Beaux-Arts \bo-'zar\ style or Second Empire style or Second Empire Baroque Architectural style developed at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts in Paris. It enjoyed international dominance in the late 19th century (see Second Empire) and rapidly became an official style for many of the new public buildings demanded by expanding cities and their national governments. Beaux-Arts buildings are typically massive and have a sym¬ metrical plan with rooms arranged axially, profuse Classicist detail, and pavilions that extend forward at the ends and centre. Among the most admired Beaux-Arts structures is the Paris Opera.
beaver Either species of the aquatic rodent family Castoridae (genus Castor ), both of which are well known for building dams. Bea¬ vers are heavyset and have short legs and large, webbed hind feet. They grow as large as 4 ft (1.3 m) long, including the 1-ft (30-cm) tail, and as heavy as 66 lb (30 kg). Beavers build their dams of sticks, stones, and mud in small rivers, streams, and lakes, often producing sizable ponds. With their powerful jaws and large teeth, they can fell medium-size trees,
whose branches they use in their dams and whose tender bark and buds they eat. One or more family groups share a dome-shaped stick-and-mud lodge built in the water, with tunnel entrances below water level. Ameri¬ can beavers (C. canadensis) range from northern Mexico to the Arctic. Their prized pelts stimulated the exploration of western North America, and by 1900 beavers were trapped to near extinction. Eurasian beavers (C. fiber) are now found in only a few locations, including the Elbe and Rhone drainages of Europe. The mountain beaver of the Pacific North¬ west is unrelated.
Beaverbrook (of Beaverbrook and of Cherkley), Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron orig. William Maxwell Aitken known as Lord Beaverbrook (b. May 25, 1879, Maple, Ont., Can.—d. June 9, 1964, near Leatherhead, Surrey, Eng.) Canadian-British politician and newspaper proprietor. After making a fortune in Montreal as a financier, he moved to England and became active in politics as a Conservative. Beginning in 1916, he took over or founded newspapers, including the London Daily Express, Sunday Express, and Evening Standard. Idiosyn¬ cratic and very successful, he became a “press lord” and a champion of individual enterprise and British imperial interests. He held various high government appointments, including positions in the British Cabinet dur¬ ing both World Wars, but he never fully achieved the political power he sought.
Bebel \'ba-bol\, August (b. Feb. 22, 1840, Deutz, near Cologne, Ger.—d. Aug. 13, 1913, Passugg, Switz.) German socialist and writer. A turner by trade, Bebel joined the Leipzig Workers’ Educational Associa¬ tion (1861) and became its chairman (1865). Influenced by the ideas of Wilhelm Liebknecht, in 1869 he helped found the Social Democratic Labour Party (later the Social Democratic Party) and became its most influential and popular leader for more than 40 years. He served in the Reichstag in 1867, 1871—81, and 1883-1913. He spent a total of nearly five years in prison on such charges as “libel of Bismarck.” He wrote a number of works, including Woman and Socialism (1883), a powerful piece of Social Democratic propaganda.
Bebey, Francis (b. July 15, 1929, Douala, Camer.—d. May 28, 2001, Paris, France) Cameroonian-born French writer and singer-songwriter. After studying in Paris and New York City, he settled in Paris in 1960. He worked for radio stations and then for UNESCO, researching and documenting traditional African music. Meanwhile, he also composed and recorded his own highly experimental music that often incorporated Latin American, Western, and African elements. Because of this, he is some¬ times considered “the father of world music.” He also wrote two books about African music and several works of fiction.
bebop or bop Jazz characterized by harmonic complexity, convoluted melodic lines, and frequent shifting of rhythmic accent. In the mid-1940s, a group of musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Char¬ lie Parker, rejected the conventions of swing to pioneer a self-consciously artistic extension of improvised jazz, which set new technical standards of velocity and harmonic subtlety. Two genres grew out of bebop in the 1950s: the delicate, dry, understated approach that came to be known as cool jazz, and the aggressive, blues- tinged earthiness of hard bop.
Beccafumi N.bek-o-'fii-meV Domenico orig. Domenico di Giacomo di Pace known as Mecherino \,mak-ka-'re-no\ (b. c.
1484, Cortina, Republic of Venice—d. May 1551, Siena,
Republic of Siena) Italian painter and sculptor active in Siena. He adopted the name of his patron,
Lorenzo Beccafumi. In 1510 he went to Rome to study the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. In 1512 he returned to Siena, where most of his best work can be found. He is noted for his sense of fantasy and creation of striking light effects, as in The Birth of the Virgin (c. 1543). He
.T:
The Birth of the Virgin, panel painting by Domenico Beccafumi, c. 1543; in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, Italy.
SCALA-ART RESOURCE/EB INC.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
186 I Beccaria ► Beckmann
painted decorations for the Siena town hall (1529-35) and executed designs for the marble pavement of Siena Cathedral. He is considered the outstanding Sienese painter of the Mannerist style.
Beccaria X.bak-ka-'re-oV, Cesare (b. March 15, 1738, Milan—d. Nov. 28, 1794, Milan) Italian criminologist and economist. He became an inter¬ national celebrity in 1764 with the publication of Crime and Punishment, the first systematic statement of principles governing criminal punish¬ ment, in which he argued that the effectiveness of criminal justice depended more on the certainty of punishment than on its severity. The book greatly influenced criminal-law reform in western Europe. In later years, Beccaria lectured at Milan’s Palatine School and served as a pub¬ lic official, dealing with such issues as monetary reform, labour relations, and public education.
Bechet \b3-'sha\, Sidney (b. May 14, 1897, New Orleans, La., U.S.—d. May 14, 1959, Paris, France) U.S. saxophonist. He took up the clarinet at age six, later switching to the more powerful soprano saxo¬ phone. His emergence as a soloist from the New Orleans tradition of col¬ lective improvisation (see Dixieland) established his reputation in the mid- 1920s. He produced a large, warm tone with a wide and rapid vibrato. His mastery of drama and his use of critically timed deviations in pitch (“note bending”) had a long-lasting influence, because they were absorbed by his disciple Johnny Hodges. From the late 1940s he was based in Paris.
Bechtel Vbek-LL, Stephen D(avison) (b. Sept. 24, 1900, Aurora, Ind., U.S.—d. March 14, 1989, San Francisco, Calif.) U.S. construction engineer and president (1936-60) of W.A. Bechtel Co. and its successor, Bechtel Corp. He became a vice president in the San Francisco-based family firm of W.A. Bechtel Co. in 1925. In 1937 he and John McCone formed Bechtel-McCone Corp., a builder of refineries and chemical plants. The companies built ships and made aircraft parts during World War II. After the war, the newly formed Bechtel Corp. became one of the world’s largest construction and engineering firms, building pipelines in Canada, the Middle East, and elsewhere and constructing power plants all over the world. The Bechtel companies helped construct the Hoover Dam, the Alaska oil pipeline, and the city of Al-Jubayl in Saudi Arabia. Bechtel retired as its president in 1960 but remained senior director of what became known as the Bechtel Group.