Understanding terminology that describes Early Christian, Byzantine, and Early Medieval architecture - AP Art History

Upon its completion, the Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world, and also contained the largest dome in the world. This dome was achieved through the use of fully-developed "pendentives," triangular elements of a sphere used as structural supports to allow a dome to be raised over a square room. The Hagia Sophia's architectural innovations were widely copied in Orthodox churches and Muslim mosques in successive centuries.

Tribunes are galleries above the inner aisle that open down into the nave. These housed overflow crowds in Medieval churches, such as San Clemente in Rome.

In sexpartite rib vaulting, each vault is divided into six sections by three ribs.

A pieta is a carved or painted artistic depiction of Mary holding her son Jesus in her arms after his crucifixion. When this depiction includes other people in the scene, it is referred to as the Lamentation.

The drum of a building is the circular wall that supports a dome.

A finial is a crowning ornament on a pinnacle, tower, or roof of a building.

The mihrab is a prayer niche set in the qibla wall of a mosque, or the wall facing Mecca. It indicates in which direction the congregation must pray.

The processional walkway around the apse of a basilica church is called an ambulatory. It is a continuation of the aisles that run alongside the central space of the nave. Often individual shrines or altars for saints were set up along the ambulatory behind the main altar.

The Romanesque movement inaugurated the great building projects of the church. Though Byzantine, Gothic, and International style movements are likewise responsible for many of Europe's greatest holy buildings, they are all continuations of and evolutions from the Romanesque style. This question requires students to know the chronology of their aesthetic movements.

Romanesque churches dominated European architecture from sometime in the mid-to-late first millennium CE until about 1200. Romanesque churches were massive stone edifices that were marked out by having their doors and windows constructed out of simple semi-circular arches. Romanesque architecture was largely supplanted by the much more ornate and imposing Gothic style in the late Middle Ages.

The side of a window frame or doorway in a medieval church is called a jamb. In medieval churches, the portal (or entrance way) often was elaborated with decorative sculpture on every available surface, including the jamb and the tympanum, the semi-circular or triangular wall space over a door.

Upon its completion, the Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world, and also contained the largest dome in the world. This dome was achieved through the use of fully-developed "pendentives," triangular elements of a sphere used as structural supports to allow a dome to be raised over a square room. The Hagia Sophia's architectural innovations were widely copied in Orthodox churches and Muslim mosques in successive centuries.

Tribunes are galleries above the inner aisle that open down into the nave. These housed overflow crowds in Medieval churches, such as San Clemente in Rome.

In sexpartite rib vaulting, each vault is divided into six sections by three ribs.

A pieta is a carved or painted artistic depiction of Mary holding her son Jesus in her arms after his crucifixion. When this depiction includes other people in the scene, it is referred to as the Lamentation.

The drum of a building is the circular wall that supports a dome.

A finial is a crowning ornament on a pinnacle, tower, or roof of a building.

The mihrab is a prayer niche set in the qibla wall of a mosque, or the wall facing Mecca. It indicates in which direction the congregation must pray.

The processional walkway around the apse of a basilica church is called an ambulatory. It is a continuation of the aisles that run alongside the central space of the nave. Often individual shrines or altars for saints were set up along the ambulatory behind the main altar.

The Romanesque movement inaugurated the great building projects of the church. Though Byzantine, Gothic, and International style movements are likewise responsible for many of Europe's greatest holy buildings, they are all continuations of and evolutions from the Romanesque style. This question requires students to know the chronology of their aesthetic movements.