Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

composition, in art

(Encyclopedia)composition, in art, the organization of forms and colors within the work of art. In traditional sculpture this means the arrangement of masses and planes. In representational painting it means the gr...

Cincinnati Art Museum

(Encyclopedia)Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1877 by the Women's Art Museum Association, the museum opened in 1886. Its collections contain examples spanning 3,000 years of artistic production....

Federal Art Project

(Encyclopedia)Federal Art Project: see Work Projects Administration. ...

illumination, in art

(Encyclopedia)illumination, in art, decoration of manuscripts and books with colored, gilded pictures, often referred to as miniatures (see miniature painting); historiated and decorated initials; and ornamental bo...

halo, in art

(Encyclopedia)halo, in art: see nimbus.

naturalism, in art

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in art, a tendency toward strict adherence to the physical appearance of nature and rejection of ideal forms. Artists as diverse as Velázquez, J. F. Millet, and Monet, have followed natur...

Moscow Art Theater

(Encyclopedia)Moscow Art Theater, Russian repertory company founded in 1897 by Constantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Its work created new concepts of theatrical production and marked the beginn...

mobile, in art

(Encyclopedia)mobile mōˈbēl [key], a type of moving sculptural artwork developed by Alexander Calder in 1932 and named by Marcel Duchamp. Often constructed of colored metal pieces connected by wires or rods, the...

nimbus, in art

(Encyclopedia)nimbus nĭmˈbəs [key], in art, the luminous disk or circle or other indication of light around the head of a sacred personage. It was used in Buddhist and other Asian art and by the early Greeks and...

aureole, in art

(Encyclopedia)aureole, in art: see nimbus.