The Triumph of Cleopatra is an oil painting by the English artist
William Etty, depicting a scene from Plutarch's Life of Antony and
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, in which Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt,
voyages to Tarsus to cement an alliance with the Roman general Mark
Antony. The painting shows a large group of people in various states of
nudity, watching her ship's arrival. First exhibited at the Royal
Academy Summer Exhibition in 1821, the painting was an immediate success
and made the then-obscure Etty famous almost overnight. Although some
commentators considered it offensive and indecent, the painting's
success prompted Etty to spend the next decade painting further history
paintings containing nude figures, becoming well known for combining
these with moral messages.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Cleopatra>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
Lefort, a Russian ship of the line, sank in the Gulf of Finland
during a sudden squall with the loss of all 826 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_ship_of_the_line_Lefort>
1948:
Led by Gail Halvorsen, the U.S. Army Air Forces began Operation
"Little Vittles", delivering candy to children as part of the Berlin
Airlift.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen>
1957:
François "Papa Doc" Duvalier was elected President of Haiti as
a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the
rest of his life.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier>
2014:
The NASA spacecraft MAVEN entered into orbit around Mars to
study the planet's atmosphere.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAVEN>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
mercurial:
1. (comparable) Having a lively or volatile character; animated,
changeable, quick-witted.
2. (not comparable, astrology) Pertaining to the astrological influence
of the planet Mercury; having the characteristics of a person under such
influence (see adjective sense 1).
3. (not comparable, astronomy) Pertaining to the planet Mercury.
4. (not comparable, chemistry) Of or pertaining to the element mercury
or quicksilver; containing mercury.
5. (not comparable, medicine) Caused by the action of mercury or a
mercury compound.
6. (not comparable, Roman mythology) Pertaining to Mercury, the Roman
god of, among other things, commerce, financial gain, communication, and
thieves and trickery; hence (comparable), money-making; crafty.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mercurial>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always
like it the least.
--Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope,_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfield>