The Dresden Triptych is a very small hinged-triptych altarpiece signed
and dated 1437 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It
consists of five paintings: one central and four on two double-sided
wings. It may have been intended as a portable altarpiece, and is his
only extant non-portrait painting signed with his personal motto ALC IXH
XAN ("I Do as I Can"). The outer wings show the Virgin Mary and the
Archangel Gabriel in an Annunciation scene in grisaille. The inner
panels are set in an ecclesiastical interior. In the central inner panel
Mary holds the Christ Child; in the left-hand outer wing the Archangel
Michael presents a kneeling donor; on the right Saint Catherine of
Alexandria reads a prayer book (depicted). The triptych's frames are the
originals; richly decorated with Latin inscriptions, they indicate that
the donor, whose identity is now lost, was highly educated. The coats of
arms on the interior borders are associated with the Giustiniani of
Genoa – an influential albergo active from 1362.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Triptych>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1861:
British chemist William Crookes published his discovery of
thallium using flame spectroscopy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium>
1918:
Four days of inter-ethnic clashes broke out in Baku,
Azerbaijan, resulting in about 12,000 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Days>
1981:
John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded U.S. president Ronald
Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton (immediate
aftermath pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ronald_Reagan>
2009:
The Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, was attacked
and held for several hours by 12 gunmen, resulting in 16 deaths and 95
injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Lahore_police_academy_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
what the doctor ordered:
(idiomatic) Exactly what is necessary or useful in a given situation;
something very beneficial or desirable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what_the_doctor_ordered>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The thing has already taken form in my mind before I start it.
The first attempts are absolutely unbearable. I say this because I want
you to know that if you see something worthwhile in what I am doing, it
is not by accident but because of real direction and purpose.
--Vincent Van Gogh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vincent_Van_Gogh>