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Parmigianino

(Encyclopedia)Parmigianino –jäˈnō [key], 1503–40, Italian painter and etcher, one of the most sensitive mannerist artists (see mannerism) and one of the period's finest draftsmen. His real name was Girolamo ...

Oates, Joyce Carol

(Encyclopedia)Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938–, American author, b. Lockport, N.Y., B.A. Syracuse Univ., 1960, M.A. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1961. She taught English at the Univ. of Detroit and the Univ. of Windsor, Ontario,...

Pollock, Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Pollock, Jackson, 1912–56, American painter, b. Cody, Wyo. He studied (1929–31) in New York City, mainly under Thomas Hart Benton, but he was more strongly influenced by A. P. Ryder and the Mexica...

Kitchen Cabinet

(Encyclopedia)Kitchen Cabinet, in U.S. history, popular name for the group of intimate, unofficial advisers of President Jackson. Early in his administration Jackson abandoned official cabinet meetings and used hea...

robot

(Encyclopedia)robot or automaton ôtämˈətänˌ [key] mechanical device designed to perform the work generally done by a human being. The Czech dramatist Karel Čapek popularized the expression [Czech,=compulsory...

Soyer

(Encyclopedia)Soyer, three brothers, American painters, emigrated with their family from Russia in 1912. Two were twins, Raphael Soyer, 1899–1987, and Moses Soyer, 1899–1974, b. Borisoglebsk. They settled in Ne...

Brunelleschi, Filippo

(Encyclopedia)Brunelleschi, Filippo fēlēpˈpō bro͞onĕl-lĕsˈkē [key], 1377–1446, first great architect of the Italian Renaissance, a Florentine by birth. Trained as sculptor and goldsmith, he designed a tr...

calculus of variations

(Encyclopedia)calculus of variations, branch of mathematics concerned with finding maximum or minimum conditions for a relationship between two or more variables that depends not only on the variables themselves, a...

Salinger, J. D.

(Encyclopedia)Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David Salinger) sălˈĭnjər [key], 1919–2010, American novelist and short-story writer, b. New York City. His considerable literary stature rests on a small but extremely i...

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