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
_______________________________ 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
_____________________________ 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
___________________________ 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