Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Oudry, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ o͞odrēˈ [key], 1686–1755, French animal painter. A pupil of Largillière, he became court painter to Louis XV, recording the king's hunts in his paintings an...

(Encyclopedia) Bouts, Dierick, Dirk, or Thierry dēˈrĭk, dĭrk, tyĕˈrē bouts [key], c.1420–1475, early Netherlandish painter, b. Haarlem, active in Louvain. Bouts was influenced by Roger van der Weyden, the v...

(Encyclopedia) heartwood, the central, woody core of a tree, no longer serving for the conduction of water and dissolved minerals; heartwood is usually denser and darker in color than the outer sapwood. Before the s...

(Encyclopedia) Villon, Jacques, 1875–1963, French painter, brother of Marcel Duchamp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon. Villon became an exponent of cubism in 1911 and is best known for his refinement of the cubist style...

(Encyclopedia) ruby, precious stone, the transparent red variety of corundum, found chiefly in Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka and classified among the most valuable of gems. The Myanmarese stones are blood red, th...

(Encyclopedia) pokeweed or pokeberry, tall, bushy perennial herb (Phytolacca americana) native to North America but cultivated and naturalized in Europe. The long clusters of white flowers are followed by purplish b...

(Encyclopedia) Della Robbia dĕlˌə rŏbˈēə, Ital. dĕlˈlä rôbˈbyä [key], Florentine family of sculptors and ceramists famous for their enameled terra-cotta or faience. Many of the Della Robbia pieces are s...

(Encyclopedia) Duveneck, Frank dyo͞oˈvənĕk [key], 1848–1919, American portrait and genre painter and teacher, b. Covington, Ky., studied in Cincinnati and in Munich. In 1875 he showed a group of his canvases i...

(Encyclopedia) Chevreul, Michel Eugène mēshĕlˈ özhĕnˈ shəvrölˈ [key], 1786–1889, French chemist. He studied under L. N. Vauquelin, was director of the Gobelin tapestry works, and from 1830 was professor,...

(Encyclopedia) Irwin, Robert, 1928–, American painter and sculptor, b. Long Beach, Calif. Irwin was one of the founders of the California-based Light and Space movement. Early in his career, he painted in the abst...