Portrait of a Young Girl is a small oil-on-oak panel painting in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. It was completed between 1465 and 1470, towards the end of the artist's life, and marks a significant advance in the oeuvres of both Christus and contemporary portraiture. The girl is set in an airy, three-dimensional, realistic setting, confronting the viewer with an expression that is reserved, but alert and intelligent. She reflects the Gothic ideal of elongated facial features, narrow shoulders, tightly pinned hair and an almost unnaturally long forehead. The painting is widely regarded as one of the most exquisite Northern Renaissance portraits. Art historian Joel Upton describes the sitter as resembling "a polished pearl, almost opalescent, lying on a cushion of black velvet." The panel builds on the work of the first generation Northern Renaissance painters Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, and was highly influential in the decades after its completion. Its appeal lies in part in the intriguing stare, accentuated by the slight misalignment of her eyes and asymmetry of her eyebrows.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_a_Young_Girl_(Christus)
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1757:
British Royal Navy Admiral John Byng was court-martialled and executed by firing squad when he failed to "do his utmost" during the Battle of Minorca at the start of the Seven Years' War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng
1794:
American inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, the first ever machine that quickly and easily separated cotton fibers from their seedpods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin
1915:
First World War: British forces cornered and sank the SMS Dresden, the last remnant of the German East Asia Squadron, near the Chilean island of Más a Tierra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_M%C3%A1s_a_Tierra
1945:
The British Royal Air Force first used the Grand Slam, a 22,000 lb (9.98 t) earthquake bomb, on a strategic railroad viaduct in Bielefeld, Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(bomb)
1972:
Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, known for his decision to translate and publish Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago after it had been smuggled out of the Soviet Union, was killed in an explosion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giangiacomo_Feltrinelli
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
annis Domini: (of multiple years or of a date range) Taking place a specifed number of years following the assumed birth of Jesus Christ. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/annis_Domini
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
He does love his numbers And they run, they run, they run him In a great big circle In a circle of infinity 3.14159 26535897932 3846 264 338 3279... --Kate Bush https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush