SAH Archipedia uses terms from the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) to categorize and classify metadata for the entries in the database. For more information on the Getty AAT, click here

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Paiute (culture or style)
Style and culture of either of two distinct North American Indian groups that speak languages of the Numic group of the Uto-Aztecan family.

Paleo-Indian (Pre-Columbian North American)
No description available for this term.

Palladian
Includes works influenced by the architectural style of Andrea Palladio; excludes works by Palladio himself.

Palladian Revival
Architectural movement and style which began in England ca. 1715-1770, and was later seen in The United States in the early 19th century. Taking its inspiration from the work of 16th century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) and his 17th century British disciple Inigo Jones (1573-1652), the style is seen as a reaction to the Baroque architecture of the time, and was based on the symmetry and forms of classical Greek and Roman temples. Palladian Revival is seen mostly in residential architecture and large country estates.

Pennsylvania German
Refers to the style and culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century German settlers in Pennsylvania and their descendants. Their culture is characterized by a retention of traditional German styles of cookery and craftsmanship, often recognized by distinctive decorative motifs, including geometric hex signs painted on barns and floral and other patterns stenciled on furniture and housewares. Some descendents drive horse-drawn buggies, wear simple, traditional clothing, and live according to strict religious principles. The large flow of immigrants from the Rhine area of Germany was encouraged by the religious tolerance of William Penn's colonial government. Immigrants were members of several groups, including Mennonites, Quakers, Amish, Moravians, Schwenckfelders, and Dunkers (or German Baptists); later immigrants included Lutherans and members of the Reformed churches.

Perpendicular Style
Refers to the last phase of Gothic architectural style in England, as coined by English architect and antiquarian, Thomas Rickman, in the early 19th century. The term originally referred primarily to window tracery from the late 14th century, but now is applied more generally to the broader style and to a wider time frame, roughly from 1330 to the 17th century. The style is characterized by density of pattern, the fan vault, the loss of bulky convex pier profiles to favor elements composed of a network of elegant, flat lines, the use of vertical mullions and regular horizontal divisions in window tracery, these same designs continued into the adjoining masonry, and the general effect in interior spaces of a delicate cage lodged inside a sturdy framework.

Picturesque, the
Aesthetic concept or expression, arising in Europe first in painting of the 18th century and later in architecture of the 19th century, characterized by rough, curious, or irregular forms; it applies particularly to rustic landscapes and crumbling buildings having neither the awe-inspiring grandeur of the Sublime nor the order and regularity of beauty.

pilasters
Shallow piers or rectangular columns projecting only slightly from a wall and, in classical architecture, conforming with one of the orders.(PDARC) Common also on furniture.

Pima (Native American)
North American Indians who traditionally lived along the Gila and Salt rivers in Arizona, in what was the core area of the prehistoric Hohokam culture. The Pima speak a Uto-Aztecan language and are usually considered to be the descendants of the Hohokam. Like their presumed ancestors, the Pima were traditionally sedentary farmers living in one-room houses and utilizing the rivers for irrigation. Some hunting and gathering were done to supplement the diet, and in drought years, which occurred on the average of one year in five, crop failure made hunting and gathering the sole mode of subsistence. During these dry years jackrabbits and mesquite beans became the group's dietary staples.

Plains Cree
No description available for this term.

Plains Indian
Indian peoples who inhabit, or formerly inhabited, the North American Great Plains, which is a vast grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains and from present-day provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada through the present-day state of Texas in the United States. The area is drained principally by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; the valleys of this watershed are the most reliable sites from which to obtain fresh water, wood, and most plant foods.

Plano
No description available for this term.

Plateau Native American styles
Styles belonging to Plateau Native American cultures.

Plateresque
Refers to a style in Spanish and Spanish Colonial architecture and ornament in the 15th and 16th centuries. The term was first used by Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga in 1677 to describe a facade. It means "silversmith-like" and is characterized by richly ornamented surfaces, as were common in a silversmith's intricate work. The style is derived from Late Gothic, Islamic, and Italian Renaissance art. In architecture the style is typically seen in smaller buildings and is characterized by twisted columns, heraldic escutcheons, sinuous scrolls, and florid, jewelry-like ornament that masks the structure beneath.

Pop (fine arts styles)
Refers to the international art and cultural movement that flourished in Britain and America in the 1950s and 1960s. Influenced by Dada, the movement advocated the use of everyday imagery, such as advertisements, signs, and comic strips, executed in the techniques and graphic styles of mass media. The movement respresented a move toward a more objective, immediate art form after the dominance of Abstract Expressionism.

Postmodern
Refers to the style and period of art and architecture that developed in the 1960s and after, when there was a clear challenge to the dominance of Modernism. Generally speaking, it advocated a pluralistic approach to the arts and it stated that Modernism had failed because of a lack of a coded language of meaning to the viewer. The term was first used by Spanish poet Federico de Onis in 1934 and later by Arnold Toynbee's "A Study of History" in 1938, but it was in the 1970s when it came into wide use in connection with a trend in architecture that employed selective Eclecticism and Historicism. This resulted in structures that displayed a knowledge of Modernism, but also playful, whimsical, applications of Classical elements. In the other arts, such as painting, there was a return to a classical approach to the human figure, style, and composition, often resulting in Old Masters style works, but with updated imagery, such as the inclusion of current celebrities, or artists from the past. In photography, as well as painting, a narrative or story telling approach to work also became popular. By the early 1980s, many work dubbed Postmodern, were purchased by the corporate art market, where large sums were paid for the work of relatively new artists. By the 1990s, Postmodernism showed signs of slowing down in terms of popularity, when more traditional Modernist forms began to re-emerge.

Prairie School
Refers to the movement, centered mostly in the American Midwest among architects, notably Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, united by the rejection of revivalist styles and by the development of a new architectural vision based on the faithful expression of the natural qualities of a region or nation. The style generally favored elongated horizontal arrangements that blended naturally with the open American landscape.

Pre-Columbian (American)
Refers to the aboriginal Native American cultures that developed in North, South and Central America before the arrival of Europeans beginning in the late 15th century CE. The term is sometimes used more narrowly to only refer to early cultures from Mexico and Central and South America.

Pre-Columbian Central Mississippi Valley styles
Styles belonging to Pre-Columbian Central Mississippi Valley cultures.

Pre-Columbian Pueblo styles
Styles of pottery belonging to Pre-Columbian Pueblo cultures.

Pre-Columbian Southeastern Woodland periods
Periods related to Pre-Columbian Southeastern Woodland cultures.

Pre-Raphaelite
Refers to the style in fine arts originating from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English artists active from 1848 to 1853. Inspired by Italian art prior to Raphael, the style is characterized by Romantic and Medieval themes with moral undertones, bright colors, and close-knit, detailed compositions.

prehistoric
Refers to the period antecedent to the first contemporary written accounts of a people. The time span for this period varies according to specific local habitation patterns and in different scholarly disciplines.

prehistoric sites
Sites that contain evidence of prehistoric human activity, often through archaeological investigation.

Psychedelic
Refers to the art and cultural movement of the mid- to late 1960s that was international in scope, but flourished mainly on the American West Coast. The movement advocated the exploration of the subconscious mind through drugs, sensory deprivation, and a total immersion of the senses through music and light shows. In the visual arts, the style is characterized by obsessively detailed images, ambiguous representations of space, and acidic colors.

Pueblo (Native American style)
No description available for this term.

Pueblo Revival
Refers mainly to the style of architecture found in the Southwestern United States which draws its inspiration from the Pueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico. The style developed at the turn of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, although it is still commonly used for new buildings. Pueblo Revival imitates the appearance of traditional adobe construction, however through the use of modern materials such as concrete and brick. Typical attributes include rounded corners, irregular parapets, and thick, battered walls used to simulate adobe. Roofs are always flat, and a common feature is the use of wooden roof beams that are often decorative rather than supportive.

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