Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

satin

(Encyclopedia)satin, lustrous silk in which the filling is so arranged as to bind the warp as seldom as possible and so spaced that practically nothing shows but the warp. Satin was first woven by the ancient silk ...

Masaccio

(Encyclopedia)Masaccio mäzätˈchō [key], 1401–1428?, Italian painter. He is the foremost Italian painter of the Florentine Renaissance in the early 15th cent. Masaccio's original name was Tommaso Guidi. He was...

Gentileschi, Artemisia

(Encyclopedia)Gentileschi, Artemisia ärˌtāmēˈzhə jānˌtēlĕsˈkē [key], c.1597–c.1652, Tuscan painter, daughter and pupil of Orazio Gentileschi, b. Rome. She studied with her father's collaborator, Agost...

Leonardo da Vinci

(Encyclopedia)Leonardo da Vinci də vĭnˈchē, Ital. lāōnärˈdō dä vēnˈchē [key], 1452–1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist, b. near Vinci, a hill village in Tusc...

Frescobaldi, Girolamo

(Encyclopedia)Frescobaldi, Girolamo jērôˈlämō frāskōbälˈdē [key], 1583–1643, Italian organist and composer. He became organist at St. Peter's in Rome in 1608, where huge crowds came during most of his l...

Cortona

(Encyclopedia)Cortona kōrtōˈnä [key], town, Tuscany, central Italy. It is an agricultural and tourist c...

Castracani, Castruccio

(Encyclopedia)Castracani, Castruccio kästro͞otˈchō kästräkäˈnē [key], 1281–1328, duke of Lucca. His early life was spent in exile. After his return he was made captain (1316), then lord of Lucca (1320) f...

Tetrazzini, Luisa

(Encyclopedia)Tetrazzini, Luisa lwēˈzä tāträt-tsēˈnē [key], 1871–1940, Italian coloratura soprano. She made her debut in Florence in 1890. After appearances in Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Latin America, ...

Üsküdar

(Encyclopedia)Üsküdar sko͞oˈtərē [key], urban district, part of İstanbul, Turkey, on the Asian side of the Bosporus. It is a commercial and industrial center. Known as Chrysopolis in ancient times, it enjoye...

Meiss, Millard

(Encyclopedia)Meiss, Millard mēs [key], 1904–75, American art historian, b. Cincinnati. Meiss taught art history at Columbia from 1934 to 1953 and thereafter was professor at Harvard until 1958, when he joined t...