born 1435, Florence died 1488, Venice Italian sculptor and painter. Little is certain about his early life. His most important works were executed in his final two decades under the patronage of the Medici in his native Florence. His reputation as a master spread early, and many well-known artists studied at his studio, including Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino; the young Leonardo probably painted an angel and part of the distant landscape in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ ( 1470). Verrocchio's reputation as one of the great relief sculptors of the Renaissance was established with his cenotaph in the cathedral at Pistoia; while it remained unfinished at his death and was later changed by others, the relief's arrangement of figures into a dramatically unified composition anticipates the Baroque sculpture of the 17th century. His bronze statue of the military officer Bartolomeo Colleoni (commissioned 1483, erected in Venice 1496) is one of the greatest equestrian statues of the Renaissance
{i} Bargello palace, national museum in Florence (Italy) built in 1255 in which the largest Italian collection of gothic and Renaissance sculptures are displayed
orig. Sebastiano Luciani born 1485, Venice, Republic of Venice died July 21, 1547, Rome, Papal States Italian painter. While in Venice, he was highly influenced by his teacher, Giorgione. In 1511 he moved to Rome and became a member of Michelangelo's circle of Renaissance artists. Michelangelo thought so highly of him that he provided sketches for him to execute. In Sebastiano's Pietà (1513), Flagellation (1516-24), and Raising of Lazarus (1516-18), all based on Michelangelo's sketches, he combined the warm colouring of the Venetian school with Michelangelo's anatomical clarity and firm sculptural drawing. After Raphael's death, Sebastiano's reputation as a portraitist was unparalleled. In 1531 Pope Clement VII, the subject of one of his finest portraits (1526), appointed him keeper of the papal seal; his nickname derives from the fact that the seal was of lead (Italian, piombo). The lucrative post gave him financial security, and his output declined
a group of islands off the south coast of South America, owned by Chile and Argentina. Archipelago at the southern extremity of South America. It is separated from the Antarctic Archipelago by the Drake Passage. The southern and western parts are an extension of the Andes Mountains, with peaks exceeding 7,000 ft (2,100 m). About two-thirds of the islands are in Chile, and the remainder are in Argentina. The main island, Tierra del Fuego, is divided roughly equally between Chile (west) and Argentina (east); the city of Ushuaia, Arg., there is the southernmost city in the world. Indigenous peoples were the sole occupants until 1880, when colonization by Chilean and Argentine nationals was prompted by the discovery of gold. Chile's only oil field is there. The region's name (Spanish: "Land of Fire") refers to its many volcanoes