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Mari, ancient city, Mesopotamia

(Encyclopedia)Mari mäˈrē [key], ancient city of Mesopotamia (modern Syria). It is on the middle Euphrates, south of its junction with the Habor (Khabur). The site was discovered by chance in the early 1930s by A...

Vatican Library

(Encyclopedia)Vatican Library or Vatican Apostolic Library, in Rome, founded in the 4th cent. but dormant until given new life in the 15th cent. by Pope Nicholas V. It is the oldest public library in Europe and one...

Barnes Foundation

(Encyclopedia)Barnes Foundation, museum and arborteum in Merion and Philadelphia, Pa. Founded in 1922, it houses the impressive art collection amassed by Albert Coombs Barnes, 1872–1951, a wealthy Philadelphia ph...

Dessoir, Max

(Encyclopedia)Dessoir, Max mäx dĕswär,ˈ [key], 1867–1947, German philosopher. He earned doctorates from the universities of Berlin (philosophy, 1889) and Würtzburg (medicine, 1892). He was a professor at Ber...

Denis, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Denis, Maurice môrēsˈ dənēˈ [key], 1870–1943, French painter and writer on art. His paintings, usually on religious themes, have not proved so influential as his art theories. As the spokesman...

Morris, Robert, 1931–2018, American artist

(Encyclopedia)Morris, Robert (Robert Eugene Morris), 1931–2018, American artist, b. Kansas City, Mo., studied Kansas City Art Institute, California School of Fine Arts, Reed College. He settled in New York City i...

Blunt, Anthony Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Blunt, Anthony Frederick, 1907–83, English art historian and Soviet spy, grad. Cambridge. Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art after 1947 and professor of the history of art at the Univ. of Lo...

terra-cotta

(Encyclopedia)terra-cotta tĕrˈə kŏtˈə [key] [Ital.,=baked earth], form of hard-baked pottery, widely used in the decorative arts, especially as an architectural material, either in its natural red-brown color...

Cortissoz, Royal

(Encyclopedia)Cortissoz, Royal kôrtēˈsōz [key], 1869–1948, American critic and lecturer on art. He was the New York Herald Tribune art critic from 1891 and was noted for his lectures at the Metropolitan Museu...

Held, Julius Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Held, Julius Samuel, 1905–2002, American art historian, b. Germany. Held immigrated to the United States in 1934. In 1937 he began to teach at Barnard College, where he was professor of art history ...