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baptistery

(Encyclopedia)baptistery băpˈtĭstrē [key], part of a church, or a separate building in connection with it, used for administering baptism. In the earliest examples it was merely a basin or pool set into the flo...

pulpit

(Encyclopedia)pulpit, in churches, elevated platform with low enclosing sides, used for preaching the sermon. In the earliest churches the episcopal throne served this purpose. The boxlike elevated ambo of early me...

Oberlin, Russell Keys

(Encyclopedia)Oberlin, Russell Keys, 1928–2016, American countertenor, b. Akron, Ohio, grad. Juilliard, 1951. A boy soprano, he sang in his church choir and on the radio, and won a nationwide radio talent competi...

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da

(Encyclopedia)Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da jōvänˈnē pyārlo͞oēˈjē päˌlāstrēˈnä [key], c.1525–1594, Italian composer whose family name was Pierluigi; b. Palestrina, from which he took his name. ...

Orozco, José Clemente

(Encyclopedia)Orozco, José Clemente hōsāˈ klāmānˈtā ōrōˈskō [key], 1883–1949, Mexican muralist, genre painter, and lithographer, grad. Mexican National Agricultural School. He became an architectural ...

Vasari, Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Vasari, Giorgio jôrˈjō väzäˈrē [key], 1511–74, Italian architect, writer, and painter. He is best known for his entertaining biographies of artists, Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pitto...

caryatid

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Caryatid caryatid kărˌēătˈĭd, kărˈēətĭdˌ [key], a sculptured female figure serving as an ornamental support in place of a column or pilaster. It was a frequently used motif in arch...

Montserrat, mountain, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Montserrat or Monserrat both: mŏnˌsərătˈ, mŏntˌ–, Catalan mŏnsər-rätˈ, Span. mōnsārätˈ [key], mountain, 4,054 ft (1,236 m) high, NE Spain, rising abruptly from a plain in Catalonia, N...

Maitland, Frederic William

(Encyclopedia)Maitland, Frederic William mātˈlənd [key], 1850–1906, English legal historian, educated at Cambridge. A thorough scholar, he founded the Selden Society for the publication of early English docume...

masque

(Encyclopedia)masque, courtly form of dramatic spectacle, popular in England in the first half of the 17th cent. The masque developed from the early 16th-century disguising, or mummery, in which disguised guests be...