Gothic boxwood miniatures are very small Christian-themed wood sculptures produced during the 15th and 16th centuries in the Low Countries, at the end of the Gothic period and during the emerging Northern Renaissance. They consist of highly intricate layers of reliefs made from fine-grained boxwood, often rendered to a nearly microscopic level. Of the approximately 150 surviving examples, the majority are statuettes, skulls, coffins, or spherical beads known as prayer nuts; some 20 are in the form of polyptychs, including triptych and diptych altarpieces, tabernacles, and monstrances. They typically contain imagery from the life of Mary, the crucifixion of Jesus, or vistas of Heaven and Hell. Each miniature required exceptional craftsmanship and may have taken decades to complete. Important collections are in the Art Gallery of Ontario, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_boxwood_miniature
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1604:
The Guru Granth Sahib (folio depicted), the religious text of Sikhism, was installed in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib
1859:
A powerful solar flare caused a coronal mass ejection that struck Earth a few hours later, generating the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded and causing bright aurorae visible in the middle latitudes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event
1911:
Construction began on the Saline Valley salt tram, which during its operation was the steepest tram in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saline_Valley_salt_tram
1972:
In a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation, American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer became the 11th World Chess Champion with his victory over Soviet Boris Spassky. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Spassky
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
extinct: 1. (dated) Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched. 2. (figurative) 3. Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed. 4. Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, etc.: no longer existing or in use; defunct, discontinued, obsolete; specifically, of a title of nobility: no longer having any person qualified to hold it. 5. (chiefly biology) Of an animal or plant species, a class of people, a family, etc.: having died out completely; no longer in existence. 6. (geology) Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting. 7. (nuclear physics) Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life. 8. (obsolete) Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/extinct
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch. --Lily Tomlin https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lily_Tomlin