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Barbara, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Barbara, Saint, fl. 3d or 4th cent., virgin martyr, whose life is shrouded in contradictory legends. Her father is said to have shut her up in a tower and then to have killed her for being a Christian...

Halle, town, Belgium

(Encyclopedia)Halle hälˈə [key], Fr. Hal, commune, Flemish Brabant prov., central Belgium, on the Charle...

island

(Encyclopedia)island, relatively small body of land surrounded entirely by water. (As the oceans form a continuous mass of water on the earth's surface, all continents are islands in the strict sense of the word.) ...

Franceschini, Baldassare

(Encyclopedia)Franceschini, Baldassare bäldäs-säˈrā fränchāskēˈnē [key], 1611–89, Florentine painter; pupil of his father, who was a sculptor. He was also called Volterrano. His works include the Corona...

Joachim, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Joachim, Saint jōˈəkĭm [key], in tradition, the father of the Virgin and husband of St. Anne; there is no mention of him in the Bible. His cult is ancient in the East, but modern in the western Ch...

Berceo, Gonzalo de

(Encyclopedia)Berceo, Gonzalo de gōnthäˈlō ᵺā bārthāˈō [key], c.1198–1265?, earliest known Spanish medieval poet. He was a religious in a Benedictine monastery who wrote prolifically on saints and othe...

Cavedone, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Cavedone, Giacomo jäˈkōmō kävādôˈnā [key], 1577–1660, Italian painter, of the Bolognese school. He assisted Guido Reni in Rome, but his reputation as a master of color and composition was w...

Cecilia, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Cecilia, Saint səsĭlˈyə, –sēl– [key], 2d or 3d cent., Roman virgin martyr. An ancient and famous account of her life is factually valueless. As patron of music, she is represented at the orga...

Great Mother Goddess

(Encyclopedia)Great Mother Goddess, in ancient Middle Eastern religions, mother goddess, the great symbol of the earth's fertility. She was worshiped under many names and attributes. Similar figures have been known...

nimbus, in art

(Encyclopedia)nimbus nĭmˈbəs [key], in art, the luminous disk or circle or other indication of light around the head of a sacred personage. It was used in Buddhist and other Asian art and by the early Greeks and...