Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Coypel

(Encyclopedia)Coypel kwäpĕlˈ [key], family of French painters. Noël Coypel, 1628–1707, director of the Académie de France à Rome and later of the Académie royale de péinture et de sculpture in Paris, was ...

cloisonné

(Encyclopedia)cloisonné kloizənāˈ, –sənāˈ [key], method of enamel decoration of metal surfaces, such as vases and jewel boxes. Metal filaments (which form the cloisons or separating elements) are attached ...

figurehead

(Encyclopedia)figurehead, carved decoration usually representing a head or figure placed under the bowsprit of a ship. The art is of extreme antiquity. Ancient galleys and triremes carried rostrums, or beaks, on th...

niello

(Encyclopedia)niello nēĕlˈō [key] [Ital. from Latin nigellus=blackish], black metallic alloy of sulfur, copper, silver, and usually lead, used as an inlay on engraved metal. The metal surface is brushed with a ...

cameo

(Encyclopedia)cameo kămˈēō [key], small relief carving, usually on striated precious or semiprecious stones or on shell. The design, often a portrait head, is commonly cut in the light-colored vein, and the dar...

Pinturicchio

(Encyclopedia)Pinturicchio pēntō– [key] [Ital.,=little painter], c.1454–1513, Umbrian painter whose real name was Bernardino di Betto. A prolific and facile painter, he was influenced by Perugino, with whom h...

Malheur Lake

(Encyclopedia)Malheur Lake, c.15 mi (25 km) long and up to 5 mi (8 km) wide, in Harney Basin, SE Oreg. It receives the basin's interior drainage. A national wildlife refuge is there. ...

Indian Affairs, Bureau of

(Encyclopedia)Indian Affairs, Bureau of, created (1824) in the U.S. War Dept. and transferred (1849) to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. The War Dept. managed Native American affairs after 1789, but a separate burea...

Teapot Dome

(Encyclopedia)Teapot Dome, in U.S. history, oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome,...

Ballinger, Richard Achilles

(Encyclopedia)Ballinger, Richard Achilles bălˈĭnjər [key], 1858–1922, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1909–11), b. Boonesboro (now in Boone), Iowa. He was mayor of Seattle (1904–6) and commissioner of the...