Drave, or Drau (drä´ve, drou), a European river which rises in Tyrol, flows E.S.E. across the north of Illyria and the south of Styria, and between Hungary on the left and Croatia and Slavonia on the right, and, after a course of nearly 400 miles, joins the Danube 14 miles east of Essek. It is navigable for about 200 miles.
Dravid´ian, a term applied to the vernacular tongues of the great majority of the inhabitants of Southern India, and to the people themselves who inhabited India previous to the advent of the Aryans. The affinities of the Dravidian languages are uncertain. The family consists of the Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, Malayâlam, Tulu, Tuda, Gond, Rajmahal, Oraon, &c. Only the first four mentioned have a literature, that of the Tamil being the oldest and the most important. Originally the word Dravidian was a purely philological term, but it is now used in an ethnological sense as well.—Cf. R. Caldwell,
Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages.
Drawback, usually a certain amount of duties or customs dues paid back or remitted to an importer when he exports goods that he has previously imported and paid duty on, as, for instance, tobacco, &c.; or a certain amount of excise paid back or allowed on the exportation of home manufactures.
Drawbridge, a bridge with a lifting floor, such as was formerly used for crossing the ditches of fortresses, or any movable bridge over a navigable channel where the height of the roadway is insufficient to allow vessels to pass underneath. Modern drawbridges across rivers, canals, the entrances of docks, &c., are generally made to open horizontally, and the movable portion is called a bascule, balance, or lifting bridge, a turning, swivel, or swing bridge, or a rolling bridge, in accordance with the mode in which it is made to open. Swing-bridges are usually divided into two parts meeting in the middle, and each moved on pivots on the opposite sides of the channel, or they may move as a whole on a pivot in the middle of the channel. Rolling bridges are suspended from a structure high above the water, and are propelled backwards and forwards by means of rollers.
Drawing is the art of representing upon a flat surface the forms of objects, and their positions in relation to each other. The idea of nearness or distance is given by the aid of perspective, foreshortening, and gradation, and in the same way the three-dimensional quality of objects is expressed. The term drawing is sometimes limited to the representing of the forms of objects in outline, with or without the shading necessary to develop roundness or modelling. But the term has a wider significance. Any arrangement of colours or tones which serve to express form, and the relation of one form to another, is really drawing; and thus a painting may show fine draughtsmanship without line being used at all. Drawing is not a matter of the medium employed, but of the manner in which it is used. It is, however, convenient to classify drawings according to mediums, each of which produces its effect in a different way. Thus drawing may be divided into (1) pen drawing; (2) chalk, pencil, or charcoal drawing; (3) crayon and pastel drawing; (4) drawing shaded with the brush; (5) architectural or mechanical drawing. Pen drawings are often confined to pure outlines; an appearance of relief or projection being given by thickening or doubling the lines on the shadow side, or they may be shaded by combination of lines. Chalk, pencil, and charcoal drawings may be in line or tone. When the chalk is powdered and rubbed in with a stump, large masses and broad effects can be produced with much rapidity. The best draughtsmen, however, rarely use a stump. In crayon and pastel drawings the colours of the objects represented are more or less completely represented in the medium. Drawings shaded with the brush are outlined with the pencil or pen, the shading being laid on or washed in with the brush in tints of Indian ink, sepia, or colour. This was the method of the early water-colour painters in England. Architectural and mechanical drawings are those in which the proportions of a building, machine, &c., are accurately set out for the guidance of the constructor; objects are, in general, delineated by geometric or orthographic projection.
The great schools of painting all show excellent drawing, though differing in character. In Italy the Florentine school combined study of the antique with anatomical research, and produced many vigorous and expressive draughtsmen, notably Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The Roman school, under the influence of Raphael, sacrificed vigour and expressiveness to elegance and the representation of ideal form. In the Lombard school a severe style of drawing is seen through harmonious colouring, and in the Venetian school the drawing is often veiled in the richness of the colour. The German and Dutch schools excel in a careful and minute style of naturalistic drawing, combined with good colour. The French school in the time of Poussin was very accurate in its drawing; at a later period its style betrayed a tendency to mannerism. David introduced, again, a purer taste in drawing and a close study of the antique, and these are qualities which distinguish his school (the so-called Classical school), of which Ingres is the leading representative, from the Romantic and Eclectic schools of a later period. The drawing of the British school is naturalistic rather than academic, but the work of Gainsborough and Alfred Stevens is comparable with that of earlier masters.—Bibliography: Ruskin, Elements of Drawing; Spiers, Architectural Drawing; R. S. Bowers, Drawing and Design for Craftsmen; J. H. Brown, Sketching without a Master; Harold Speed, Drawing.
Drawing-room, a room appropriated for the reception of company; a room in which distinguished personages hold levees, or private persons receive parties. Court drawing-rooms are those assemblies held from time to time for the reception or presentation to the sovereign of such ladies as by custom, right, or courtesy are admissible. Receptions at which men are presented are known as levees. The sovereign sometimes deputes a member of the royal family to receive, in which case presentations are equivalent to those made to the sovereign in person.
Drawings. The term 'drawings' is usually taken to mean drawings of an architectural or engineering nature, such as the plans of a new building prepared by an architect, or the designs for engineering works, or for machinery produced by an engineer.