Fragment of a Crucifixion is a 1950 painting by the Irish-born
figurative painter Francis Bacon (portrait shown). Although its title
has religious connotations, it reflects Bacon's nihilistic view of the
human condition; as an atheist he did not believe in either divine
intervention or an afterlife. It shows two animals engaged in an
existential struggle, with an upper figure, which may be a dog or a cat,
crouching over a chimera and at the point of kill. The predator stoops
on the horizontal beam of a T-shaped structure, which may signify
Christ's cross. The chimera's despair forms the centrepiece of the work,
and in its agony it can be compared to Bacon's later works focusing on
the motif of an open mouth. The work contains thinly sketched passers-
by, who seem oblivious to the central drama. He abandoned the theme of
the crucifixion for the following 12 years, returning to it in the
equally bleak triptych Three Studies for a Crucifixion..
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Studies_for_a_Crucifixion>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of the Colony of New South Wales,
gave a speech where he called for the federation of the six Australian
colonies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenterfield_Oration>
1931:
The George Washington Bridge, today the world's busiest motor
vehicle bridge, connecting New York City to Fort Lee, New Jersey, was
dedicated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Bridge>
1945:
The UN Charter, the constitution of the United Nations, entered
into force after being ratified by the five original permanent members
of the Security Council and a majority of the other signatories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Charter>
1975:
To protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices,
90% of the female population in Iceland went on strike for a day.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Icelandic_women%27s_strike>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
false negative:
1. A result of a test that shows as absent something that is present.
2. (statistics) A type II error (“accepting the null hypothesis when it
is false”).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/false_negative>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The power to distinguish between person and performance and to
communicate intrinsic worth flows naturally out of our own sense of
intrinsic worth.
--Stephen Covey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey>