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pinnacle

(Encyclopedia)pinnacle pĭnˈĭkəl [key], minor architectural motif of vertical tapering shape, usually crowning a pier, buttress, or gable. Although sometimes it appears in Renaissance design, as in the Certosa d...

Riemenschneider, Tilman

(Encyclopedia)Riemenschneider, Tilman tĭlˈmän rēˈmənshnīˌdər [key], c.1460–1531, German Renaissance sculptor, who worked in stone and wood. He was in Würzburg by 1483. In 1520 he was made burgomaster, b...

Peruzzi, Baldassare

(Encyclopedia)Peruzzi, Baldassare bäldäs-säˈrā pāro͞otˈtsē [key], 1481–1536, Italian architect and painter of the High Renaissance and mannerist periods. His outstanding architectural works are the Villa...

Venturi, Adolfo

(Encyclopedia)Venturi, Adolfo ädôlˈfō vānto͞orˈē [key], 1856–1941, Italian art historian. Director of Galleries and Museums in Italy, Venturi completed his exhaustive history of Italian art as far as the ...

Corinthian order

(Encyclopedia)Corinthian order, most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the middle of the 4th cent. b.c. The oldest known example, however, ...

Ionic order

(Encyclopedia)Ionic order īŏnˈĭk [key], one of the early orders of architecture. The spreading scroll-shaped capital is the distinctive feature of the Ionic order; it was primarily a product of Asia Minor, wher...

window

(Encyclopedia)window, in architecture, the casement or sash, fitted with glass, which closes an opening in the wall of a structure without excluding light and air. It may have a square, round, or pointed head; may ...

earring

(Encyclopedia)earring, a personal adornment, sometimes an amulet, worn attached to the ear lobe. Since prehistoric times the ear has been pierced for the insertion of the earring; certain primitive tribes distort t...

Delmedigo, Elijah ben Moses Abba

(Encyclopedia)Delmedigo, Elijah ben Moses Abba dālmĕˈdēgō [key], c.1460–1497, Jewish philosopher and Talmudist, b. Crete, known also as Elijah Cretensis. He emigrated to Italy as a young man. He studied the ...

Empson, William

(Encyclopedia)Empson, William, 1906–84, English critic and poet. His Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), a study of the meanings of poetry, is a classic of modern literary criticism. It was followed by Some Versions...