AP Art History

Art historians describe and explain a work by asking what it is made of, what it looks like, what it was for, what it shows and where it came from. The vocabulary below is used for every work in the course, from a cave painting to an installation, so it is worth having it exact before looking at any individual object. ## Describing what a work is The **medium** is the material the work is made from, such as oil paint on canvas, bronze, limestone or video. The **technique** is the process used to work the material: carving, casting, weaving, etching, or building up paint in layers. Two works in the same medium can be made by very different techniques, and a choice of technique often tells you something about the maker's training, the tools available and the time the work took. **Form** is a work's visible physical qualities: its shape, size, materials, color and the way it is put together. **Composition** is the arrangement of the elements within the work, for example whether a painting is symmetrical, whether figures are placed in a pyramid, or whether a building is organized around a central axis. **Style** is the recognizable manner shared by a group of works, whether by one artist, one period, one region or one movement. Style is how an art historian recognizes that a work belongs with others. ### Design elements and principles The **design elements** are the basic components an artist works with: line, shape, color, texture, space, value (lightness and darkness) and…