Madonna In Christian art, a depiction of the Virgin Mary.
Though often shown with the infant Jesus, the Madonna (Italian: “My lady”) may also be represented alone. Byzantine art was the first to develop a set of Madonna types—the Madonna and child enthroned, the Madonna as intercessor, the Madonna nursing the child, and so on. Western art adapted and added to the Byzantine types during the Middle Ages, producing images of the Virgin that sought to inspire piety through beauty and tenderness. In the Renaissance and Baroque peri¬ ods, the most popular image of the Madonna foreshadowed the crucifix¬ ion, showing the Virgin looking gravely away from the playful child.
Madonna orig. Madonna Louise Ciccone (b.Aug. 16,1958,
Bay City, Mich., U.S.) U.S. pop singer, songwriter, and actress. She
studied dance at the University of Michigan and later with Martha Gra¬ ham and Alvin Ailey. Her first hit single, “Holiday” (1983), forged an upbeat dance-club sound that sold 70 million albums by 1991, including Like a Virgin (1984). In music videos and in concert, she captivated fans and scandalized critics with provocatively sexual showmanship. Ever atop the latest trend, she incorporated TECHNO in Music (2000). Her films include Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Dick Tracy (1990), and Evita (1996). Few female entertainers have attained her levels of power and control in the pop music industry.
Madras See Chennai Madras See Tamil Nadu
madrasah Vmad-ro-soV (Arabic: “school”) Islamic theological semi¬ nary and law school attached to a mosque. The residential madrasah was a newer building form than the mosque, flourishing in most Muslim cit¬ ies by the end of the 12th century. The Syrian madrasahs in Damascus tended to follow a standardized plan: An elaborate facade led into a domed hallway and then into a courtyard where instruction took place, with at least one eyvan (vaulted hall) opening onto it. The madrasah at the Qalaun Mosque in Cairo (1283-85) has a unique cruciform eyvan on the richly carved qibla (wall facing Mecca) side and a smaller eyvan opposite. Resi¬ dential cells for scholars occupy the other two sides.
Madre, Laguna Long narrow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico along the shore of southern Texas, U.S., and northeastern Mexico. Sheltered from the gulf by bander islands, including Padre Island, it is divided into two sections by the delta of the Rio Grande; the U.S. portion extends south for 120 mi (190 km) from Corpus Christi Bay, and the Mexican portion extends north for 100 mi (160 km) from the mouth of the Soto la Marina River. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway runs through it.
Madre de Dios River River, southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. It rises in the easternmost range of the Andes Mountains, in Peru, and flows east to the Bolivian border. There it turns northeast and crosses the tropical rainforest of northwestern Bolivia, joining the Beni River after a course of more than 700 mi (1,100 km). A tributary of the Amazon River, it is navigable in its upper course and again below the Peru-Bolivia border.
Madrid City (pop., 2001: city, 2,938,723; metro, area, 5,086,635), capi¬ tal of Spain and of Madrid autonomous community. Located on the cen¬ tral plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, 2,100 ft (635 m) above sea level, it is one of Europe’s highest capitals. The original town grew up around the Moorish alcazar (castle), overlooking the Manzanares River. King Alfonso VI captured the town from the Muslims in 1083. Philip II moved the Spanish court to Madrid in 1561, and in 1607 Philip III made it the official capital. It was occupied by French troops during the Napoleonic Wars but returned to Spanish control in 1812. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Madrid was held by those loyal to the Republic. Spain’s principal transportation centre for the interior provinces, it is an impor¬ tant commercial, industrial, and cultural centre. Major institutions include the Prado Museum and the University of Madrid.
Madrid \ma-'threth,\ English \mo-'drid\ Autonomous community (pop., 2001: 5,423,384), central Spain. It occupies an area of 3,100 sq mi (8,028 sq km), and its capital is Madrid. The province extends across the south¬ ern slopes of the Guadarrama Mountains and roughly coincides with the region drained by the Jarama, Henares, and Manzanares rivers. It was the scene of several decisive battles during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). All the national railways converge in the province. The Somo Mountain Pass provides access to the northeast through the central mountains.
madrigal Form of vocal chamber music, usually polyphonic and unac¬ companied, of the 16th— 17th centuries. It originated and developed in Italy, under the influence of the French chanson and the Italian frottola. Usually written for three to six voices, madrigals came to be sung widely as a social activity by cultivated amateurs, male and female. The texts were almost always about love; most prominent among the poets whose works were set to music are Petrarch, Torquato Tasso, and Battista Guarini. In Italy, Orlande de Lassus, Luca Marenzio, Don Carlo Gesualdo, and Clau¬ dio Monteverdi were among the greatest of the madrigalists; Thomas Mor- ley, Thomas Weelkes, and John Wilbye created a distinguished body of English madrigals.
Madura \ma-'dur-3\ Dutch Madoera Island, Jawa Timur province, Indonesia, off northeastern Java. Its capital is Pamekasan. With an area of 2,042 sq mi (5,290 sq km), it has a hilly terrain rising to more than
The Grand-Duke's Madonna, oil paint¬ ing by Raphael, 1505; in the Pitti Pal¬ ace, Florence.
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Maeander River ► magazine I 1165
1,400 ft (430 m) in the east. Dutch influence was established in the late 17th century. Madura was attached to Java as a residency in 1885 and became part of Indonesia in 1949. Bull races, usually held in September, attract huge crowds.
Maeander River See Menderes River
Maecenas Xmi-'se-nosV Gaius (Cilnius) (b. c. 70—d. 8 bc) Roman diplomat and literary patron. He claimed descent from Etruscan kings. Though highly influential in the state, he held no title, nor did he wish to be a senator. From 43 on he helped Octavian (later Augustus) diplomatically and domestically, administering Rome and Italy while Octavian was fighting Pompeius in 36 and Mark Antony in 31. He is best remembered as the generous patron of such writers as Virgil, Horace, and Propertius; he used the work of such literati to glorify Augustus’s regime.
In 23, after the discovery of his brother-in-law’s conspiracy against Augustus, he was forced to retire.
Maekawa \,ma-a-'ka-wa\ Kunio (b. May 14, 1905, Niigata-shi,
Japan—d. June 27, 1986, Tokyo)
Japanese architect. Maekawa worked as a drafter for Le Corbusier in Paris and for Antonin Raymond in Tokyo. In early works, such as Hina- moto Hall (1936) and the Dairen Town Hall (1938), he tried to coun¬ teract the pompous style of the Japa¬ nese imperialist regime. In the 1950s he continued to work primarily in the Brutalist style of Le Corbusier (see Brutalism). Buildings such as the Educational Centre in Fukushima (1955) and the Harumi flats and the Setagaya Community Centre, both in Tokyo (1959), reflect his efforts to use concrete in a manner appropriate to the material. His community cen¬ tres influenced Tange Kenzo, who started out in Maekawa’s office.