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duress

(Encyclopedia)duress dyo͝oˈrĭs, do͝oˈ–, do͝orĕsˈ [key], in law, actual or threatened violence or imprisonment, by reason of which a person is forced to enter into an agreement or to perform some other act...

Desiderio da Settignano

(Encyclopedia)Desiderio da Settignano dāzēdĕˈrēō dä sĕtˌtēnyäˈnō [key], c.1429–64, Florentine sculptor, a follower of Donatello. His exquisitely delicate marble carving is best seen in his church dec...

Daddi, Bernardo

(Encyclopedia)Daddi, Bernardo bārnärˈdō dädˈdē [key], fl. 1312–48, Italian painter of the Florentine school. First influenced by his contemporary Giotto, he soon adopted the delicate line and lyrical expre...

Fallada, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Fallada, Hans ro͞oˈdôlf dĭtˈsən [key], 1893–1947, German novelist. Little Man, What Now? (1932, tr. 1933), his story of a young couple in Germany after World War I, was an immediate internatio...

self-help group

(Encyclopedia)self-help group, nonprofessional organization formed by people with a common problem or situation, for the purpose of pooling resources, gathering information, and offering mutual support, services, o...

Scorel, Jan van

(Encyclopedia)Scorel, Jan van yän vän skōˈrəl [key], 1495–1562, Dutch portrait and religious painter, influenced by Gossaert in Utrecht and by Dürer in Nuremberg. About 1521 he visited Palestine and later R...

pelvis

(Encyclopedia)pelvis, bony, basin-shaped structure that supports the organs of the lower abdomen. It receives the weight of the upper body and distributes it to the legs; it also forms the base for numerous muscle ...

Rowson, Susanna Haswell

(Encyclopedia)Rowson, Susanna Haswell rouˈsən [key], 1762–1824, American author and actress, b. England. She was brought to America as a young child, but after the Revolution, the family returned to England. He...

Renard, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Renard, Jules zhül rənärˈ [key], 1864–1910, French writer. His Écornifleur (1892) is a novel about a young writer's selfish exploitation of a bourgeois family. Poil de carotte (1894), an autobi...

Biddle, George

(Encyclopedia)Biddle, George, 1885–1973, American painter and writer on art, b. Philadelphia. After studying abroad Biddle settled in the 1930s in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., where he devoted himself to paintings of ...