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pre-Columbian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)pre-Columbian art and architecture, works of art and structures created in Central and South America before the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many years the regions that are now ...

Southeast Asian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Southeast Asian art and architecture includes works from the geographical area including the modern countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Malaysia, Singapore and In...

Spanish colonial art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Spanish colonial art and architecture, fl. 16th–early 19th cent., the artistic production of Spain's colonies in the New World. These works followed the historical development of styles previously e...

abacus, in architecture

(Encyclopedia)abacus ăbˈəkəs [key], in architecture, flat slab forming the top member of a capital. In classical orders it varies from a square form having unmolded sides in the Greek Doric, to thinner proporti...

rococo, in architecture

(Encyclopedia)rococo rəkōˈkō, rō– [key], style in architecture, especially in interiors and the decorative arts, which originated in France and was widely used in Europe in the 18th cent. The term may be der...

ornament, in architecture

(Encyclopedia)ornament, in architecture, decorative detail enhancing structures. Structural ornament, an integral part of the framework, includes the shaping and placement of the buttress, cornice, molding, ceiling...

capital, in architecture

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Types of capitals B. Parts of a capital capital, in architecture, the crowning member of a column, pilaster, or pier. It acts as the bearing member beneath the lintel or arch supported by t...

Blunt, Anthony Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Blunt, Anthony Frederick, 1907–83, English art historian and Soviet spy, grad. Cambridge. Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art after 1947 and professor of the history of art at the Univ. of Lo...

Italian architecture

(Encyclopedia)Italian architecture, the several styles employed in Italy after the Roman period. Nineteenth-century Italian architecture, such as Giuseppe Sacconi's Victor Emmanuel monument, shows a decline in qu...

mobile, in art

(Encyclopedia)mobile mōˈbēl [key], a type of moving sculptural artwork developed by Alexander Calder in 1932 and named by Marcel Duchamp. Often constructed of colored metal pieces connected by wires or rods, the...