Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Blau, Joseph Leon

(Encyclopedia)Blau, Joseph Leon blou [key] 1909–86, American Jewish scholar and educator, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Columbia (A.B., 1931; M.A., 1933; Ph.D., 1945). He taught at Columbia from 1944, becoming profess...

Bologna, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Bologna, Giovanni, or Giambologna jōvänˈnē bōlōˈnyä, jämˌbōlōˈnyä [key], 1524–1608, Flemish sculptor, whose real name was Jean Bologne or Boulogne. Though born in Douai, France, he tra...

reredos

(Encyclopedia)reredos rērˈdŏs [key], ornamented wall or screen that rises behind the high altar of a church, forming a background for it. It may be placed against the apse wall at the extreme end or directly beh...

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...

column

(Encyclopedia)column, vertical architectural support, circular or polygonal in plan. A column is generally at least four or five times as high as its diameter or width; stubbier freestanding masses of masonry are u...

Falange

(Encyclopedia)Falange fälänˈhā [key] [Span.,=phalanx], Spanish political party, founded in 1933 as Falange Española by José António Primo de Rivera, son of the former Spanish dictator. Professing generally t...

Michelozzo Michelozzi

(Encyclopedia)Michelozzo Michelozzi mēkālôtˈtsō mēkālôtˈtsē [key], 1396–1472, Italian sculptor, architect, goldsmith, and founder. He was long associated with Donatello and Ghiberti. His first independe...

Pater, Walter Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Pater, Walter Horatio pāˈtər [key], 1839–94, English essayist and critic. In 1864 he was elected a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and he subsequently led an austere and uneventful life. An ...

mandorla

(Encyclopedia)mandorla mänˈdôrlä [key], [Ital.,=almond], a medieval Christian artistic convention by which an oval or almond-shaped area or series of lines surrounds a deity, most commonly Jesus. The mandorla i...

Victoria, Tomás Luis de

(Encyclopedia)Victoria, Tomás Luis de tōmäsˈ lo͞oēsˈ dā vēktōˈryä [key], c.1548–1611, Spanish composer. He went to Rome in 1565 to study for the priesthood at the German Jesuit College. In 1571 he bec...