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Form of three-dimensional zigzag ornament particularly associated with Anglo-Norman Romanesque architecture, where it was used to decorate arches, doorways and windows. An equivalent term is dancette (or dancetty), although this is generally reserved for the zigzags used in heraldry. The stripes and flashes set on to the sleeves of military uniform tunics are also chevrons. Architectural chevron is possibly related to Byzantine brick saw-tooth ornament, transmitted indirectly through the decoration of, for example, canon tables in Carolingian and Ottonian illuminated manuscripts (e.g. the Gospel Book of Bernward of Hildesheim; c. 1000; Hildesheim, Diözmus. & Domschatzkam., MS. 18). The saw-tooth motif appears in Romanesque wall painting until the late 12th century (e.g. Terrassa, Spain, S Maria; c. 1175–1200). Chevron is not common in Western buildings before ad 1000, but it is found in Islamic architecture as early as the 8th century at Qusayr ‛Amra, and although it remains unclear precisely how chevron became so closely associated with Anglo-Norman architecture, Borg has suggested that both manuscript illuminations and knowledge of Islamic buildings brought by returning crusaders after ...

[Johannes de Padua; Johannes de Padwey; John de Padoa; John Padoa]

Italian architect, engineer, artificer and musician active in England. He is known only from a reference in the London will (1551) of a Murano glassmaker, in which he was described as ‘architect and servant of the king’s majesty’, and in Exchequer records (1543–57), as the recipient of fees and an annuity. In the Exchequer payments he was invariably designated an architect but the grant of his fee on 30 June 1544 and renewals in 1549 and 1554 state that it was for his past and future services to the king in architecture and music. He was listed among the ‘artificers’ at the funeral of Henry VIII, King of England, in 1547; in 1550–51 he appeared as ‘John de Padoa Engineer’; in the list of annuities drawn up shortly after 1559 (in which his name was cancelled) he was named ‘Johannes de Padwey music’ and in the royal establishment list of ...

(b Kazanlŭk, Feb 19, 1897; d Sofia, Jan 25, 1927).

Bulgarian painter, stage designer, printmaker and stained-glass designer. At the time of his graduation in 1925 from the National Academy of Arts, Sofia, he had already had three successful solo exhibitions in which his interest in decorative paintings of ethnic themes was already apparent. He continued to work in a rather avant-garde style, painting Bulgarian folk themes that avoided the excesses of academic realism and ethnographic detail. He worked in a wide variety of media, executing figure compositions, portraits and landscapes that depict the romance and fantasy of Bulgarian folklore and mythology, as in St Elijah (distemper and ink, 1923; Sofia, priv. col.), a Rebec-player (watercolour, 1924; Sofia, N.A.G.) and Shepherds (India ink, 1926; Sofia, N.A.G.). He also painted frescoes and designed stained glass. In 1926, after returning from Italy and Austria, he held a further exhibition in Sofia and worked as senior scene-painter at the National Theatre (Naroden Teatâr Ivan Vazov) in Sofia, a position he held until his death in ...

(b Kraków, Jan 15, 1869; d Kraków, Nov 28, 1907).

Polish painter, pastellist, decorative artist, illustrator, writer and theatre director. He was the son of the Kraków sculptor Franciszek Wyspiański (1836–1902) and studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts, mostly under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (1828–1900) and Jan Matejko. In 1889 Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer, the school’s most talented students, were appointed to complete Matejko’s painted decorations for St Mary, Kraków, a task that prompted Wyspiański’s interest in both decorative painting and stained glass. In 1890 he travelled in Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany, and also to Prague. In 1891 he continued his training in Paris, where he remained with intervals until 1894, studying at the Académie Colarossi under Joseph Blanc, Gustave Courtois (1852–1924) and Louis Auguste Girardot (b 1858). Wyspiański also worked independently in Paris, studying paintings in the museums and fascinated by contemporary art. Through Władysław Ślewiński, he met Paul Gauguin and members of the Nabis....

(b Bern, ID, Oct 13, 1935).

American composer. Young was an exponent of experimental “drone” music and an originator of Minimalism (whose diverse practitioners include Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass). Educated at the University of California, Los Angeles (1957–8), he completed his graduate studies in composition at the University of California, Berkeley. An avid and talented jazz musician, Young performed with legendary figures Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. In 1959, he attended Summer Courses at Darmstadt, the center of New Music, taking advanced composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen. There he discovered the work of John Cage and met Cage’s great interpreter David Tudor, who put Young in contact with Cage. Back in California, Young presented Cage’s work, adopting some of his radical strategies in his own music. A landmark Young composition of this period is Poem for Tables, Chairs, Benches, etc. (1960), a piece of indeterminate duration.

In 1960 Young moved to New York and galvanized a receptive circle of Cage-inspired artists and composers. Young’s most significant contribution to this milieu were his ...