Pollini, Maurizio (b. Jan. 5, 1942, Milan, Italy) Italian pianist. He made his debut at age nine and won the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 1960. He first played in the U.S. in 1968. His recordings and performances range from works by Johann Sebastian Bach to Ludwig van Beethoven to Karlheinz Stockhausen. His combination of intellectual seriousness and extraordinary technical brilliance have given him a unique standing in the concert world.
polliwog See tadpole pollock See poliack
Pollock, Sir Frederick, 3rd Baronet (b. Dec. 10, 1845, London, Eng.—d. Jan. 18, 1937, London) British legal scholar. He taught at the University of Oxford (1883-1903) and was made a king’s counsel in 1920. He was noted for his History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895; written with Frederic W. Maitland) and several standard textbooks. He maintained a 60-year correspondence with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; the Holmes-Pollock Letters were published in 1941.
Pollock \'pa-bk\, (Paul) Jackson (b. Jan. 28, 1912, Cody, Wyo., U.S.—d. Aug. 11, 1956, East Hampton, N.Y.) U.S. painter. He grew up in California and Arizona. In the early 1930s he studied in New York City under Thomas Hart Benton, and later he was employed on the WPA Fed¬ eral Art Project. In 1945 he married the artist Lee Krasner. Two years later, after several years of semiabstract work stimulated by psychotherapy, Pollock began to lay his canvas on the floor and pour or drip paint onto it in stages. This process permitted him to record the force and scope of his gestures in trajectories of enamel or aluminum paint that “veiled” the
figurative elements found in his ear¬ lier work. The results were huge areas covered with complex and dynamic linear patterns that fuse image and form and engulf the vision of the spectator in their scale and intricacy. Pollock believed that art derived from the unconscious and judged his work and that of others on its inherent authenticity of personal expression. He became known as a leading practitioner of Abstract Expressionism, particularly the form known as action painting. Champi¬ oned by critic Clement Greenberg and others, he became a celebrity. When he died in a car crash at 44, he was one of the few American painters to be recognized during his lifetime and afterward as the peer of 20th-century European masters of modem art.
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (1895) U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared the federal income tax unconstitutional, thus voiding portions of an 1894 act that imposed a direct tax on the incomes of U.S. citizens and corporations. The decision was mooted in 1913 when ratification of the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power “to lay and collect taxes on incomes.”
pollution See air pollution, water pollution
Pollux, Castor and See Dioscuri
polo Game played by teams of players on horseback. Players use mal¬ lets with long flexible handles to drive a wooden ball through goalposts. It was first played in Persia in the 6th century bc; from there it spread to Arabia, Tibet (polo is Balti for “ball”). South Asia, and the Far East. The first British polo clubs were formed in India in the mid-19th century; the game came to the U.S. a few decades later. Polo has long been primarily played by the wealthy, because of the expense of acquiring and main¬ taining a stable of polo “ponies” (actually full-sized adult horses, bred for docility, speed, endurance, and intelligence). The standard team is made up of four players whose positions are numbered 1-4. A game consists of six 7.5-minute periods called chukkers or chukkas. The field is 300 yards (274.3 m) long by 160 yards (146.3 m) wide; an indoor version of the game is played on a smaller field.
Polo, Marco (b. c. 1254, Venice or Curzola, Venetian Dalmatia—d. Jan. 8, 1324, Venice) Venetian merchant and traveler who journeyed from Europe to Asia (1271-95). Born into a Venetian merchant family, he joined his father and uncle on a jour¬ ney to China, traveling along the Silk Road and reaching the court of Kublai Khan c. 1274. The Polos remained in China for about 17 years, and the Mongol emperor sent Marco on sev¬ eral fact-finding missions to distant lands. Marco may also have gov¬ erned the city of Yangzhou (1282—
87). The Polos returned to Venice in 1295, after sailing from eastern China to Persia and then journeying overland through Turkey. Captured by the Genoese soon after his return,
Marco was imprisoned along with a writer, Rustichello, who helped him to write the tale of his travels. The book, II milione, was an instant suc¬ cess, though most medieval readers considered it an extravagant romance rather than a true story.
polonaise \,pa-l3-'naz\ Dignified ceremonial dance in 3 A time, frequently employing dotted rhythms, that often opened court balls in the 17th—19th century. It likely began as a
Jackson Pollock painting in his studio on Long Island, New York, 1950.
© HANS NAMUTH
Marco Polo, title page of the first printed edition of The Travels of Marco Polo , 1477.
COURTESY OF THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, NEW YORK
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Poltava ► polymer I 1523
warrior’s triumphal dance and had been adopted by the Polish court as a formal march as early as 1573. The dancers promenaded with gliding steps accented by bending the knee slightly on every third step. It often appeared in ballets, and it was used as a musical form by composers such as George Frideric Handel, Ludwig van Beethoven, and especially Frederic Chopin, whose piano polonaises were martial and heroic.
Poltava Vpol-'ta-voV Battle of (June 1709) Decisive victory of Rus¬ sia over Sweden in the Second Northern War. The battle was fought near Poltava, Ukr., between 80,000 Russian troops under Peter I the Great and Aleksandr Menshikov and 17,000 Swedish troops under Charles XII. Despite the lack of reinforcements for his depleted forces, Charles besieged Pol¬ tava in May 1709. The Russians set up a countersiege line and forced the Swedes to attack. Charles planned a daring charge through the Russian line, but he had been injured, and his commanders failed to execute the attack. The Russian counterattack killed or captured the entire Swedish army except for Charles and 1,500 followers. Sweden’s defeat ended its status as a major power and marked the beginning of Russian supremacy in eastern Europe.
Polybius \p3-'lib-e-3s\ (b. c. 200, Megalopolis, Arcadia, Greece—d. c. 118 bc) Greek statesman and historian. Son of an Achaean statesman, Polybius was one of 1,000 eminent Achaeans deported to Rome in 168 bc for supposed disloyalty to the Romans. There he became mentor to Scipio Africanus the Younger, with whom he witnessed the destruction of Carthage soon after his political detention had ended. When hostilities broke out between Achaea and Rome, he negotiated for his countrymen and sought to reestablish order. His reputation rests on his history of the rise of Rome; of its 40 volumes, only 5 survive in their entirety.
polychaete \'pa-le-,ket\ Any of about 5,400 species of marine worms of the annelid class Polychaeta, having a segmented body with many setae (bristles) on each segment. Species, often brightly coloured, range from less than 1 in. (2.5 cm) to about 10 ft (3 m) long. Most body segments bear two bristly parapodia (lobelike outgrowths). The head has short sen¬ sory projections and tentacles. Adults may be free-swimming or seden¬ tary; larvae are free-swimming. Found worldwide, polychaetes are important for turning over sediment on the ocean bottom. One species, the bloodworm, is a popular saltwater fish bait. See also tube worm.
Polyclitus or Polycleitus or Polykleitos V.pa-li-'kll-tosV (fl. 5th cen¬ tury bc, Greece) Greek sculptor. His Spear Bearer (c. 440 bc) was known as “the Canon” because it illustrated his book of that name, which set forth his theory of the ideal mathematical proportions of the human body and proposed that the sculptor strive for a dramatic counterbalance between the relaxed and tense body parts and the directions in which they move. His balanced and rhythmical bronze statues of young athletes, such as Man Tying on a Fillet (c. 420 bc), demonstrated his principles and freed Greek sculpture from its tradition of rigid frontal poses. With Phidias, Polyclitus was the most important Greek sculptor of his age.