The Beaune Altarpiece is a large polyptych altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. It was commissioned in 1443 for the Hospices de Beaune by Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins, who was buried in front of the altarpiece. The polyptych consists of fifteen paintings spread across nine panels, of which six are painted on both sides. The inner panels contain scenes from the Last Judgement, with a central image that shows Christ seated in judgement, and the Archangel Michael holding scales as he weighs souls. The panel on Christ's far right depicts the gates of Heaven, that to his far left the entrance to Hell; souls are shown moving towards each after being judged. The altarpiece is in poor condition, having suffered from extensive paint loss, darkening of its colours and accumulations of dirt. .
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_Hell
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
The Tay Bridge, spanning the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and Wormit, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was passing over it, killing all on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster
1907:
The last confirmed sighting of the now-extinct huia (illustration shown) occurred in the Tararua Range on New Zealand's North Island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huia
1989:
In one of Australia's worst natural disasters, an earthquake measuring 5.6 ML struck Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people and injuring more than 160 others, and causing an estimated A$4 billion in damages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Newcastle_earthquake
2009:
A suicide bomber attacked a Shia procession commemorating the day of Ashura in Karachi, Pakistan, causing 43 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Karachi_bombing
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
forthcoming: 1. (not comparable) Approaching or about to take place. 2. Available when needed; in place, ready. 3. Willing to co-operate or provide information; candid, frank, responsive. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forthcoming
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a universal Mind … To put the conclusion crudely — the stuff of the world is mind-stuff. As is often the way with crude statements, I shall have to explain that by "mind" I do not exactly mean mind and by "stuff" I do not at all mean stuff. Still that is about as near as we can get to the idea in a simple phrase. The mind-stuff of the world is something more general than our individual conscious minds; but we may think of its nature as not altogether foreign to feelings in our consciousness … Having granted this, the mental activity of the part of world constituting ourselves occasions no great surprise; it is known to us by direct self-knowledge, and we do not explain it away as something other than we know it to be — or rather, it knows itself to be. --Arthur Eddington https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington