POLK. 204 POLLAIUOLO. States, and he urged upon the President of the Confederacy the necessity of their defense. In response he" was urged to take a commission, and with tiie approval of his clerical friends he be- came a major general in .June, 1801, and accepted the comiiuiMil of Department No. 2. which in- volved the duty of defense of both sides of the Mississippi from the Red Kivcr to Cairo, with headquarters at Memphis. He commanded the Southern forces in the battle of Beliiumt. jjartici- pated in the engagements of Shiloh and in the ope- rations which led up to the evacuation of Corinth, took part in Mragg's invasion of Kentucky as commander of the Army of Mississippi, and fought in the battle of IVrryville. In October. 18(i2. he was made lieutenant-general, and fought at Murfreesbori) and Chickainauga. In the last named engagement, it was charged l>y tJeneral Bragg, that folk's delay in making attack lost the victory. As a consequence he was tempo- rarily suspended from his command : but the charges were dismissed by President Davis, who olfered to reinstate the deposed general. Declin- ing this oiler. I'olk assumed the charge of paroled prisoners at ICnterprise. .Miss., and when (Jen. .loseph K. .lohnston was assigned to the coinmand of the .rmy of Tennessee, followed that general in charge of the Dejiartinent of .labania. ^lissis- sippi, and East Louisiana. lie was killed by a cannon-shot while reconnoitring the field of Ma- rietta from Pine Mountain. Consult his Life by his .son, William M. Polk, -M.D. (New York, 1893). POLKA (from Bohem. piiILa, half: so called from the half-sjc]) characteristic of the dance). A round dance supposed to have originated in Bohemia ahyut 1830. The music is in f time, and has the rhythmical peculiarity of being ac- cented on the third quaver of the measure: r I* I * p'_ * I r It was introduced as a fash- ionable dance into Western Kurope ivbout 1841, and soon became extremely popular; in France in particular it created a perfect furore. Its movement is lively, though'not as rajiid as that of the galop. POLLACK (from Gael. poU(i;i. whiting. Ir. pttUofi, pollack). A kind of codfish { I'lillarhius virens) , common on both coasts of the North Atlantic, and more commonly known in the I'nited States as 'coalfish.' It is dark greenish lirow^n above, sides and below somewhat silvei-. It attains a weisht of about 30 pounds, and is of value as a food fish. Its habits diller from those of the cod or haddock, for it is to a great e.vtent a surfiice-swimming fish, and congregates in large schools, which swim about in search of young fishes as food; but they also feed at the bottom like cod. They seem to sjiawn while swimming about, and their eggs float and hatch in five or six days. Their flesh is highly esteemed, espe- cially almut the Oulf of Newfoundland : and their liver yields an excellent oil in large quantities. The Alaskan pollack (.Y/rmi/ra rhiilrorirdmma) is a very similar fish, abundant in the North Pacific, iind especially in Bering Sea, where it furnishes the larger part of the food of the fur seal, and is of great value to the natives of both coasts. It is uniformly dark olive, and reaches a length of three feet, . other more sooty species, the 'wall-eyed pollack' (Nieragra Fu- ceiixis), is numerous in Puget Sound and on the California coast. Ccmsult Coode, Fishery Industries, sec. I. ( Washington, 1884) . See Plate of CODFISH. POLLAIUOLO, polbi yoo-0'16, A.NTONio ( 142!l-!i.S I . and PiETRo i U43-!t(l I . Italian artists of the Florentine Naturalistic School (early Re- naissance). Antonio, the elder, goldsmith and painter, wa.s born in Florence in 142'J. Antonio became celebrated as a niellist and metal-worker. The paneled decoration for the altar of San Gio- vanni and the altar candelabra exhibit fidelity to nature and mastery of design. Deep study of antique scul])tui-e. added to a Iborougb knowle<lge of anatomy, obtained from dissection, rendered him one of the first draiigbtsinen of Florence, and caused his fimil adoption of |)ainting as a profes- sion. His early use of the oil iiie<lium was proba- bly due to the inlluence of Castagno or Baldovi- netti, but whether received from these masters direct or from bis brother Pietro, who was a student of the latter artist, is an unsettled ques- tion. In this vehicle are executed the "Hercules and the Hydra"' and the '•Hercules and Ant;eus," both in the lllizi. Pietro became bis brother's associate, and it is ilillicult to distinguish their work. As many pictures were the combini'd work of both, it may be concluded that in such cases Antonio fur- nished the dc'sign. while Pietro executed it in color. Their masterpiece is the large "Martyr- dom of Saint Sebastian" (1475) in the National Gallery, London. It exliibits the severe and plastic treatment of Antonio — an accuracy and surene.ss in drawing that is not found in the works assigned to Pietro's band, such as the "C<u-onation of the Virgin" (1483), at San tiimigniano, signed by Pietro. in which the draw- ing is noticeably defective. The general handling of the color in Pietro's work would point to him as Ijeing responsible for that portion of the ".'saint Sebastian." The "Saint Christo])her and the Infant Christ." in the .Metropolitan .Miisenni, New York, is probably a work executed wholly by the elder brother. Of their Madonnas there are good examples in the Naticmal (iailery, Lon- don, and in the Berlin Museum. In 1480 An- tonio was called to Rome by Po]ie Innocent VIII., where he was employed upon monumental work until his death in 1498. Pietro died in Florence in 1496. POLLAIUOLO, SiMOXE mx ( 14;'57-1508). A distinguished Italian architect, sometimes called 11 Cronaca. He wa.s born in Florence and spent a number of years in Rome devoted to the study of the monunu-nts of antiquity. He was a keen observer, and from his habit, after his return to Florence, of describing with great minuteness the sights of the Eternal City, the nickname 'II Cronaca' (The Chronicler) was bestowed upon him by his fellow artists. In 149.5 he was ap- pointed chief architect of the Duomo, and after the ileath of Benedetto da :Majano he became the architect of the Palazzo Strozzi. to the f.Tcade of which he added the splendid cornice, bis in- imitable masterpiece. He also built the Palazzo tluadagni. a handsome structure in the early Renaissance style, and the Church of San Fran- cesco or San Salvatore al ^Monte. an edifice im- posing in its very simplicity and chaste propor- tions, which was greatly admired and praised by Michelangelo. Among the few other works that
