Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Geertgen tot Sint Jans

(Encyclopedia)Geertgen tot Sint Jans gārtˈgən tôt sĭnt yäns [key], fl. latter half of 15th cent., Dutch painter. Geertgen is the earliest painter of record in Haarlem. He may have gone to Ghent and had some c...

Montefeltro

(Encyclopedia)Montefeltro mōntāfĕlˈtrō [key], Italian noble family. Its members were noted patrons of art and traditionally opposed the papacy in the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines. The county of Mon...

Metsu, Gabriel

(Encyclopedia)Metsu or Metzu, Gabriel both: gäˈbrēĕl mĕtˈsü [key], 1630?–1667, Dutch genre painter, b. Leiden. In 1657 he moved to Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life. In his youth he pai...

Mieris

(Encyclopedia)Mieris mēˈrĭs [key], family of Dutch genre and portrait painters of Leiden. Frans van Mieris, 1635–81, the most important, was the son of a goldsmith and pupil of Gerard Dou. His tiny, meticulous...

Mino da Fiesole

(Encyclopedia)Mino da Fiesole dē jōvänˈnē [key], 1429–84, Florentine sculptor of the early Renaissance. He produced many tombs and sculptures for churches. Among the best are the altar in the cathedral at Fi...

tannin

(Encyclopedia)tannin, tannic acid, or gallotannic acid, astringent vegetable product found in a wide variety of plants. Sources include the bark of oak, hemlock, chestnut, and mangrove; the leaves of certain sumac...

Beaux, Cecilia

(Encyclopedia)Beaux, Cecilia bō [key], 1855–1942, American figure and portrait painter, b. Philadelphia. She studied in Philadelphia under William Sartain (see under Sartain, John) and Thomas Eakins, in Paris in...

secretion

(Encyclopedia)secretion, in biology, substance elaborated by the living material of an animal or plant. Secretions in humans can be produced by a single cell or by a group of cells commonly called a gland. Some sec...

Cochise

(Encyclopedia)Cochise kōchēsˈ, kōchēˈsā [key], c.1815–1874, chief of the Chiricahua group of Apache in Arizona. He was friendly with the whites until 1861, when some of his relatives were hanged by U.S. so...

Luanda

(Encyclopedia)Luanda lo͞oănˈdə, –änˈdə [key], city (1995 est. pop. 3,000,000), capital of Angola, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. It is Angola's largest city, its chief port, and its administrative center. M...

Browse by Subject