The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (73 page)

Briulov , Karl
.
Brock , Sir Thomas
(1847–1922).
British sculptor, one of the most successful specialists in monuments and public statues at the turn of the century. His most famous work is the huge Queen Victoria Memorial (unveiled 1911) outside Buckingham Palace, London, and also well known is his equestrian statue of the Black Prince (1903) in Leeds.
Brockhurst , Gerald Leslie
(1890–1978).
British-born painter and etcher who became an American citizen in 1949. Precociously gifted, an excellent draughtsman, and a fine craftsman, Brockhurst won several prizes at the
Royal Academy
Schools and went on to have a highly successful career as a society portraitist, first in Britain and then in the USA, where he settled in 1939, working in New York and New Jersey. He is best known for his portraits of glamorous women, painted in an eye-catching, dramatically lit, formally posed style similar to that later associated with
Annigoni
. As an etcher Brockhurst is remembered particularly for
Adolescence
(1932), a powerful study of a naked girl on the verge of womanhood staring broodingly into a mirror—one of the masterpieces of 20th-cent. printmaking.
Broederlam , Melchior
(active 1381–1409).
Netherlandish painter, court painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, from 1387. Documents show that he was a busy and versatile artist, but his only surviving works are two wings from an altarpiece representing
The Annunciation and Visitation
and
The Presentation and Flight into Egypt
(Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, 1394–9). They are among the first and finest examples of
International Gothic
, combining lavish decorative display with realistic touches that look forward to the later development of the Netherlandish School. The figure of St Joseph in
The Flight into Egypt
, for example, is represented as an authentic peasant.
bronze
.
An alloy of copper (usually about 90 per cent) and tin, often also containing small amounts of other metals such as lead or zinc. Since antiquity it has been the metal most commonly used in cast sculpture because of its strength, durability, and the fact that it is easily workable—both hot and cold—by a variety of processes. It is easier to cast than copper because it has a lower melting-point, and its great tensile strength makes possible the protrusion of unsupported parts—an advantage over
marble
sculpture. The colour of bronze is affected by the proportion of tin or other metals present, varying from silverish to a rich, coppery red, and its surface beauty can be enhanced when it acquires a
patina
. See also
CIRE-PERDUE
.

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