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wax figures

(Encyclopedia)wax figures, sculptures usually made of beeswax or tallow, which is susceptible to modeling, casting, and coloring. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used wax to make sacred images or death masks. Wax...

Cajetan, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Cajetan, Saint kăjˈətăn, käˌyātänˈ [key], 1480–1547, Italian churchman and reformer. Son of the count of Thiene, he studied civil and canon law, but abandoned work as a jurist at the papal ...

Boötes

(Encyclopedia)Boötes bō-ōˈtēz [key] [Gr.,=the herdsman], northern constellation located to the SE of the Big Dipper in Ursa Major and W of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. It contains the brilliant orange ...

Bravo, Claudio

(Encyclopedia)Bravo, Claudio (Claudio Nelson Bravo Camus), 1936–2011, Chilean painter. Though he studied art in Santiago, he was largely self-taught. Bravo became a successful society portraitist in Chile and in ...

brocade

(Encyclopedia)brocade brōkādˈ [key], fabric, originally silk, generally reputed to have been developed to a high state of perfection in the 16th and 17th cent. in France, Italy, and Spain. In China the weaving o...

Brooke, Rupert

(Encyclopedia)Brooke, Rupert, 1887–1915, English poet. At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Royal Naval Division, served at Antwerp, and was in the Dardanelles expedition when he died of blood poisoning a...

Boccioni, Umberto

(Encyclopedia)Boccioni, Umberto o͞ombĕrˈtō bŏt-chôˈnē [key], 1882–1916, Italian futurist painter and sculptor. He played a primary role in the drafting of the manifesto of futurism in 1910 and was the maj...

Bessarion

(Encyclopedia)Bessarion bĕsârˈēən [key], 1395?–1472, Byzantine humanist, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a leading figure at the Council of Ferrara-Florence, which he attended as metropolitan o...

Sèvres ware

(Encyclopedia)Sèvres ware, porcelain made in France by the royal (now national) potteries established (1745) by Louis XV at Vincennes, moved (1756) to Sèvres after changing hands. Before 1770 it was a soft-paste ...

Shubun

(Encyclopedia)Shubun sho͞oˈbo͞onˈ [key], fl. 1st half of 15th cent., Japanese painter and Zen Buddhist priest. He studied under Josetsu, and became the central figure in the renaissance in Japan of the Chinese ...