Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [201]
Ambulatory Covered passage around the outer edge of the choir of a church.
Apse Semicircular protrusion, usually at the east end of a church.
Art Deco Geometrical style of art and architecture popular in the 1930s.
Art Nouveau Style of art, architecture and design based on highly stylized vegetal forms, especially popular in the early part of the twentieth century.
Balustrade An ornamental rail, running, almost invariably, along the top of a building.
Baroque The art and architecture of the Counter-Reformation, dating from around 1600 onwards. Distinguished by extreme ornateness and by the complex but harmonious spatial arrangement of interiors.
Carillon A set of tuned church bells, either operated by an automatic mechanism or played on a keyboard.
Caryatid A sculptured female figure used as a column.
Chancel The eastern part of a church, often separated from the nave by a screen (see “rood screen”). Contains the choir and ambulatory.
Classical Architectural style incorporating Greek and Roman elements – pillars, domes, colonnades, etc – at its height in the seventeenth century and revived, as Neoclassical, in the nineteenth.
Diptych Carved or painted work on two panels. Often used as an altarpiece – both static and, more occasionally, portable.
Expressionism Artistic style popular at the beginning of the twentieth century, characterized by the exaggeration of shape or colour; often accompanied by the extensive use of symbolism.
Flamboyant Florid form of Gothic.
Fresco Wall painting – durable through application to wet plaster.
Gable The triangular upper portion of a wall – decorative or supporting a roof – which is a feature of many Amsterdam canal houses. Initially fairly simple, they became more ostentatious in the late seventeenth century, before turning to a more restrained if imposing classicism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Genre painting In the seventeenth century the term “genre painting” applied to everything from animal paintings and still lifes through to historical works and landscapes. In the eighteenth century, the term came to be applied only to scenes of everyday life.
Gothic Architectural style of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, characterized by pointed arches, rib vaulting, flying buttresses and a general emphasis on verticality.
Grisaille A technique of monochrome painting in shades of grey.
Misericord Ledge on a choir stall on which the occupant can be supported while standing; often carved with secular subjects (bottoms were not thought worthy of religious subject matter).
Nave Main body of a church.
Neoclassical A style of classical architecture evived in the nineteenth century, popular in the Low Countries during and after the Napoleonic occupation.
Neo-Gothic Revived Gothic style of architecture popular between the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Pediment Feature of a gable, usually triangular and often sporting a relief.
Pilaster A shallow rectangular column projecting, but only slightly, from a wall.
Renaissance The period of European history marking the end of the medieval period and the rise of the modern world. Defined, among many criteria, by an increase in classical scholarship, geographical discovery, the rise of secular values and the growth of individualism. Began in Italy in the fourteenth century. Also refers to the art and architecture of the period.
Rococo Highly florid, light and intricate eighteenth-century style of architecture, painting and interior design, forming the last phase of Baroque.
Romanesque Early medieval architecture distinguished by squat, heavy forms, rounded arches and naive sculpture.
Rood screen Decorative screen separating the nave from the chancel. A rood loft is the gallery (or space) on top of it.
Stucco Marble-based plaster used to embellish ceilings, etc.
Transept Arms of a cross-shaped church, placed at ninety degrees to nave and chancel.
Triptych Carved or painted work on three panels. Often used as an altarpiece.
Tympanum Sculpted, usually recessed, panel above a door.
Vault Arched