Da

Hinggan Ling, Da, or Great Khingan, mountain range, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, NE China, extending c.750 mi (1,210 km) from the Amur River south to the Liao River; the highest point is 5,657 ft (1,724 m). The range forms the eastern edge of the Mongolian Plateau. Heavily forested, it has some of China's richest timber resources. The Xiao Hinggan Ling (Lesser Khingan), Heilongjiang prov., is a continuation of the Bureya range in Siberian Russia. It extends c.400 mi (640 km) NE from the Songhua River and is linked to the Da Hinggan by the Yilehuli (Ilkuri) range, N Heilongjiang prov.

(born April 15, 1452, Anchiano, Republic of Florence—died May 2, 1519, Cloux, France) Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, draftsman, architect, engineer, and scientist. The son of a landowner and a peasant, he received training in painting, sculpture, and mechanical arts as an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1482, having made a name for himself in Florence, he entered the service of the duke of Milan as “painter and engineer.” In Milan his artistic and creative genius unfolded. About 1490 he began his project of writing treatises on the “science of painting,” architecture, mechanics, and anatomy. His theories were based on the belief that the painter, with his powers of perception and ability to pictorialize his observations, was uniquely qualified to probe nature's secrets. His numerous surviving manuscripts are noted for being written in a backward script that requires a mirror to be read. In 1502–03, as military architect and engineer for Cesare Borgia, he helped lay the groundwork for modern cartography. After five years of painting and scientific study back in Florence (1503–08), he returned to Milan, where his scientific work flourished. In 1516, after an interlude under Medici patronage in Rome, he entered the service of Francis I of France; he never returned to Italy. Though only some 17 completed paintings survive, they are universally seen as masterpieces. The power of The Last Supper (1495–97) comes in part from its masterly composition. In the Mona Lisa (circa 1503–06) the features and symbolic overtones of the subject achieve a complete synthesis. The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, a trait that guided all his thinking and behaviour.

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(born 1485, Tuscany, Italy—died 1528, Lesser Antilles) Italian navigator and explorer for France. Educated in Florence, he moved to Dieppe, France, where he entered the maritime service. In 1524 he was sent to find a westward passage to Asia and reached North America. He explored the eastern coast from Cape Fear northward and became the first European to explore the sites of present-day New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay. He sailed along the coast to Newfoundland, then returned to France. He later led expeditions to Brazil (1527) and to the Caribbean, where he was killed and eaten by cannibals.

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In Celtic mythology, a race inhabiting Ireland before the arrival of the Milesians, the ancestors of the modern Irish. Skilled in magic, they were banished from heaven because of their knowledge and descended on Ireland in a cloud of mist. They were thought to have disappeared into the hills when overcome by the Milesians. They were regarded as actual people by native historians up to the 17th century. Representative of the Celtic pantheon, they have become associated in popular legend with the numerous fairies still said to inhabit the Irish landscape.

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Promontory in Portugal. The westernmost point of continental Europe, Cape Roca lies on the Atlantic coast northwest of Lisbon. Known to the Romans as Promontorium Magnum, the cape is a narrow granite cliff, 472 ft (144 m) high, forming the western end of the Sintra Mountains.

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orig. Jacopo Carrucci

(born May 24, 1494, Pontormo, Republic of Florence—buried Jan. 2, 1557, Florence) Florentine painter. The son of a painter, he was apprenticed to Leonardo da Vinci and later to Piero di Cosimo and Andrea del Sarto (who exerted the greatest influence on him). The agitated, almost neurotic emotionalism of his work reflects a departure from the balance and tranquillity of the High Renaissance. His expressive style is sometimes considered an early manifestation of Mannerism. Primarily a religious painter, he also did sensitive portraits and was employed by the Medici family to decorate their villa at Poggio a Caiano with mythological subjects.

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orig. Pietro Berrettini

(born Nov. 1, 1596, Cortona, Tuscany—died May 16, 1669, Rome, Papal States) Italian painter, architect, and decorator. The son of a stonemason, he was apprenticed to a painter in Florence. His first major work, a series of frescoes in the small church of Santa Bibiana in Rome (1624–26), was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, and the patronage of the pope's family, the Barberinis, advanced Pietro's career. The rich exuberance of those Baroque frescoes was a prelude to his best-known work, the large ceiling fresco Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power (1632–39) in the Barberini Palace. Here he demonstrated his mastery of illusion, for the centre of the vault appears open to the sky and the figures seem to hover in space. He provided a series of frescoes for the Pitti Palace in Florence. Also a master architect, his greatest architectural accomplishment is the church of Santi Martina e Luca in Rome (1634), the first Baroque church built as a unitary whole.

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(born circa 1525, Palestrina, near Rome—died Feb. 2, 1594, Rome) Italian composer. He sang in Rome as a choirboy, then worked as an organist in his nearby hometown of Palestrina. He was appointed director of the Vatican's Cappella Giulia by Pope Julius II in 1551, and he later worked at the other great Roman churches. He worked for the d'Este family in Tivoli for four years but returned to the Cappella Giulia in 1571 and remained there the rest of his life. Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Palestrina to restore the plainchant (a traditional liturgical chant sung in unison) to a more authentic form. The task proved too great, and his editorial work gave way to a flow of creative music, including volumes of masses, motets, and madrigals. After his death, his superbly balanced and serene music was proclaimed as a model for composers in the Roman Catholic church. The modern study of counterpoint dates from the codification of his practice in the 18th century.

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(born 1429, Poppi, Republic of Florence—died 1484, Florence) Italian sculptor. Probably trained in Florence, he was active both in Florence and Rome, where he created monuments (especially wall tombs) and busts of cardinals and other prominent individuals. Among the earliest Renaissance portrait sculptures, his works were greatly admired in the 19th century but are now considered less inspired than those of Desiderio da Settignano, Antonio Rossellino (1427–79), and other eminent contemporaries.

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orig. Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini

(born 1383, Panicale, Romagna—died probably 1440–47, Florence, Republic of Florence) Italian painter. He came from the same district in Tuscany as his younger contemporary Masaccio, with whom his career is closely linked. The two worked together on frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel in Florence's Santa Maria del Carmine. Masaccio's influence is evident in Masolino's contributions, but upon Masaccio's death Masolino returned to the more decorative Gothic style of his earlier years.

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(born 1442, Majano, Republic of Venice—died May 24, 1497, Florence) Italian sculptor active in Florence. He was influenced by Bernardo Rossellino; his marble tomb designs are variants on Rossellino's patterns. His masterpiece is a pulpit in Santa Croce in Florence (completed 1485) consisting of five narrative reliefs. He often worked with his brothers, Giovanni and Giuliano, in the design and execution of architectural features such as pilasters, capitals, friezes, and niches. He was also a master of naturalistic portrait busts.

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(born Aug. 6, 1911, Celoron, near Jamestown, N.Y., U.S.—died April 26, 1989, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. actress and television star. She performed in films from 1933 and starred in a comedy radio series from 1947. With her bandleader husband, Desi Arnaz, she created the very successful television comedy series I Love Lucy (1951–57) and later the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957–60). After their divorce in 1960, Ball appeared in The Lucy Show (1962–68) and Here's Lucy (1968–74). With her red hair and rasping voice and a comic persona alternately brassy and feminine, she was the preeminent female star of the early decades of television.

Learn more about Ball, Lucille (Désirée) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Emanuele Conegliano

(born March 10, 1749, Céneda, near Treviso, Veneto—died Aug. 17, 1838, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Italian poet and librettist. When his Jewish father converted to marry a Roman Catholic, he adopted the name of the local bishop. He took priestly orders in 1768, while teaching literature and publishing poetry. At odds with the authorities for his progressive views, he was expelled from the Venetian republic in 1779 for adultery. In 1783 he was appointed court poet for Vienna's Italian theatre. There he wrote a remarkable series of more than 40 opera librettos, including the masterpieces The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790) for Wolfgang A. Mozart. Court intrigue forced him to leave Vienna in 1791. He settled in New York in 1805, taught at Columbia College, wrote his colourful memoirs, and helped establish Italian opera in the city.

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orig. Jacopo Carrucci

(born May 24, 1494, Pontormo, Republic of Florence—buried Jan. 2, 1557, Florence) Florentine painter. The son of a painter, he was apprenticed to Leonardo da Vinci and later to Piero di Cosimo and Andrea del Sarto (who exerted the greatest influence on him). The agitated, almost neurotic emotionalism of his work reflects a departure from the balance and tranquillity of the High Renaissance. His expressive style is sometimes considered an early manifestation of Mannerism. Primarily a religious painter, he also did sensitive portraits and was employed by the Medici family to decorate their villa at Poggio a Caiano with mythological subjects.

Learn more about Pontormo, Jacopo da with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1485, Tuscany, Italy—died 1528, Lesser Antilles) Italian navigator and explorer for France. Educated in Florence, he moved to Dieppe, France, where he entered the maritime service. In 1524 he was sent to find a westward passage to Asia and reached North America. He explored the eastern coast from Cape Fear northward and became the first European to explore the sites of present-day New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay. He sailed along the coast to Newfoundland, then returned to France. He later led expeditions to Brazil (1527) and to the Caribbean, where he was killed and eaten by cannibals.

Learn more about Verrazzano, Giovanni da with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1525, Palestrina, near Rome—died Feb. 2, 1594, Rome) Italian composer. He sang in Rome as a choirboy, then worked as an organist in his nearby hometown of Palestrina. He was appointed director of the Vatican's Cappella Giulia by Pope Julius II in 1551, and he later worked at the other great Roman churches. He worked for the d'Este family in Tivoli for four years but returned to the Cappella Giulia in 1571 and remained there the rest of his life. Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Palestrina to restore the plainchant (a traditional liturgical chant sung in unison) to a more authentic form. The task proved too great, and his editorial work gave way to a flow of creative music, including volumes of masses, motets, and madrigals. After his death, his superbly balanced and serene music was proclaimed as a model for composers in the Roman Catholic church. The modern study of counterpoint dates from the codification of his practice in the 18th century.

Learn more about Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Gentile di Niccolò di Massio

(born circa 1370, Fabriano, Papal States—died 1427, Rome) Italian painter. He was probably trained in the Lombardy region. In 1409 he was commissioned to decorate the Doges' Palace in Venice with historical frescoes, now lost. His most important fresco cycle, also destroyed, was in the church of St. John Lateran in Rome. His major surviving painting is the celebrated Strozzi Altarpiece (1423), featuring The Adoration of the Magi. Its combination of naturalism and rich ornamentation influenced Italian artists throughout the century, notably Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli, and established Gentile as one of Italy's greatest proponents of the International Gothic style. He was the most important Italian painter of the first quarter of the 15th century.

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In Welsh mythology, a mother-goddess, the counterpart of the Irish Danu. According to the Mabinogion, she was the sister of the magician-king Math and the mother of Gwydion (a master of magic and poetry) and Arianrhod, who was in turn the mother of Dylan (presumed to be a sea god) and Lleu Llaw Gyffes (probably the Welsh form of Lugus).

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(born circa 1430, Settignano, republic of Florence—died January 1464, Florence) Italian sculptor. Born into a family of stonemasons, he entered the Stone and Wood Carvers' Guild of Florence in 1453. He based his style on Donatello's work of the 1430s, and his skill as a marble cutter established him as a master of bas-relief. His delicate, sensitive, original technique was best expressed in portrait busts of women and children. His most important public work was the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini in the church of Santa Croce; the tomb's rich architectural detail makes it one of the most outstanding of all Florentine wall monuments.

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orig. Emanuele Conegliano

(born March 10, 1749, Céneda, near Treviso, Veneto—died Aug. 17, 1838, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Italian poet and librettist. When his Jewish father converted to marry a Roman Catholic, he adopted the name of the local bishop. He took priestly orders in 1768, while teaching literature and publishing poetry. At odds with the authorities for his progressive views, he was expelled from the Venetian republic in 1779 for adultery. In 1783 he was appointed court poet for Vienna's Italian theatre. There he wrote a remarkable series of more than 40 opera librettos, including the masterpieces The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790) for Wolfgang A. Mozart. Court intrigue forced him to leave Vienna in 1791. He settled in New York in 1805, taught at Columbia College, wrote his colourful memoirs, and helped establish Italian opera in the city.

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formerly Tourane

Seaport city (pop., 2003 est.: 590,800), central Vietnam. It was first ceded to France in 1787, and after 1858 it became a French concession beyond the jurisdiction of the protectorate. Da Nang increased in importance after the partition of Vietnam in 1954, and during the Vietnam War it was the site of a U.S. military base. Its port has an excellent deepwater harbour; its manufactures include textiles and machinery.

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(born Aug. 6, 1911, Celoron, near Jamestown, N.Y., U.S.—died April 26, 1989, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. actress and television star. She performed in films from 1933 and starred in a comedy radio series from 1947. With her bandleader husband, Desi Arnaz, she created the very successful television comedy series I Love Lucy (1951–57) and later the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957–60). After their divorce in 1960, Ball appeared in The Lucy Show (1962–68) and Here's Lucy (1968–74). With her red hair and rasping voice and a comic persona alternately brassy and feminine, she was the preeminent female star of the early decades of television.

Learn more about Ball, Lucille (Désirée) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1430, Messina, Sicily—died circa Feb. 19, 1479, Messina) Italian painter. Trained in Naples, then a cosmopolitan art centre, he studied the Flemish artists, notably Jan van Eyck. Based on these experiences, when he returned to Venice he introduced oil painting and Flemish pictorial techniques into mid-15th-century Venetian art. His major works were altarpieces and portraits. In Venice he executed the San Cassiano altarpiece, of which three fragments remain. His portrait busts in three-quarter view, combining Flemish detail with Italian grandeur, became fashionable. Antonello's practice of building form with colour rather than line and shade greatly influenced the subsequent development of Venetian painting. Seealso Venetian school.

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Da may refer to:

• Da (play), a Tony-winning play by Hugh Leonard
• Da (film), a movie adaptation of the play by Hugh Leonard
• Dalton (unit), the atomic mass unit
• Adi Da, a spiritual leader once known as Da Free John, and Da Love-Ananda
• Da River in Vietnam
• SJ Da, a Swedish locomotive
• Deca-, an SI prefix for a factor of 10
• Da!, a Russian youth movement

DA or D.A. is an acronym or abbreviation for:

• DA postal area
• Daniel Amos, the American Rock band
• Danish language (ISO 639-1 alpha-2, da)
• Dark Ages (computer game)
• Darmstadt, a town in middle Germany
• Debtors Anonymous
• Deerfield Academy, a preparatory boarding school located in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
• Delt Ansvarlig Selskap, or DA, a Norwegian company form
• Democratic Alliance (South Africa), a South African political party.
• Department of Agriculture, an executive department in the Philippines.
• Deutsche Alternative (German Alternative), a rightist group
• DeviantArt, an online artistic community
• Diploma in Anaesthetics, an obsolete postgraduate qualification in anaesthetic practice
• DirectAdmin, a graphical web-based management utility
• District attorney (D.A.), a United States Attorney or County attorney
• The D.A. (1971 TV series), an NBC dramatic series
• The D.A. (2004 TV series), an ABC dramatic series
• Doctor of Arts degree
• Dopamine transmitter
• Doomsday argument
• Double anal A sexual act
• Dumbledore's Army in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Degtyarev Aviation-mounted, a Soviet machine gun
• Dura-Ace, a Shimano racing bicycle groupset
• Double action, a type of gun trigger
• Durham Academy, a private school
• Selskap med delt ansvar, a type of Norwegian company without limited liability
• Duck's Ass, a 1950's hairstyle