 BCE (works 1–11)

Unit 1

1. Apollo 11 stones: Namibia. c. 25,500–25,300 BCE. Charcoal on stone. Small, portable slabs painted with animals, found in a Namibian rock shelter; among the oldest known figurative art in Africa.
2. Great Hall of the Bulls: Lascaux, France. Paleolithic Europe. 15,000–13,000 BCE. Rock painting. Aurochs, horses and deer painted deep inside a cave, often in twisted perspective (horns seen from the front on a side-view head). Why they were painted is still debated: hunting ritual, storytelling or record-keeping.
3. Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine: Tequixquiac, central Mexico. 14,000–7000 BCE. Bone. The sacrum (lower spine bone) of an extinct camelid, carved and cut so it looks like the head of a dog or coyote. It shows early artists seeing an image in a natural object and shaping it.
4. Running horned woman: Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria. 6000–4000 BCE. Pigment on rock. A large dancing figure with a horned headdress, fringe and dotted body, painted when the Sahara was green grassland. Probably a ritual dancer or spiritual figure in a herding society.
5. Beaker with ibex motifs: Susa, Iran. 4200–3500 BCE. Painted terra cotta. A thin-walled funerary vessel from a cemetery at Susa, painted in bands: an ibex whose huge curved horns form circles, with running dogs and long-necked birds above. Animals are simplified into graceful geometric forms.
6. Anthropomorphic stele: Arabian Peninsula. Fourth millennium BCE. Sandstone. A flat stone slab carved as a simplified human with a face, a belt and a double-bladed weapon. Probably a grave marker or a figure honoring a person.
7. Jade cong: Liangzhu, China. 3300–2200 BCE. Carved jade. A square tube around a round hole, shaped from very hard jade by grinding with sand and abrasives, with carved face-like masks at the corners. Found in elite burials; its use is unknown, though later Chinese texts link square and circle to earth and heaven.
8. Stonehenge: Wiltshire, UK. Neolithic Europe. c. 2500–1600 BCE. Sandstone. A Neolithic circle of huge sarsen stones and smaller bluestones (some brought from Wales), built with post-and-lintel construction. It lines up with the summer-solstice sunrise and winter-solstice sunset and was used for ceremonies and burials.
9. The Ambum stone: Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. c. 1500 BCE. Greywacke. A ground and polished stone figure of an animal-like creature, perhaps an echidna (spiny anteater) embryo, from the New Guinea highlands. Its first use is unknown; later local people treated stones like it as powerful ritual objects.
10. Tlatilco female figurine: Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco. 1200–900 BCE. Ceramic. A small handmade clay woman with a narrow waist and wide hips, from a farming village; some Tlatilco figures have two faces or three eyes. Many were found in burials, so they may relate to fertility, duality or the afterlife.
11. Terra cotta fragment: Lapita. Reef Islands, Solomon Islands. 1000 BCE. Terra cotta (incised). A piece of Lapita pottery decorated with stamped and incised geometric patterns, possibly forming a face. Lapita pots, made from about 1500 BCE, track the voyages of the first settlers of the far Pacific islands.

Unit 2: Ancient Mediterranean, 3500 BCE–300 CE (works 12–47)

Unit 2

12. White Temple and its ziggurat: Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq). Sumerian. c. 3500–3000 BCE. Mud brick. A whitewashed temple to the sky god Anu set on a stepped mud-brick platform (ziggurat), raising it toward the heavens. Priests reached it by a bent-axis approach of stairs and turns.
13. Palette of King Narmer: Predynastic Egypt. c. 3000–2920 BCE. Greywacke. A ceremonial palette showing King Narmer defeating enemies, traditionally read as the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. It already uses registers, hierarchic scale and the composite (twisted) view of the body that Egyptian art kept for 3,000 years.
14. Statues of votive figures, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq): Sumerian. c. 2700 BCE. Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone. Worshippers' stand-ins placed in the temple to pray for them without stopping: cylindrical bodies, clasped hands holding cups, and huge inlaid eyes gazing upward toward the god.
15. Seated scribe: Saqqara, Egypt. Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynasty. c. 2620–2500 BCE. Painted limestone. A lifelike official at work, with inlaid eyes, a soft middle-aged body and a papyrus on his lap. This realism signals lower rank, unlike the idealized bodies of kings; it was made for his tomb.
16. Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq): Sumerian. c. 2600–2400 BCE. Wood inlaid with shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone. A hollow wooden box with a War side and a Peace side told in registers with hierarchic scale; its use is unknown (standard, soundbox or container). The lapis lazuli came from Afghanistan, showing long-distance trade.
17. Great Pyramids (Menkaura, Khafre, Khufu) and Great Sphinx: Giza, Egypt. Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynasty. c. 2550–2490 BCE. Cut limestone. Tombs for three Fourth Dynasty kings, each part of a complex with temples and a causeway. The Sphinx, a lion's body with a king's head (probably Khafre), guards Khafre's complex.
18. King Menkaura and queen: Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynasty. c. 2490–2472 BCE. Greywacke. A rigid, frontal pair with the king's left foot forward, carved from very hard stone as a lasting home for the ka (life force). The queen's embrace shows her support of the king.
19. The Code of Hammurabi: Babylon (modern Iran). Susian. c. 1792–1750 BCE. Basalt. A tall stele with about 282 laws in cuneiform; at the top, Hammurabi receives authority from Shamash, god of the sun and justice. Set up in Hammurabi's Babylonian kingdom, it was carried off to Susa (in Iran) as war booty about 600 years later, where French archaeologists found it in 1901–1902.
20. Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall: Karnak, near Luxor, Egypt. New Kingdom, 18th and 19th Dynasties. Temple: c. 1550 BCE; hall: c. 1250 BCE. Cut sandstone and mud brick. A huge temple complex for the god Amun-Re, enlarged over many reigns. Its hypostyle hall's 134 massive columns with papyrus capitals, lit by clerestory windows, made a stone forest that only priests and rulers entered.
21. Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut: Near Luxor, Egypt. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. c. 1473–1458 BCE. Sandstone, partially carved into a rock cliff, and red granite. A terraced temple of colonnades set against the cliffs at Deir el-Bahri, honoring Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled as pharaoh. Her statues showed her with the king's headdress and false beard.
22. Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters: New Kingdom (Amarna), 18th Dynasty. c. 1353–1335 BCE. Limestone. A sunken-relief house altar from Akhenaten's capital at Amarna. His new worship of one sun god, the Aten (rays ending in hands), came with a new style: long heads, swollen bellies and an affectionate, informal royal family.
23. Tutankhamun’s tomb, innermost coffin: New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. c. 1323 BCE. Gold with inlay of enamel and semiprecious stones. The boy king's solid gold innermost coffin shows him as Osiris, god of the afterlife, holding the crook and flail. Precious, lasting materials were meant to protect his body and secure his eternal life.
24. Last judgment of Hunefer, from his tomb (page from the Book of the Dead): New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty. c. 1275 BCE. Painted papyrus scroll. A Book of the Dead scene read like a comic strip: Anubis weighs Hunefer's heart against the feather of Maat (truth), the monster Ammit waits, and Horus presents him to Osiris.
25. Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad, Iraq): Neo-Assyrian. c. 720–705 BCE. Alabaster. Huge protective gate figures with a human head, a bull's or lion's body and wings. They have five legs, so they look complete from the front (standing) and the side (striding).
26. Athenian agora: Archaic through Hellenistic Greek. 600 BCE–150 CE. Plan. Athens's central open space for markets, law courts, council meetings and debate, lined with stoas (covered colonnades). Its plan shows how city life and early democracy worked.
27. Anavysos Kouros: Archaic Greek. c. 530 BCE. Marble with remnants of paint. An Archaic marble youth that marked the grave of Kroisos, a fallen warrior. The frontal pose with left foot forward comes from Egypt; the Archaic smile and rounded muscles show growing naturalism.
28. Peplos Kore from the Acropolis: Archaic Greek. c. 530 BCE. Marble, painted details. A votive statue from the Acropolis; traces of paint show that Greek sculpture was brightly colored. Some scholars now think she represents a goddess rather than a young woman.
29. Sarcophagus of the Spouses: Etruscan. c. 520 BCE. Terra cotta. An Etruscan couple reclines together at a banquet on the lid of a terra cotta coffin. Their equal, affectionate pose reflects the higher social status of Etruscan women compared with Greek women.
30. Audience Hall (apadana) of Darius and Xerxes: Persepolis, Iran. Persian. c. 520–465 BCE. Limestone. A great hall at Persepolis where the king received tribute, with columns topped by double-bull capitals. Staircase reliefs show delegations from across the Persian Empire bringing gifts in orderly lines.
31. Temple of Minerva (Veii, near Rome, Italy) and sculpture of Apollo: Master sculptor Vulca. c. 510–500 BCE. Original temple of wood, mud brick, or tufa (volcanic rock); terra cotta sculpture. An Etruscan temple on a high podium with steps only at the front and a deep porch, built of perishable materials; terra cotta statues such as the striding Apollo stood on the roof ridge. The Apollo is sometimes linked to Vulca, a sculptor from Veii named by ancient writers.
32. Tomb of the Triclinium: Tarquinia, Italy. Etruscan. c. 480–470 BCE. Tufa and fresco. An underground Etruscan tomb painted with dancers, musicians and banqueters, celebrating life at the funeral. A triclinium is a dining room with couches.
33. Niobides Krater: Anonymous vase painter of Classical Greece known as the Niobid Painter. c. 460–450 BCE. Clay, red-figure technique (white highlights). A red-figure mixing bowl for wine and water; one side shows Apollo and Artemis killing Niobe's children. Figures stand at different levels on a hilly ground, an early attempt to show depth.
34. Doryphoros (Spear Bearer): Polykleitos. Original 450–440 BCE. Roman copy (marble) of Greek original (bronze). Polykleitos's model of ideal proportions (his Canon). Contrapposto, the weight shift onto one leg, gives a balanced, natural pose; the bronze original is known only from Roman marble copies.
35. Acropolis: Athens, Greece. Iktinos and Kallikrates. c. 447–410 BCE. Marble. Rebuilt under Pericles after the Persians sacked it: the Parthenon (a Doric temple to Athena with a continuous Ionic frieze), the Erechtheion with its caryatids (columns shaped as women), the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaia gateway. It celebrated Athens's victory, wealth and patron goddess.
36. Grave stele of Hegeso: Attributed to Kallimachos. c. 410 BCE. Marble and paint. A grave marker showing the dead woman, seated, picking jewelry from a box held by her servant. The calm, idealized scene and clinging drapery honor her life at home.
37. Winged Victory of Samothrace: Hellenistic Greek. c. 190 BCE. Marble. The goddess of victory lands on a ship's prow, her wind-whipped drapery and twisting pose full of Hellenistic drama. It probably honored a naval victory and was set high in a sanctuary on the island of Samothrace.
38. Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon: Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Hellenistic Greek. c. 175 BCE. Marble (architecture and sculpture). A huge altar whose frieze shows the gods battling the giants, with figures bursting out of the frame onto the steps. It celebrated Pergamon's victories over the Gauls as order defeating chaos.
39. House of the Vettii: Pompeii, Italy. Imperial Roman. c. second century BCE; rebuilt c. 62–79 CE. Cut stone and fresco. A wealthy townhouse owned by two freed slaves, the Vettii brothers, preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. It has an atrium and a garden courtyard, and its Fourth Style wall paintings mix painted architecture with framed myth scenes.
40. Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii: Republican Roman. c. 100 BCE. Mosaic. A floor mosaic of tiny tesserae showing Alexander the Great defeating the Persian king Darius III. Foreshortening and shading show the skill of the lost Greek painting it probably copies.
41. Seated boxer: Hellenistic Greek. c. 100 BCE. Bronze. An exhausted, scarred, aging boxer, with copper inlays for blood. Hellenistic realism and emotion replace the Classical ideal.
42. Head of a Roman patrician: Republican Roman. c. 75–50 BCE. Marble. Verism (extreme realism): deep wrinkles and sagging skin show age, experience and service to the Republic. Linked to the Roman custom of keeping ancestor portraits.
43. Augustus of Prima Porta: Imperial Roman. Early first century CE. Marble. An idealized portrait of the first emperor based on the Doryphoros's proportions. His breastplate shows a Parthian returning lost Roman standards, and the Cupid on a dolphin links him to Venus, his claimed divine ancestor.
44. Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater): Rome, Italy. Imperial Roman. 70–80 CE. Stone and concrete. An amphitheater for gladiator fights and animal hunts, built by the Flavian emperors on land Nero had taken for his palace, as a gift to the people. Concrete vaults and arches inside; the facade stacks Tuscan, Ionic and Corinthian orders.
45. Forum of Trajan: Rome, Italy. Apollodorus of Damascus. Forum and markets: 106–112 CE; column completed 113 CE. Brick and concrete (architecture); marble (column). A huge public complex paid for with spoils from Trajan's wars in Dacia, with a basilica, libraries and markets. Trajan's Column tells the story of the campaigns in a spiral relief.
46. Pantheon: Imperial Roman. 118–125 CE. Concrete with stone facing. A temple to all the gods with a Greek-style porch and a vast concrete dome with coffers and an open oculus. The dome's height equals its diameter (about 43 m), so a perfect sphere fits inside.
47. Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus: Late Imperial Roman. c. 250 CE. Marble. A crowded battle of Romans against barbarians with no empty space; a bareheaded general rides calmly in the center. Its chaos reflects the troubled empire of the third century.

Unit 3: Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200–1750 CE (works 48–98)

Unit 3

48. Catacomb of Priscilla: Rome, Italy. Late Antique Europe. c. 200–400 CE. Excavated tufa and fresco. Underground burial tunnels with early Christian frescoes, including the Good Shepherd and praying (orant) figures. Christians borrowed Roman forms to express new beliefs.
49. Santa Sabina: Rome, Italy. Late Antique Europe. c. 422–432 CE. Brick and stone, wooden roof. An early Christian church based on the Roman basilica: a long nave, an apse and clerestory windows. The plain brick outside contrasts with the light-filled interior, suggesting spiritual light.
50. Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, from the Vienna Genesis: Early Byzantine Europe. Early sixth century CE. Illuminated manuscript (tempera, gold, and silver on purple vellum). One of the oldest surviving illustrated Bible manuscripts, written in silver on purple-dyed vellum, a royal luxury. Continuous narrative shows several moments of a story in one picture.
51. San Vitale: Ravenna, Italy. Early Byzantine Europe. c. 526–547 CE. Brick, marble, and stone veneer; mosaic. A central-plan, octagonal church. Its apse mosaics show Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora bringing offerings, joining imperial and religious authority.
52. Hagia Sophia: Constantinople (Istanbul). Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. 532–537 CE. Brick and ceramic elements with stone and mosaic veneer. Justinian's vast church joins a huge central dome to a long basilica plan. The dome rests on pendentives and seems to float on a ring of windows; it became a mosque after 1453, when minarets were added.
53. Merovingian looped fibulae: Early medieval Europe. Mid-sixth century CE. Silver gilt worked in filigree, with inlays of garnets and other stones. A matching pair of cloak pins worn by a high-status woman: gilded silver with filigree and garnets set in cells. Small, precious jewelry suited the portable wealth of the Franks.
54. Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George: Early Byzantine Europe. Sixth or early seventh century CE. Encaustic on wood. A rare icon that survived iconoclasm, painted in encaustic (hot wax) at Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. Mary holds Christ between two soldier saints, with angels looking up to heaven's light.
55. Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page: Early medieval (Hiberno Saxon) Europe. c. 700 CE. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigments, and gold on vellum). A Gospel book made at the island monastery of Lindisfarne, England. The cross-carpet page fills a cross with interlace and animal patterns, blending Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Mediterranean traditions.
56. Great Mosque: Córdoba, Spain. Umayyad. c. 785–786 CE. Stone masonry. A prayer hall of double-tiered horseshoe arches with red and white voussoirs, and a richly decorated mihrab. After the Christian conquest of 1236 it became a church, and a cathedral was built inside it in the 1500s.
57. Pyxis of al-Mughira: Umayyad. c. 968 CE. Ivory. A carved ivory container, probably for perfume or cosmetics, given to the young prince al-Mughira. Its courtly scenes may hint at his claim to the caliph's throne.
58. Church of Sainte-Foy: Conques, France. Romanesque Europe. Church: c. 1050–1130 CE; Reliquary of Saint Foy: ninth century CE, with later additions. Stone (architecture); stone and paint (tympanum); gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood (reliquary). A Romanesque pilgrimage church whose plan lets crowds move around past the relics. The tympanum shows the Last Judgment, and the gold reliquary statue holds relics of the young martyr Saint Foy.
59. Bayeux Tapestry: Romanesque Europe (English or Norman). c. 1066–1080 CE. Embroidery on linen. An embroidery (not a woven tapestry) about 70 m long telling the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, from the Normans' side.
60. Chartres Cathedral: Chartres, France. Gothic Europe. Original construction c. 1145–1155 CE; reconstructed c. 1194–1220 CE. Limestone, stained glass. A Gothic cathedral with pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses and huge stained-glass windows that flood the space with colored light. It holds a famous relic, the tunic said to be Mary's.
61. Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France, Scenes from the Apocalypse from Bibles moralisées: Gothic Europe. c. 1225–1245 CE. Illuminated manuscript (ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum). (2 images, each from a separate manuscript) Luxury manuscripts for Blanche of Castile and her son, the young King Louis IX: the dedication page shows the royals above a cleric and a scribe at work, and Bible scenes in roundels are paired with moral lessons.
62. Röttgen Pietà: Late medieval Europe. c. 1300–1325 CE. Painted wood. A German devotional sculpture of Mary holding the dead, bloody Christ. Exaggerated wounds and grief were meant to stir personal empathy and prayer.
63. Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, including Lamentation: Padua, Italy. Unknown architect; Giotto di Bondone (artist). Chapel: c. 1303 CE; Fresco: c. 1305 CE. Brick (architecture) and fresco. Giotto's fresco cycle for Enrico Scrovegni, whose father was a notorious moneylender. In the Lamentation, solid, weighty figures show real grief, and a sloping rock leads the eye to Christ's face.
64. Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover): Late medieval Spain. c. 1320 CE. Illuminated manuscript (pigments and gold leaf on vellum). An illuminated Hebrew manuscript for the Passover seder, with gold-leaf backgrounds and Gothic-style figures, made for a Jewish family in Christian Spain (Catalonia).
65. Alhambra: Granada, Spain. Nasrid Dynasty. 1354–1391 CE. Whitewashed adobe stucco, wood, tile, paint, and gilding. The Nasrid palace-fortress of Granada. The Court of the Lions and the muqarnas dome of the Hall of the Sisters cover every surface with carved stucco, calligraphy and geometric pattern, suggesting paradise.
66. Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece): Workshop of Robert Campin. 1427–1432 CE. Oil on wood. A small triptych for private prayer that sets the Annunciation in a comfortable Flemish home full of symbols (lilies, a snuffed candle, Joseph's mousetraps). Oil paint allows fine detail.
67. Pazzi Chapel: Basilica di Santa Croce. Florence, Italy. Filippo Brunelleschi (architect). c. 1429–1461 CE. Masonry. Brunelleschi's chapter house built on simple geometry: gray stone pilasters and arches on white walls create a calm, rational, classical space under a dome.
68. The Arnolfini Portrait: Jan van Eyck. c. 1434 CE. Oil on wood. Van Eyck's oil portrait of a wealthy merchant couple in Bruges, full of fine detail; a convex mirror reflects two witnesses, and the inscription says Jan van Eyck was here, 1434. Scholars debate whether it records a marriage, a betrothal or a memorial.
69. David: Donatello. c. 1440–1460 CE. Bronze. The first freestanding bronze nude since antiquity, in contrapposto. The young hero who beat a giant stood for Florence against bigger enemies; it was displayed in the Medici palace courtyard.
70. Palazzo Rucellai: Florence, Italy. Leon Battista Alberti (architect). c. 1450 CE. Stone, masonry. Alberti applied the classical orders to a city palace facade, stacking pilasters that grow more decorative floor by floor, like the Colosseum. Family emblems fill the frieze.
71. Madonna and Child with Two Angels: Fra Filippo Lippi. c. 1465 CE. Tempera on wood. Mary as a gentle, real-looking young woman with a grinning angel, framed by a window with a landscape behind. It shows the Renaissance humanizing of sacred figures.
72. Birth of Venus: Sandro Botticelli. c. 1484–1486 CE. Tempera on canvas. Venus arrives on a shell, blown ashore by the wind god. A large mythological nude for the Medici circle, linked to Neoplatonic ideas that physical beauty leads the soul toward the divine.
73. Last Supper: Leonardo da Vinci. c. 1494–1498 CE. Oil and tempera. Painted on a monastery dining-hall wall in Milan in an experimental oil and tempera mix that soon flaked. Linear perspective's vanishing point sits at Christ's head as the apostles react to news of the betrayal.
74. Adam and Eve: Albrecht Dürer. 1504 CE. Engraving. An engraving of ideal nude bodies based on classical proportions; the animals may stand for the four temperaments. Prints made images portable and spread Renaissance ideas north.
75. Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall frescoes: Vatican City, Italy. Michelangelo. Ceiling frescoes: c. 1508–1512 CE; altar frescoes: c. 1536–1541 CE. Fresco. Michelangelo's ceiling (Creation scenes, prophets and sibyls) for Pope Julius II, and the Last Judgment on the altar wall for Pope Paul III. Muscular, twisting figures show his sculptural approach.
76. School of Athens: Raphael. 1509–1511 CE. Fresco. Raphael's fresco in the papal apartments: Plato and Aristotle stand at the center under grand classical vaults, surrounded by ancient thinkers. Perfect perspective and balance express Renaissance humanism.
77. Isenheim altarpiece: Matthias Grünewald. c. 1512–1516 CE. Oil on wood. Made for a monastery hospital whose patients had ergotism (Saint Anthony's fire), which caused painful sores and gangrene. Christ's sore-covered, twisted body helped patients link their suffering to his; the wings open to show other scenes.
78. Entombment of Christ: Jacopo da Pontormo. 1525–1528 CE. Oil on wood. A Mannerist altarpiece: elongated, weightless-looking figures, acid colors and no clear setting or tomb create emotional tension and ambiguity.
79. Allegory of Law and Grace: Lucas Cranach the Elder. c. 1530 CE. Woodcut and letterpress. A Lutheran print contrasting Law (left, damnation) with Grace (right, salvation through faith in Christ), divided by a tree half dead and half alive. German text made it readable to ordinary people.
80. Venus of Urbino: Titian. c. 1538 CE. Oil on canvas. A reclining nude in a Venetian palace room, painted with Venice's rich, glowing color. The sleeping dog (fidelity) and maids at a chest suggest marriage.
81. Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza: Viceroyalty of New Spain. c. 1541–1542 CE. Ink and color on paper. Made by Indigenous painters for the Spanish viceroy. The frontispiece shows the founding of Tenochtitlan: an eagle on a cactus at the center of a city divided by waterways, with Spanish notes added.
82. Il Gesù, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco: Rome, Italy. Giacomo da Vignola, plan (architect); Giacomo della Porta, facade (architect); Giovanni Battista Gaulli, ceiling fresco (artist). Church: 16th century CE; facade: 1568–1584 CE; fresco and stucco figures: 1676–1679 CE. Brick, marble, fresco, and stucco. The mother church of the Jesuits, with a wide nave for preaching and side chapels. Gaulli's illusionistic ceiling fresco makes figures seem to spill out of the frame into the church: Counter-Reformation drama.
83. Hunters in the Snow: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1565 CE. Oil on wood. One of a series of seasons: tired hunters return to a winter village while people skate below. A scene of ordinary life in the Netherlands built on strong diagonals.
84. Mosque of Selim II: Edirne, Turkey. Sinan (architect). 1568–1575 CE. Brick and stone. Sinan's masterpiece: one huge dome on eight piers covers a single open prayer space, framed by four slender minarets. Iznik tiles decorate the interior.
85. Calling of Saint Matthew: Caravaggio. c. 1597–1601 CE. Oil on canvas. Tenebrism: a beam of light follows Christ's pointing hand to Matthew in a dark tax office. Ordinary people in contemporary clothes make the sacred moment feel immediate.
86. Henri IV Receives the Portrait of Marie de’ Medici, from the Marie de’ Medici Cycle: Peter Paul Rubens. 1621–1625 CE. Oil on canvas. One of 24 huge paintings for Marie de' Medici's palace in Paris. Gods help Henri IV fall in love with her portrait: flattering political allegory in a dynamic Baroque style.
87. Self-Portrait with Saskia: Rembrandt van Rijn. 1636 CE. Etching. Rembrandt shows himself drawing, in fancy clothes, with his wife Saskia. Etching allowed loose, sketchy lines and many copies.
88. San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane: Rome, Italy. Francesco Borromini (architect). 1638–1646 CE. Stone and stucco. Borromini's small church has a wavy facade of concave and convex curves and an oval dome with geometric coffers, creating Baroque movement.
89. Ecstasy of Saint Teresa: Cornaro Chapel, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. Rome, Italy. Gian Lorenzo Bernini. c. 1647–1652 CE. Marble (sculpture); stucco and gilt bronze (chapel). Bernini made the chapel a theater: Teresa swoons as an angel aims an arrow at her heart, hidden window light pours down gilded rays, and Cornaro family members watch from side boxes.
90. Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei: Master of Calamarca (La Paz School). c. 17th century CE. Oil on canvas. An Andean colonial painting of an angel dressed as a Spanish nobleman, holding a gun. Such angels may connect to Andean ideas about beings of the sky.
91. Las Meninas: Diego Velázquez. c. 1656 CE. Oil on canvas. Velázquez paints himself at work beside the princess Margarita and her maids; the king and queen appear only in a mirror, raising questions about who is looking at whom.
92. Woman Holding a Balance: Johannes Vermeer. c. 1664 CE. Oil on canvas. A quiet Dutch interior: a woman holds an empty balance in front of a painting of the Last Judgment, suggesting balance between earthly goods and the fate of the soul.
93. The Palace at Versailles: Versailles, France. Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart (architects). Begun 1669 CE. Masonry, stone, wood, iron, and gold leaf (architecture); marble and bronze (sculpture); gardens. Louis XIV turned a hunting lodge into the center of royal power. The Hall of Mirrors and the vast symmetrical gardens show control over nature and the nobility.
94. Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene: Circle of the González Family. c. 1697–1701 CE. Tempera and resin on wood, shell inlay. A biombo (folding screen, a form borrowed from Japan) made in Mexico City with shell inlay. One side shows Habsburg forces besieging Ottoman Belgrade; the other, an elite hunt.
95. The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe): Miguel González. c. 1698 CE. Based on original Virgin of Guadalupe. Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City. 16th century CE. Oil on canvas on wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A copy of the image of the Virgin said to have appeared on Juan Diego's cloak in 1531, with shell inlay (enconchado) and scenes of the apparitions. The Virgin of Guadalupe became a symbol of Mexican identity.
96. Fruit and Insects: Rachel Ruysch. 1711 CE. Oil on wood. A Dutch still life of fruit and insects painted with scientific precision, showing growth and decay. Ruysch was one of the most successful painters of her time.
97. Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo: Attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez. c. 1715 CE. Oil on canvas. A casta painting: a Spanish father, an Indigenous mother and their mestizo child. Series of these paintings ranked mixed-ancestry families, presenting colonial ideas about race and class.
98. The Tête à Tête, from Marriage à la Mode: William Hogarth. c. 1743 CE. Oil on canvas. From a series of six paintings satirizing a marriage arranged for money: the morning after a night of excess, a steward gives up on the couple's debts. It mocks upper-class morals.

Unit 4: Later Europe and Americas, 1750–1980 CE (works 99–152)

Unit 4

99. Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Miguel Cabrera. c. 1750 CE. Oil on canvas. A posthumous portrait of the famous nun, poet and scholar in her library. Books and writing tools celebrate her intellect.
100. A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery: Joseph Wright of Derby. c. 1763–1765 CE. Oil on canvas. Enlightenment science as drama: a lecturer demonstrates a model of the solar system, lit by a hidden lamp standing in for the sun, while faces glow in the dark.
101. The Swing: Jean-Honoré Fragonard. 1767 CE. Oil on canvas. Rococo: a young woman kicks off her shoe toward her hidden admirer while an older man pushes the swing. Pastel colors and playful flirtation show aristocratic leisure.
102. Monticello: Virginia, U.S. Thomas Jefferson (architect). 1768–1809 CE. Brick, glass, stone, and wood. Jefferson's home, inspired by Palladio and ancient Rome, linked the new republic to classical ideals. It was built and run by enslaved people.
103. The Oath of the Horatii: Jacques-Louis David. 1784 CE. Oil on canvas. Neoclassical: three brothers swear to fight for Rome while the women collapse in grief. Clear lines, a shallow stage and a message of patriotic sacrifice, painted five years before the French Revolution.
104. George Washington: Jean-Antoine Houdon. 1788–1792 CE. Marble. Washington as a modern Cincinnatus: in contemporary uniform, his hand resting on fasces (bundled rods for unity), with a plow behind him. Made for the Virginia State Capitol.
105. Self-Portrait: Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. 1790 CE. Oil on canvas. Painted after she fled the French Revolution, she shows herself painting Queen Marie Antoinette, asserting her skill and royal connections.
106. Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done), from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War), plate 15: Francisco de Goya. 1810–1823 CE (published 1863). Etching, drypoint, burin, and burnishing. From Goya's prints on the war that followed Napoleon's invasion of Spain: a blindfolded prisoner faces execution. No heroism, only brutality; the series was published after Goya's death.
107. La Grande Odalisque: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. 1814 CE. Oil on canvas. Ingres combines a Neoclassical smooth finish with an imagined harem woman whose back is stretched impossibly long. An example of Orientalism, a European fantasy of the Middle East.
108. Liberty Leading the People: Eugène Delacroix. 1830 CE. Oil on canvas. Romanticism: Liberty, a bare-breasted allegorical woman, leads Parisians of all classes over the dead in the July Revolution of 1830.
109. The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm): Thomas Cole. 1836 CE. Oil on canvas. Hudson River School: stormy wilderness on the left, sunny farmland on the right, with the artist painting in between. It raises questions about America's taming of nature.
110. Still Life in Studio: Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. 1837 CE. Daguerreotype. An early daguerreotype: a one-of-a-kind photographic image on a silver-coated copper plate. Daguerre arranged plaster casts and objects like a still-life painting.
111. Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On): Joseph Mallord William Turner. 1840 CE. Oil on canvas. Probably inspired by the Zong massacre, when enslaved people were thrown overboard so the owners could claim insurance. A blazing sunset and storm overwhelm the scene; shown as Britain campaigned to end slavery worldwide.
112. Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament): London, England. Charles Barry and Augustus W. N. Pugin (architects). 1840–1870 CE. Limestone masonry and glass. Rebuilt after an 1834 fire in Gothic Revival style to link Britain's government to its medieval past. Barry planned the building; Pugin designed its Gothic details.
113. The Stone Breakers: Gustave Courbet. 1849 CE (destroyed in 1945). Oil on canvas. Realism: two laborers breaking stones, shown life-size on a scale usually used for history paintings. The painting was destroyed during World War II.
114. Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art: Honoré Daumier. 1862 CE. Lithograph. A lithograph cartoon mocking the photographer Nadar, who took aerial photos from a balloon over a Paris covered with photography studio signs. It asks whether photography is art.
115. Olympia: Édouard Manet. 1863 CE. Oil on canvas. Manet updated Titian's Venus of Urbino as a modern prostitute who stares straight at the viewer. Flat lighting and a Black maid bringing flowers from a client caused a scandal at the Salon.
116. The Saint-Lazare Station: Claude Monet. 1877 CE. Oil on canvas. Impressionism: a Paris train station full of steam and light, painted with quick, broken brushstrokes. Monet painted a series of the station.
117. The Horse in Motion: Eadweard Muybridge. 1878 CE. Albumen print. A row of photos taken by cameras with trip wires proved that a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off the ground. Early motion photography.
118. The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel): Jose María Velasco. 1882 CE. Oil on canvas. A panoramic landscape of the Valley of Mexico with Mexico City and distant volcanoes, combining scientific detail with national pride.
119. The Burghers of Calais: Auguste Rodin. 1884–1895 CE. Bronze. Six leading citizens who offered their lives to save their town in the Hundred Years' War, shown as anguished individuals rather than idealized heroes. Rodin wanted them placed at ground level.
120. The Starry Night: Vincent van Gogh. 1889 CE. Oil on canvas. Post-Impressionism: a swirling night sky, a flame-like cypress and a quiet village, painted with thick impasto while van Gogh stayed at an asylum in Saint-Rémy.
121. The Coiffure: Mary Cassatt. 1890–1891 CE. Drypoint and aquatint. A color print inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, with flat colors, patterns and cropped forms. It shows a woman's private moment arranging her hair.
122. The Scream: Edvard Munch. 1893 CE. Tempera and pastels on cardboard. A forerunner of Expressionism: a figure on a bridge clutches its face as the landscape and blood-red sky swirl with anxiety. Munch made several versions.
123. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?: Paul Gauguin. 1897–1898 CE. Oil on canvas. A huge painting made in Tahiti and read right to left, from birth to death, around life's big questions. Its idealized Tahiti reflects a European colonial fantasy of the 'primitive.'
124. Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building: Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Louis Sullivan (architect). 1899–1903 CE. Iron, steel, glass, and terra cotta. A Chicago School department store with a steel frame and wide Chicago windows; Sullivan's lacy cast-iron ornament frames the entrance and shop windows.
125. Mont Sainte-Victoire: Paul Cézanne. 1902–1904 CE. Oil on canvas. Cézanne built the mountain and valley from patches of color and simple geometric planes, flattening space. A bridge to Cubism.
126. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon: Pablo Picasso. 1907 CE. Oil on canvas. Proto-Cubism: five nude women in sharp, fractured space, some faces based on Iberian and African masks. It broke with single-point perspective and ideal beauty.
127. The Steerage: Alfred Stieglitz. 1907 CE. Photogravure. A photograph of passengers crowded on the lower and upper decks of a ship. Stieglitz used shapes and class division to argue photography is fine art.
128. The Kiss: Gustav Klimt. 1907–1908 CE. Oil and gold leaf on canvas. Vienna Secession: lovers wrapped in gold, patterned robes, inspired partly by Byzantine mosaics. Gold leaf makes the painting shimmer like an icon.
129. The Kiss: Constantin Brancusi. Original 1907–1908 CE. Stone. A couple embracing, carved directly from one block and simplified almost to abstraction. Their joined forms suggest unity.
130. The Portuguese: Georges Braque. 1911 CE. Oil on canvas. Analytic Cubism: an almost monochrome web of planes with stenciled letters and numbers, showing a guitarist in a café from many angles at once.
131. Goldfish: Henri Matisse. 1912 CE. Oil on canvas. Bright orange goldfish in a glass bowl, painted with flat, intense color and tilted views. Matisse wanted art that felt calming.
132. Improvisation 28 (second version): Vassily Kandinsky. 1912 CE. Oil on canvas. Near-total abstraction: color and line work like music. Kandinsky believed art could express spiritual feelings.
133. Self-Portrait as a Soldier: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. 1915 CE. Oil on canvas. German Expressionism: Kirchner shows himself in uniform with a cut-off painting hand, expressing the trauma of World War I. He was not actually wounded.
134. Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht: Käthe Kollwitz. 1919–1920 CE. Woodcut. A woodcut of working-class mourners around the murdered communist leader Karl Liebknecht, carved in strong black-and-white contrasts.
135. Villa Savoye: Poissy-sur-Seine, France. Le Corbusier (architect). 1929 CE. Steel and reinforced concrete. Le Corbusier's 'machine for living' shows his Five Points: pilotis (columns), a flat roof garden, an open floor plan, ribbon windows and a free facade.
136. Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow: Piet Mondrian. 1930 CE. Oil on canvas. De Stijl: only primary colors, black lines and right angles, seeking universal harmony and balance.
137. Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan: Varvara Stepanova. 1932 CE. Photomontage. Soviet photomontage celebrating Stalin's First Five-Year Plan, combining photos into propaganda. Constructivists wanted art to serve society.
138. Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure): Meret Oppenheim. 1936 CE. Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon. Surrealism: a teacup, saucer and spoon covered in fur, turning an everyday object into something strange and unsettling.
139. Fallingwater: Pennsylvania, U.S. Frank Lloyd Wright (architect). 1936–1939 CE. Reinforced concrete, sandstone, steel, and glass. Wright's house for the Kaufmann family cantilevers reinforced-concrete terraces over a waterfall. Organic architecture blends the building with its natural setting.
140. The Two Fridas: Frida Kahlo. 1939 CE. Oil on canvas. Two Fridas hold hands, one in European dress and one in Tehuana dress, joined by an exposed artery. Painted at the time of her divorce from Diego Rivera, it explores her mixed identity.
141. The Migration Series, Panel 49: Jacob Lawrence. 1940–1941 CE. Casein tempera on hardboard. One of 60 panels on the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North. Panel 49 shows a dining room divided by a rope: segregation existed in the North too. Older lists call it The Migration of the Negro, Panel 49.
142. The Jungle: Wifredo Lam. 1943 CE. Gouache on paper mounted on canvas. Tall figures with mask-like faces in a sugarcane field, blending Afro-Cuban religion with Cubism and Surrealism and recalling Cuba's colonial plantation history.
143. Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park: Diego Rivera. 1947–1948 CE. Fresco. A mural of Mexican history crowded around the Alameda park, with Rivera as a boy, Frida Kahlo and the skeleton La Catrina at the center.
144. Fountain (second version): Marcel Duchamp. 1950 CE. (original 1917). Readymade glazed sanitary china with black paint. A Dada readymade: a urinal signed 'R. Mutt' that challenged what counts as art. The 1917 original is lost; this is a later version Duchamp approved.
145. Woman, I: Willem de Kooning. 1950–1952 CE. Oil on canvas. Abstract Expressionism: violent, gestural brushwork builds a grinning woman drawn from pin-ups and ancient fertility figures.
146. Seagram Building: New York City, U.S. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson (architects). 1954–1958 CE. Steel frame with glass curtain wall and bronze. An International Style skyscraper: a glass curtain wall with bronze I-beams on the outside that express the hidden steel frame, set back behind an open plaza.
147. Marilyn Diptych: Andy Warhol. 1962 CE. Oil, acrylic, and silkscreen enamel on canvas. Pop Art: a publicity photo of Marilyn Monroe repeated by silkscreen right after her death, in color on the left and fading black and white on the right. About celebrity, mass media and mortality.
148. Narcissus Garden: Yayoi Kusama. Original installation and performance 1966. Mirror balls. At the 1966 Venice Biennale, Kusama spread hundreds of mirror balls on a lawn and offered them for sale at two dollars each, poking fun at the art market and vanity.
149. The Bay: Helen Frankenthaler. 1963 CE. Acrylic on canvas. Color Field: thinned paint soaked straight into unprimed canvas (soak-stain), so color and canvas become one flat, flowing shape.
150. Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks: Claes Oldenburg. 1969–1974 CE. Cor-Ten steel, steel, aluminum, and cast resin; painted with polyurethane enamel. A giant lipstick on tank treads, put up at Yale during the Vietnam War protests and used as a speaker's platform. Pop meets antiwar protest.
151. Spiral Jetty: Great Salt Lake, Utah, U.S. Robert Smithson. 1970 CE. Earthwork: mud, precipitated salt crystals, rocks, and water coil. An earthwork of rock and mud coiled into the Great Salt Lake. It changes with water levels and salt crystals, and is sometimes underwater.
152. House in New Castle County: Delaware, U.S. Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown (architects). 1978–1983 CE. Wood frame and stucco. Postmodern architecture: a playful house with a flat, pediment-like facade and decorative arches, rejecting modernism's plain boxes.

Unit 5: Indigenous Americas, 1000 BCE–1980 CE (works 153–166)

Unit 5

153. Chavín de Huántar: Northern highlands, Peru. Chavín. 900–200 BCE. Stone (architectural complex); granite (Lanzón and sculpture); hammered gold alloy (jewelry). A temple and pilgrimage center in the Andes. The Lanzón, a carved stone deity with human and animal features, stands in a dark interior passage; gold ornaments show early metalwork.
154. Mesa Verde cliff dwellings: Montezuma County, Colorado. Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi). 450–1300 CE. Sandstone. Villages of rooms built into cliff alcoves, with kivas (round, sunken ceremonial rooms). The Ancestral Puebloan farmers fit their architecture to the landscape.
155. Yaxchilán: Chiapas, Mexico. Maya. 725 CE. Limestone (architectural complex). A Maya city whose buildings honored its rulers. Carved lintels show the queen Lady Xook's bloodletting ritual and a vision serpent; Structure 33 celebrated the ruler Bird Jaguar IV.
156. Great Serpent Mound: Adams County, southern Ohio. Mississippian (Eastern Woodlands). c. 1070 CE. Earthwork/effigy mound. A huge earthwork snake with a coiled tail and open mouth that may line up with the summer-solstice sunset. Some radiocarbon dates point to the Adena culture, about 300 BCE, but use the CED's date (c. 1070 CE) on the exam.
157. Templo Mayor (Main Temple): Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City, Mexico). Mexica (Aztec). 1375–1520 CE. Stone (temple); volcanic stone (The Coyolxauhqui Stone); jadeite (Olmec-style mask); basalt (Calendar Stone). The twin temple to Huitzilopochtli (war and sun) and Tlaloc (rain and farming) at the heart of the Mexica capital. The Coyolxauhqui Stone, showing the moon goddess cut apart by her brother Huitzilopochtli, lay at the foot of his stairs; offerings buried in the temple included an older Olmec-style mask.
158. Ruler’s feather headdress (probably of Motecuhzoma II): Mexica (Aztec). 1428–1520 CE. Feathers (quetzal and cotinga) and gold. A headdress of brilliant quetzal feathers and gold, probably sent to Europe after the conquest. Feathers were more precious than gold to the Mexica; it is now in Vienna.
159. City of Cusco, including Qorikancha (Inka main temple), Santo Domingo (Spanish colonial convent), and Walls at Saqsa Waman (Sacsayhuaman): Central highlands, Peru. Inka. c. 1440 CE; convent added 1550–1650 CE. Andesite. The Inka capital, built of precisely cut stones fitted without mortar. The Spanish built Santo Domingo on the foundations of Qorikancha, the sun temple; Sacsayhuaman's huge zigzag walls overlook the city.
160. Maize cobs: Inka. c. 1440–1533 CE. Sheet metal/repoussé, metal alloys. Life-size ears of corn in precious metal from the Inka temple's garden of gold and silver plants. Most were melted down by the Spanish.
161. City of Machu Picchu: Central highlands, Peru. Inka. c. 1450–1540 CE. Granite (architectural complex). A royal Inka estate on a mountain ridge, with terraces, the Torreón (sun temple) and the carved Intihuatana stone, linked to the sun and the sacred landscape.
162. All-T’oqapu tunic: Inka. 1450–1540 CE. Camelid fiber and cotton. A ruler's tunic covered in t'oqapu, small squares of geometric designs that may stand for peoples, places or ideas across the Inka Empire.
163. Bandolier bag: Lenape (Delaware tribe, Eastern Woodlands). c. 1850 CE. Beadwork on leather. A Lenape shoulder bag decorated with glass trade beads from Europeans. It shows Native artists adapting new materials and designs after contact.
164. Transformation mask: Kwakwaka’wakw, Northwest coast of Canada. Late 19th century CE. Wood, paint, and string. A mask that opens with strings during a dance to reveal another being inside, used in Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonies such as the potlatch.
165. Painted elk hide: Attributed to Cotsiogo (Cadzi Cody), Eastern Shoshone, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming. c. 1890–1900 CE. Painted elk hide. A hide painted with a Sun Dance and a buffalo hunt, made during the reservation era, when buffalo were gone, often for sale to non-Native buyers.
166. Black-on-black ceramic vessel: Maria Martínez and Julian Martínez, Tewa, Puebloan, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. c. mid-20th century CE. Blackware ceramic. Maria Martínez revived ancient Pueblo pottery: polished and matte black designs, created in a smothered firing, with Julian Martínez painting the designs. It became prized and sold widely.

Unit 6: Africa, 1100–1980 CE (works 167–180)

Unit 6

167. Conical tower and circular wall of Great Zimbabwe: Shona peoples (Southeastern Zimbabwe). c. 1000–1400 CE. Coursed granite blocks. The royal center of the Shona rulers, built of granite blocks stacked without mortar. The conical tower resembles a grain bin, possibly a symbol of the ruler's generosity.
168. Great Mosque of Djenné: Mali. Founded c. 1200 CE; rebuilt 1906–1907 CE. Adobe. Often called the world's largest mud-brick building; the present structure dates from the 1906–1907 rebuilding. The whole community replasters it every year, using wooden beams that stick out of the walls as permanent scaffolding.
169. Wall plaque, from Oba’s palace: Edo peoples, Kingdom of Benin (Nigeria). 16th century CE. Cast brass. Brass plaques that covered the Oba's palace pillars, showing the Oba and attendants in hierarchic scale. Brass came through trade with the Portuguese; the British looted the plaques in 1897.
170. Sika dwa kofi (Golden Stool): Ashanti peoples (south central Ghana). c. 1700 CE. Gold over wood and cast-gold attachments. The Asante kingdom's most sacred object, believed to hold the soul of the nation. Tradition says it came down from the sky to the first king, Osei Tutu; no one sits on it.
171. Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul: Kuba peoples (Democratic Republic of the Congo). c. 1760–1780 CE. Wood. A Kuba royal portrait figure that is idealized rather than lifelike; each ndop names its king through a personal emblem (ibol) carved in front. It stood for the king and his spirit.
172. Power figure (Nkisi n’kondi): Kongo peoples (Democratic Republic of the Congo). c. late 19th century CE. Wood and metal. A Kongo power figure activated by a ritual specialist (nganga). Nails and blades were driven in to seal agreements or call on its power to heal or punish.
173. Female (Pwo) mask: Chokwe peoples (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Late 19th to early 20th century CE. Wood, fiber, pigment, and metal. A Chokwe mask honoring a female ancestor and ideal womanhood, with scarification patterns. It was danced by men in performances.
174. Portrait mask (Mblo): Baule peoples (Côte d’Ivoire). Early 20th century CE. Wood and pigment. A Baule mask portraying a specific, admired person, worn by a dancer in a performance. Its subject often appeared alongside it.
175. Sande Sowei mask: Sande Society, Mende peoples (West African forests of Sierra Leone and Liberia). 19th to 20th century CE. Wood, cloth, and fiber. A helmet mask worn by women of the Sande Society, which initiates girls into adulthood: one of the few African traditions where women wear the mask. Neck rings and a shiny black surface express health, beauty and a link to water spirits. Older lists call it a Bundu mask.
176. Ikenga (shrine figure): Igbo peoples (Nigeria). c. 19th to 20th century CE. Wood. An Igbo shrine figure of a man's personal achievement and strength; horns stand for power and determination.
177. Lukasa (memory board): Mbudye Society, Luba peoples (Democratic Republic of the Congo). c. 19th to 20th century CE. Wood, beads, and metal. A Luba memory board: experts of the Mbudye Society 'read' its beads and carvings to recall kings, history and genealogy.
178. Aka elephant mask: Bamileke (Cameroon, western grassfields region). c. 19th to 20th century CE. Wood, woven raffia, cloth, and beads. A Bamileke mask worn by members of an elite society at important events; costly beads, elephant and leopard images show royal power.
179. Reliquary figure (byeri): Fang peoples (southern Cameroon). c. 19th to 20th century CE. Wood. A Fang guardian figure placed on a bark box holding ancestors' bones. Its calm, balanced forms protected the relics; European modernists later collected such figures.
180. Veranda post of enthroned king and senior wife (Opo Ogoga): Olowe of Ise (Yoruba peoples). c. 1910–1914 CE. Wood and pigment. Olowe of Ise's post for a Yoruba palace veranda: the king sits enthroned while the tall senior wife behind him stands as his support and protector.

Unit 7: West and Central Asia, 500 BCE–1980 CE (works 181–191)

Unit 7

181. Petra, Jordan: Treasury and Great Temple: Nabataean Ptolemaic and Roman. c. 400 BCE–100 CE. Cut rock. The Nabataean capital, carved straight into rose-colored cliffs. The Treasury's facade mixes Hellenistic and Roman forms; it was probably a royal tomb.
182. Buddha: Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Gandharan. c. 400–800 CE (destroyed in 2001). Cut rock with plaster and polychrome paint. Giant Buddhas carved into cliffs along the Silk Road, a stop for travelers and monks; Gandharan style combined Indian and Greco-Roman traditions. Destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
183. The Kaaba: Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Islamic. Pre-Islamic monument; rededicated by Muhammad in 631–632 CE; multiple renovations. Granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped thread. Islam's most sacred site: Muslims everywhere face it in prayer, and pilgrims circle it during the hajj. It is covered with a black textile embroidered with calligraphy, renewed each year.
184. Jowo Rinpoche, enshrined in the Jokhang Temple: Lhasa, Tibet. Yarlung Dynasty. Believed to have been brought to Tibet in 641 CE. Gilt metals with semiprecious stones, pearls, and paint; various offerings. Tibet's most revered Buddha statue, showing the Buddha as a young prince, said to have been brought by a Chinese princess when she married the Tibetan king. Pilgrims honor it with offerings.
185. Dome of the Rock: Jerusalem. Islamic, Umayyad. 691–692 CE, with multiple renovations. Stone masonry and wooden roof decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome. An early Islamic shrine (not a mosque) built over a sacred rock in Jerusalem, octagonal with walkways around it, decorated with mosaics in a Byzantine-inspired style and a gilded dome.
186. Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh): Isfahan, Iran. Islamic, Persian: Seljuk, Il-Khanid, Timurid and Safavid Dynasties. c. 700 CE; additions and restorations in the 14th, 18th, and 20th centuries CE. Stone, brick, wood, plaster, and glazed ceramic tile. A mosque built and remodeled over centuries, organized around a courtyard with four iwans; muqarnas vaults and glazed tile show many dynasties' work.
187. Folio from a Qur’an: Arab, North Africa, or Near East. Abbasid. c. eighth to ninth century CE. Ink, color, and gold on parchment. A page in Kufic script on parchment, wide and horizontal, with gold markers between verses. Calligraphy that beautifully writes God's word is among the most honored arts in Islam.
188. Basin (Baptistère de St. Louis): Muhammad ibn al-Zain. c. 1320–1340 CE. Brass inlaid with gold and silver. A brass basin inlaid with silver and gold showing courtiers and hunters, made in Mamluk Egypt or Syria; later used to baptize French royal children, which gave it its name.
189. Bahram Gur Fights the Karg, folio from the Great Il-Khanid Shahnama: Islamic; Persian, Il’Khanid. c. 1330–1340 CE. Ink and opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper. An illustration from a Persian epic: the hero Bahram Gur slays a monstrous horned wolf. Chinese-influenced landscape shows cross-cultural exchange under Mongol rule.
190. The Court of Gayumars, folio from Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama: Sultan Muhammad. c. 1522–1525 CE. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. A dense, jewel-like painting of the first king and his court in a lush mountain landscape, from a royal manuscript of the Persian national epic.
191. The Ardabil Carpet: Maqsud of Kashan. 1539–1540 CE. Silk and wool. One of a pair of enormous carpets for the Safavid family shrine at Ardabil. A central sunburst medallion with hanging lamps may echo a dome seen from below; an inscription woven into it names Maqsud of Kashan.

Unit 8: South, East, and Southeast Asia, 300 BCE–1980 CE (works 192–212)

Unit 8

192. Great Stupa at Sanchi: Madhya Pradesh, India. Buddhist; Maurya, late Sunga Dynasty. c. 300 BCE–100 CE. Stone masonry, sandstone on dome. A Buddhist stupa: a solid dome over relics, which pilgrims walk around clockwise. Four carved gateways (toranas) show stories of the Buddha's lives.
193. Terra cotta warriors from mausoleum of the first Qin emperor of China: Qin Dynasty. c. 221–209 BCE. Painted terra cotta. Thousands of life-size soldiers, built from mass-produced parts but individually finished, to guard the first emperor in the afterlife.
194. Funeral banner of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui): Han Dynasty, China. c. 180 BCE. Painted silk. A T-shaped silk banner from Lady Dai's tomb, showing heaven, earth and the underworld, meant to guide her soul.
195. Longmen caves: Luoyang, China. Tang Dynasty. 493–1127 CE. Limestone. Buddhist caves and sculptures carved into limestone cliffs over centuries, led by a colossal Vairocana Buddha supported by the Tang empress Wu Zetian.
196. Gold and jade crown: Three Kingdoms period, Silla Kingdom, Korea. Fifth to sixth century CE. Metalwork. A royal gold crown with tree- and antler-shaped uprights and comma-shaped jade pendants, from a Silla king's or queen's tomb.
197. Todai-ji: Nara, Japan. Various artists, including sculptors Unkei and Keikei, as well as the Kei School. 743 CE; rebuilt c. 1700 CE. Bronze and wood (sculpture); wood with ceramic-tile roofing (architecture). A huge wooden temple housing a giant bronze Buddha (Vairocana); its gate has powerful Nio guardian figures by Unkei and Keikei (also spelled Kaikei), carved in about 1203.
198. Borobudur Temple: Central Java, Indonesia. Sailendra Dynasty. c. 750–842 CE. Volcanic-stone masonry. A Buddhist monument shaped like a mandala and a sacred mountain; pilgrims circle upward past relief carvings toward enlightenment.
199. Angkor, the temple of Angkor Wat, and the city of Angkor Thom, Cambodia: Hindu, Angkor Dynasty. c. 800–1400 CE. Stone masonry, sandstone. Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple to Vishnu whose towers stand for Mount Meru, home of the gods; Angkor Thom, the later Buddhist royal city, has towers carved with giant faces.
200. Lakshmana Temple: Khajuraho, India. Hindu, Chandella Dynasty. c. 930–950 CE. Sandstone. A Hindu temple to Vishnu whose towers rise like mountain peaks over the inner shrine. Its walls are covered with sculpture, including amorous couples.
201. Travelers among Mountains and Streams: Fan Kuan. c. 1000 CE. Ink and colors on silk. A monumental landscape: tiny travelers below a towering mountain, painted in ink on silk to show people's small place in nature.
202. Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja): Hindu; India (Tamil Nadu), Chola Dynasty. c. 11th century CE. Cast bronze. Shiva dances the destruction and renewal of the universe inside a ring of fire, trampling a dwarf of ignorance. Cast by the lost-wax method and carried in processions.
203. Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace: Kamakura period, Japan. c. 1250–1300 CE. Handscroll (ink and color on paper). A handscroll of a 1159 rebellion, unrolled section by section; fire, chaos and charging soldiers tell the story with energy.
204. The David Vases: Yuan Dynasty, China. 1351 CE. White porcelain with cobalt-blue underglaze. Among the earliest dated blue-and-white porcelain with cobalt-blue designs under the glaze. Their inscriptions dedicate them to a Daoist temple; the cobalt came from Persia.
205. Portrait of Sin Sukju (1417–1475): Imperial Bureau of Painting. c. 15th century CE. Hanging scroll (ink and color on silk). A Korean court portrait of a scholar-official in his robe with a rank badge, expressing Confucian loyalty and status.
206. Forbidden City: Beijing, China. Ming Dynasty. 15th century CE and later. Stone masonry, marble, brick, wood, and ceramic tile. The imperial palace of the Ming and Qing emperors, laid out symmetrically on a north–south axis. Yellow roofs were for the emperor, the Son of Heaven.
207. Ryoan-ji: Kyoto, Japan. Muromachi period, Japan. c. 1480 CE; current design most likely dates to the 18th century CE. Rock garden. A Zen dry garden of 15 stones set in raked gravel; from any one spot you can't see all 15. Used for quiet contemplation.
208. Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings: Bichitr. c. 1620 CE. Watercolor, gold, and ink on paper. A Mughal painting: the emperor, seated on an hourglass throne with a giant halo, hands a book to a Sufi shaikh while ignoring the Ottoman sultan and King James I. The artist Bichitr includes himself.
209. Taj Mahal: Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Masons, marble workers, mosaicists, and decorators working under the supervision of Ustad Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor. 1632–1653 CE. Stone masonry and marble with inlay of precious and semiprecious stones; gardens. A white marble tomb built by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, perfectly symmetrical and set in a paradise garden. Inlaid semiprecious stones decorate the walls.
210. White and Red Plum Blossoms: Ogata Korin. c. 1710–1716 CE. Ink, watercolor, and gold leaf on paper. A pair of Rinpa-school screens: a stylized dark stream separates a white and a red plum tree on a gold background.
211. Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as the Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji: Katsushika Hokusai. 1830–1833 CE. Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper. A ukiyo-e woodblock print: a giant wave towers over fishermen while Mount Fuji looks tiny. It used imported Prussian blue and later influenced European artists.
212. Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan: Artist unknown; based on an oil painting by Liu Chunhua. c. 1969 CE. Color lithograph. A Cultural Revolution propaganda print showing a young Mao heading out to organize mine workers, based on Liu Chunhua's painting and printed in huge numbers.

Unit 9: The Pacific, 700–1980 CE (works 213–223)

Unit 9

213. Nan Madol: Pohnpei, Micronesia. Saudeleur Dynasty. c. 700–1600 CE. Basalt boulders and prismatic columns. The ceremonial center of the Saudeleur rulers, built on artificial islets from stacked basalt columns; a center of political power and burials.
214. Moai on platform (ahu): Rapa Nui (Easter Island). c. 1100–1600 CE. Volcanic tuff figures on basalt base. Giant stone figures of deified ancestors on ahu (platforms), most facing inland toward the villages, channeling their mana to the community.
215. ‘Ahu ‘ula (feather cape): Hawaiian. Late 18th century CE. Feathers and fiber. A Hawaiian chief's cape made of thousands of red and yellow feathers tied to fiber netting. It showed rank and protected the wearer's mana.
216. Staff god: Rarotonga, Cook Islands, central Polynesia. Late 18th to early 19th century CE. Wood, tapa, fiber, and feathers. A wooden god figure wrapped in tapa (bark cloth) and feathers. Missionaries removed and destroyed many such staff gods when people converted.
217. Female deity: Nukuoro, Micronesia. c. 18th to 19th century CE. Wood. A smooth, simplified wooden figure of a deity from a Micronesian atoll. Its geometric forms later impressed modernist artists.
218. Buk (mask): Torres Strait. Mid- to late 19th century CE. Turtle shell, wood, fiber, feathers, and shell. A Torres Strait mask made of turtle shell, used in ceremonies such as funerals and initiations.
219. Hiapo (tapa): Niue. c. 1850–1900 CE. Tapa or bark cloth, freehand painting. A Niuean bark-cloth (tapa) painted freehand with fine, detailed designs.
220. Tamati Waka Nene: Gottfried Lindauer. 1890 CE. Oil on canvas. A European-trained artist's portrait of the Māori chief Tamati Waka Nene with his moko (tattoo) and a cloak. Waka Nene supported the Treaty of Waitangi (1840).
221. Navigation chart: Marshall Islands, Micronesia. 19th to early 20th century CE. Wood and fiber. A chart of sticks and shells mapping ocean swells and islands, memorized on land before voyages rather than carried at sea.
222. Malagan display and mask: New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. c. 20th century CE. Wood, pigment, fiber, and shell. A New Ireland funeral display made to honor the dead and pass on their life force; after the ceremony such works were left to decay, destroyed or sold.
223. Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloths to Queen Elizabeth II: Fiji, Polynesia. 1953 CE. Multimedia performance (costume; cosmetics, including scent; chant; movement; and pandanus fiber/hibiscus fiber mats), photographic documentation. A ceremony of gift-giving, chant and dance for Queen Elizabeth II on her 1953 visit to Fiji: mats and tapa were presented to her. The work is the performance itself, known through photos and film.

Unit 10: Global Contemporary, 1980 CE to Present (works 224–250)

Unit 10

224. The Gates: New York City, U.S. Christo and Jeanne-Claude. 1979–2005 CE. Mixed-media installation. 7,503 saffron-colored gates along paths in Central Park for 16 days in 2005, paid for by the artists. Temporary and experienced by walking through it.
225. Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Washington, D.C., U.S. Maya Lin. 1982 CE. Granite. A V-shaped wall of polished black granite cut into the ground, listing the names of the dead and missing in the order they died. Visitors see their own reflections among the names.
226. Horn Players: Jean-Michel Basquiat. 1983 CE. Acrylic and oil paintstick on three canvas panels. Three panels with jazz musicians Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, with graffiti-like words and images celebrating Black creativity.
227. Summer Trees: Song Su-nam. 1979 CE. Ink on paper. Soft, blurred ink strokes in layered washes suggest trees. Song Su-nam led a movement to renew Korean ink painting as modern art. The CED corrected its date to 1979 in 2026; older lists give 1983.
228. Androgyne III: Magdalena Abakanowicz. 1985 CE. Burlap, resin, wood, nails, and string. A hollow, headless body shell of burlap stiffened with resin, set on a wooden stand. It reflects anonymous people worn down by power and history.
229. A Book from the Sky: Xu Bing. 1987–1991 CE. Mixed-media installation. Books and scrolls printed with thousands of invented, unreadable Chinese characters that Xu Bing carved by hand, questioning language and authority.
230. Pink Panther: Jeff Koons. 1988 CE. Glazed porcelain. A glazed porcelain blonde woman hugs the cartoon Pink Panther: kitsch blown up into high art.
231. Untitled #228, from the History Portraits series: Cindy Sherman. 1990 CE. Photograph. Sherman poses as Judith with the head of Holofernes, imitating an Old Master painting to question how art history shows women.
232. Dancing at the Louvre, from the series The French Collection, Part I; #1: Faith Ringgold. 1991 CE. Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border. A story quilt: an African American woman and three girls dance in front of the Mona Lisa, claiming a place for Black women in the European art museum.
233. Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People): Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. 1992 CE. Oil and mixed media on canvas. A painting with a canoe at its center, covered in collage and news clippings and topped by a chain of souvenirs and sports-team items that use Native imagery. It satirizes the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage by offering trinkets in 'trade' for land.
234. Earth’s Creation: Emily Kame Kngwarreye. 1994 CE. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Layers of bright dots and colors evoke the land after rain, rooted in the Aboriginal artist's connection to her country.
235. Rebellious Silence, from the Women of Allah series: Shirin Neshat (artist); photo by Cynthia Preston. 1994 CE. Ink on photograph. A woman in a chador with a rifle, her face covered with Persian poetry: a complex look at women, faith and revolution in Iran.
236. En la Barberia no se Llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop): Pepon Osorio. 1994 CE. Mixed-media installation. A barbershop installation in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of Hartford, with mirrors, TVs and photos exploring ideas of masculinity.
237. Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000): Michel Tuffery. 1994 CE. Mixed media. A life-size bull made of flattened corned-beef tins, criticizing the Pacific's dependence on imported food.
238. Electronic Superhighway: Nam June Paik. 1995 CE. Mixed-media installation (49-channel closed-circuit video installation, neon, steel, and electronic components). A map of the United States made of TV screens outlined in neon, about how media shape national identity.
239. The Crossing: Bill Viola. 1996 CE. Video/sound installation. A two-sided video projection: on each side a man walks forward and is consumed by fire or water, about death and rebirth.
240. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: Spain. Frank Gehry (architect). 1997 CE. Titanium, glass, and limestone. A museum of curving titanium shapes designed with aerospace software; it transformed the city of Bilbao.
241. Pure Land: Mariko Mori. 1998 CE. Color photograph on glass. Mori appears as a Buddhist deity floating above the Dead Sea, a digitally made vision of peace and technology.
242. Lying with the Wolf: Kiki Smith. 2001 CE. Ink and pencil on paper. A woman lying peacefully with a wolf, reversing fairy-tale fear into harmony between people and nature.
243. Darkytown Rebellion: Kara Walker. 2001 CE. Cut paper and projection on wall. Cut-paper silhouettes and projected colored light create a nightmarish scene of slavery and violence. Viewers' shadows become part of the work.
244. The Swing (after Fragonard): Yinka Shonibare. 2001 CE. Mixed-media installation. A headless mannequin in Dutch wax-print fabric recreates Fragonard's Swing, mixing European history, colonialism and African identity.
245. Old Man’s Cloth: El Anatsui. 2003 CE. Aluminum and copper wire. A shimmering 'cloth' of flattened liquor-bottle caps sewn with copper wire, recalling kente cloth and the history of trade.
246. Stadia II: Julie Mehretu. 2004 CE. Ink and acrylic on canvas. Layers of lines and marks over stadium architecture and flag colors, about crowds, nations and globalization.
247. Preying Mantra: Wangechi Mutu. 2006 CE. Mixed media on Mylar. A collage of a female figure made from magazine images, animal and machine parts, about African women and stereotypes.
248. Shibboleth: Doris Salcedo. 2007–2008 CE. Installation. A long crack cut into the floor of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, a symbol of racism and the divisions faced by immigrants.
249. MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts: Rome, Italy. Zaha Hadid (architect). 2009 CE. Glass, steel, and cement. A flowing museum of curving concrete walls and ramps that layers paths through the building.
250. Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds): Ai Weiwei. 2010–2011 CE. Sculpted and painted porcelain. About 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds handmade by artisans in Jingdezhen, spread across the floor of Tate Modern: about mass production, individuality and China.

Words for describing and analyzing a work

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Form, style and content: Form is how a work looks (line, color, shape, texture, space, composition). Style is a recognizable way of making art shared by an artist, school or culture. Content is the subject and its meaning.
Composition: How the parts are arranged: balance, symmetry, focal point, diagonals, framing and the use of empty space.
Hierarchic scale: Making the most important figure largest, regardless of real size. Seen on the Palette of King Narmer, the Benin plaques and the Standard of Ur.
Registers: Horizontal bands that organize a scene into rows, read like lines of text; common in Egyptian and Mesopotamian art.
Composite view (twisted perspective): Showing each body part from its most recognizable angle: head and legs in profile, eye and shoulders from the front. Typical of Egyptian art; in cave painting, horns shown from the front on a side-view head.
Naturalism, idealism, verism, stylization: Naturalism looks like the real world. Idealism improves it toward a perfect type (Doryphoros). Verism shows every wrinkle (Head of a Roman patrician). Stylization simplifies forms into patterns.
Abstraction and non-objective art: Abstraction simplifies or distorts a recognizable subject; non-objective art has no recognizable subject at all (close to Kandinsky's Improvisation 28).
Contrapposto: A standing pose with weight on one leg, so hips and shoulders tilt in opposite directions; first seen in Classical Greek sculpture and revived in the Renaissance (Donatello's David).
Iconography: The meaning of symbols and subjects in a work, such as the lilies of the Virgin in the Merode Altarpiece or the crook and flail of an Egyptian king.
Linear perspective: A system of lines meeting at a vanishing point that makes a flat picture look deep; developed in the Italian Renaissance (Last Supper, School of Athens).
Atmospheric perspective: Making distant things paler, bluer and less detailed to suggest depth, as in Hunters in the Snow.
Foreshortening: Shortening a form that points toward the viewer so it looks three-dimensional, as in the Alexander Mosaic.
Chiaroscuro and tenebrism: Chiaroscuro is gradual modeling of light and dark to make forms look solid. Tenebrism is extreme contrast with figures spotlit against darkness (Caravaggio's Calling of Saint Matthew).
Continuous narrative: Several moments of one story shown in the same image, as in the Vienna Genesis or Trajan's Column.
Relief: high, low and sunken: Sculpture that projects from a background. High relief stands far out, low relief barely, and sunken relief is cut into the surface (Akhenaten, Nefertiti and three daughters).
In the round: Freestanding sculpture meant to be seen from all sides.
Fresco: Painting into wet lime plaster so the color binds to the wall (Sistine Chapel, Arena Chapel). Painting on dry plaster flakes more easily, as the Last Supper shows.
Tempera, oil and encaustic: Tempera mixes pigment with egg and dries fast and matte. Oil dries slowly and allows glazes and fine detail (Arnolfini Portrait). Encaustic mixes pigment with hot wax (the Sinai icon).
Mosaic and tesserae: Pictures made of small pieces (tesserae) of stone or glass set in mortar, as at San Vitale and in the Alexander Mosaic.
Lost-wax casting and repoussé: Lost-wax casting: a wax model is coated in clay, melted out and replaced with molten metal (Nataraja, Benin plaques). Repoussé: hammering metal from the back to raise a design (Inka maize cobs).
Printmaking: woodcut, engraving, etching, lithograph: Woodcut prints the raised parts of carved wood (Kollwitz, Hokusai). Engraving and etching print from lines cut or bitten by acid into metal (Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya). Lithography prints from a drawing on flat stone (Daumier).
Illuminated manuscript: A handwritten book decorated with paint and gold, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Golden Haggadah.
Readymade, installation, performance and site-specific art: A readymade is a found object presented as art (Duchamp's Fountain). Installations fill a space you enter; performances are live events; site-specific works are made for one place (Spiral Jetty, Shibboleth).
Patron, audience, function and reception: The patron pays for a work, the audience sees or uses it, the function is its purpose (ritual, propaganda, memorial), and reception is how people responded over time.
Appropriation: Borrowing an existing image to give it new meaning, as in Shonibare's The Swing (after Fragonard) or Sherman's History Portraits.
Orientalism and primitivism: Orientalism is Western fantasy of the Middle East and Asia (La Grande Odalisque). Primitivism is Western artists borrowing from African, Oceanic or other arts they saw as 'primitive' (Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Gauguin).

Architecture words

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Post-and-lintel: Two uprights holding a horizontal beam; the oldest way to span a space (Stonehenge, Greek temples).
Arch, barrel vault, groin vault and dome: An arch spans an opening with wedge-shaped stones (voussoirs). A barrel vault is an arch extended in depth; a groin vault crosses two barrel vaults; a dome is an arch rotated in a circle. Roman concrete made huge ones possible (Pantheon, Colosseum).
Greek orders: Doric (plain cushion capital), Ionic (scroll capital) and Corinthian (acanthus leaves). The Parthenon is Doric with an Ionic frieze; the Colosseum stacks the orders.
Caryatid: A column carved as a standing woman, as on the Erechtheion porch on the Athenian Acropolis.
Basilica plan: A long hall with a central nave, side aisles, an apse at the end and clerestory windows high on the nave walls. Roman in origin, then the model for churches (Santa Sabina).
Central plan: A building organized around a central point, round, square or octagonal (San Vitale, Dome of the Rock, Pantheon).
Pendentive: A curved triangle that lets a round dome sit on a square base, as at Hagia Sophia.
Romanesque and Gothic: Romanesque: thick walls, round arches and barrel vaults, with an ambulatory for pilgrims (Sainte-Foy). Gothic: pointed arches, rib vaults and flying buttresses that allow thin walls and huge stained-glass windows (Chartres).
Tympanum: The half-round space over a church doorway, often carved with the Last Judgment (Sainte-Foy).
Hypostyle hall: A hall whose roof rests on many columns, as at Karnak; the Great Mosque of Córdoba's prayer hall works the same way.
Mosque features: The qibla wall faces Mecca, the mihrab is a niche in it, the minaret is a tower for the call to prayer, and an iwan is a vaulted hall open on one side (Great Mosque of Isfahan).
Muqarnas: Honeycomb-like vaulting of many small niches, used in Islamic domes and arches (Alhambra, Isfahan).
Stupa and torana: A stupa is a solid Buddhist dome over relics that pilgrims walk around clockwise; toranas are its carved gateways (Great Stupa at Sanchi).
Hindu temple tower: In northern India the tower (shikhara) rises over the inner shrine (garbhagriha) like a mountain peak (Lakshmana Temple).
Ashlar and dry masonry: Ashlar is stone cut into precise, smooth-faced blocks; dry masonry is stacked without mortar. Inka walls in Cusco are mortarless ashlar fitted so tightly no blade fits between them; Great Zimbabwe's walls are dry-stacked courses of granite blocks.
Cantilever: A beam or slab held at one end only, so it seems to float (Fallingwater's terraces).
Steel frame and curtain wall: A steel skeleton carries the building, so walls no longer hold it up: wide windows open between the frame (Carson, Pirie, Scott), and a curtain wall is a thin skin of glass hung on the frame (Seagram Building).
Le Corbusier's five points: Pilotis (columns lifting the house), a roof garden, an open floor plan, ribbon windows and a free facade (Villa Savoye).
Postmodern and deconstructivist architecture: Postmodernism brings back playful historical ornament (House in New Castle County). Gehry and Hadid use computer design for curving, fragmented forms (Guggenheim Bilbao, MAXXI).