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epitaph

(Encyclopedia)epitaph, strictly, an inscription on a tomb; by extension, a statement, usually in verse, commemorating the dead. The earliest such inscriptions are those found on Egyptian sarcophagi. In England epit...

illusionism

(Encyclopedia)illusionism, in art, a kind of visual trickery in which painted forms seem to be real. It is sometimes called trompe l'oeil [Fr.,=fool the eye]. The development of one-point perspective in the Renaiss...

Johnson, Eastman

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Eastman, 1824–1906, American portrait and genre painter, b. Lovell, Maine. He studied with a lithographer in Boston and later in Düsseldorf, then for almost four years at The Hague, where ...

Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest zhäN lwē ĕrnĕstˈ māsônyāˈ [key], 1815–91, French genre and military painter. His study of the Dutch masters was evident in his first Salon-exhibited painting, ...

toccata

(Encyclopedia)toccata təkäˈtə, tō– [key] [Ital.,=touched], type of musical composition. Early examples were written for various instruments, but the best-known form of toccata originated about the beginning ...

Sarazen, Gene

(Encyclopedia)Sarazen, Gene säˈrəzən [key], 1902–99, American golfer, b. Harrison, N.Y. The son of an Italian immigrant carpenter, he entered golf as a caddie at Rye, N.Y. In 1922—at the age of 20—Sarazen...

miniature painting

(Encyclopedia)miniature painting [Ital.,=artwork, especially manuscript initial letters, done with the red lead pigment minium; the word originally had no implication as to size]. In a general sense the term denote...

vaudeville

(Encyclopedia)vaudeville vôdˈvĭl [key], originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called Vau, or Vaux, de Vire. Similar to the English music ha...

Fort Washington

(Encyclopedia)Fort Washington, military post during the American Revolution, situated on the highest point of Manhattan island, New York City, overlooking the Hudson River opposite Fort Lee, N.J. It was a hastily b...

Browne, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Browne, Thomas, d. 1825, Loyalist commander in the American Revolution. A resident of Augusta, Ga., he was the victim of colonist violence in 1775, when he was tarred and feathered for ridiculing the ...