Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bacon, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Bacon, Roger, c.1214–1294?, English scholastic philosopher and scientist, a Franciscan. He studied at Oxford as well as at the Univ. of Paris and became one of the most celebrated and zealous teache...

still life

(Encyclopedia)still life, a pictorial representation of inanimate objects. The term derives from the 17th-century Dutch still-leven, meaning a motionless natural object or objects. In East Asia still-life subj...

Lely, Sir Peter

(Encyclopedia)Lely, Sir Peter lēˈlē [key], 1618–80, Dutch portrait painter in England. His original name was Pieter van der Faes. He studied in Haarlem but worked in England from c.1643. After the death of Van...

Blaue Reiter, der

(Encyclopedia)Blaue Reiter, der dĕr blouˈə rīˈtər [key] [Ger.,=the blue rider], German expressionist art movement, lasting from 1911 to 1914. It took its name from a painting by Kandinsky, Le cavalier bleu. F...

Cliburn, Van

(Encyclopedia)Cliburn, Van (Harvey Lavan Cliburn) klīˈbərn [key], 1934–2013, American pianist, b. Shreveport, La. Until 1951, Cliburn studied with his mother, a concert pianist; he later was a pupil of Rosina ...

Van, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Van, Lake vän [key], 1,453 sq mi (3,763 sq km), largest lake in Turkey, in E Turkey 65 mi (105 km) SW of Mt. Ararat. Some 75 mi (120 km) long, the lake is alkaline and has no outlet; the city of Van ...

Van Wert

(Encyclopedia)Van Wert văn wûrt [key], city (1990 pop. 10,891), seat of Van Wert co., NW Ohio, near the Ind. line, in a rich grain-farming area; inc. 1848. Fabricated metal products, electronic equipment, cheeses...

Geertgen tot Sint Jans

(Encyclopedia)Geertgen tot Sint Jans gārtˈgən tôt sĭnt yäns [key], fl. latter half of 15th cent., Dutch painter. Geertgen is the earliest painter of record in Haarlem. He may have gone to Ghent and had some c...

Van Dyck, Cornelius Van Alen

(Encyclopedia)Van Dyck, Cornelius Van Alen, 1818–95, American missionary, b. Kinderhook, N.Y. In 1840 he went to Syria as a medical missionary. In 1846 he was ordained in the Congregational ministry. Besides bein...

Corman, Roger William

(Encyclopedia) Corman, Roger William, 1926-, American film director, screenwriter, and producer, b. Detroit, Mi., Stanford Univ. (B.S., 1947). Corman studied industr...

Browse by Subject