Wikipedia:Picture of the day/April 2019

Sir

An oil platform in

Madonna and Child with Angels is the central panel of the large multi-paneled altarpiece produced by Masaccio for the chapel of Saint Julian in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa, Italy. The panel, which is badly damaged and smaller than its original size, was produced in collaboration with Masaccio's brother Giovanni and with Andrea di Giusto in 1426. It depicts six figures: the Madonna, Child, and four angels. The Madonna is the centre figure and is larger than any of the others to signify her importance. Christ sits on her knees, eating grapes offered to him by his mother. The grapes represent the wine which was drunk at the Last Supper, symbolising Christ's blood. Madonna and Child with Angels is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Paiting: Masaccio

Billie Holiday, real name Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), was an American jazz and pop singer whose career spanned nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education.

Photograph: William P. Gottlieb, restoration: Kaldari

Rootabaga Stories is a children's book of interrelated short stories by Carl Sandburg, written in 1922. The stories are whimsical and sometimes melancholy, making use of nonsense language. Rootabaga Stories was originally created for Sandburg's own daughters, Margaret, Janet and Helga—whom he nicknamed "Spink", "Skabootch", and "Swipes"—and those nicknames occur in some of the Rootabaga stories. The book was born of Sandburg's desire for fairy tales to which American children could relate, rather than the traditional European stories involving royalty and knights. He therefore set the book in a fictionalized American Midwest called the "Rootabaga country", in which fairy-tale concepts were mixed with trains, sidewalks, and skyscrapers.

This picture shows the frontispiece of the 1922 edition of the book.

Illustration: Maud and Miska Petersham; restoration: Adam Cuerden

A promotional flyer for Supir Istimewa ("Special Chauffeur"), a 1954 black-and-white Indonesian film directed by Rempo Urip and produced by Djamaluddin Malik for the Persari Film Corporation. Starring MS Priyadi, Ermina Zaenah, Abdul Hadi, and Djauhari Effendi, the film follows a wealthy young man who passes as a chauffeur to convince a village woman to fall in love with him. The film was based on a screenplay by Saleh Iskandar Rais.

Artwork: Employee(s) of Persari Film Corporation; restored by Chris Woodrich

A Session of the Painting Jury is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Henri Gervex, probably undertaken in 1885. The painting shows a meeting of the Paris Salon, the official exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, in a room on the first floor of the Palais de l'Industrie in 1883. It was itself exhibited at the Salon in 1885. Several artists of the time are identifiable in the painting including Félix-Joseph Barrias, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Léon Bonnat, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Alexandre Cabanel, Carolus-Duran, Gustave Achille Guillaumet and Antoine Vollon, who are involved in judging the works of art shown. A Session of the Painting Jury was designated a piece of official art during the Third Republic and has been in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris since 1981.

Painting: Henri Gervex

A map of the French city of Brest, dated to around 1700. Located in the Finistère department of Brittany, Brest lies in a sheltered bay close to the western extremity of metropolitan France. Originally named Bresta, possibly derived from a Celtic word meaning hill, the city came under the rule of the duke of Brittany in 1240. From 1342 to 1397 the city was under English rule, and became part of France in 1491 when a marriage unified Brittany with the French crown. Cardinal Richelieu designated the city a major naval base in 1631, a status it retains today. The city centre was mostly rebuilt after heavy Allied bombing during World War II.

Map: Unknown; Restoration: S. Déniel

An illustration from

The collared whitestart (Myioborus torquatus), also known as the collared redstart, is a tropical New World warbler endemic to the mountains of Costa Rica and western-central Panama. It is common at heights between 1,500 metres (5,000 ft) and the timberline in mossy mountain forests, ravines, second growth, and adjacent pastures. The collared whitestart is around 13 centimetres (5 in) in length with a weight of 10.5 grams (0.4 oz). It has a chestnut crown bordered with black, and a black forehead. The rest of the upperparts are slaty black, and the tail is black with white edges. The face and underparts are bright yellow, with a black band across the breast.

Photograph: Simon Pierre Barrette

The Conversion of Mary Magdalene is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Paolo Veronese. Dating from around 1545–1548, the painting was commissioned by a noble patron in Verona. The subject of the painting has been debated but the current consensus among scholars is that it depicts the conversion of Mary Magdalene. In the legend that inspired the painting, Mary went to a temple where the teachings of Jesus inspired her to convert to a pious life. She is depicted by Veronese in dress inappropriate for the religious building, which Veronese used to symbolise her prior sinful life. She is shown on her knees and blushing as she listens to Jesus. The painting now hangs in the National Gallery in London.

Painting: Paolo Veronese

Photograph: Mquach

The

Esperanza Base, established in 1953, is one of Argentina's 13 Antarctic research bases, located in Hope Bay on the Trinity Peninsula of the larger Antarctic Peninsula. It contains 43 buildings with 3,744 square metres (40,300 sq ft) of space. In 1978, a pregnant woman was flown there for the birth of her child, Emilio Palma, the first in Antarctica.

Photograph: Godot13

A

James Buchanan (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States (1857–1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 17th United States Secretary of State and had served in the Senate and House of Representatives before becoming president. Buchanan wished and aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, by using his tendencies toward neutrality and impartiality. Historians fault him, however, for his failure to address the issue of slavery and the secession of the southern states, and they commonly rank him as one of the worst presidents in American history.

Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew Shiva

An 1876 advertisement for the Great Western Railway for travel via the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, the world's first working railway suspension bridge, which connected Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, to Niagara Falls, New York, United States. The bridge was operational from 1855 to 1897, and was replaced by the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.

Image credit: Clay, Cosack & Co.

A row of terraced houses on Bathwick Hill in the city of Bath. Like much of the city the houses are built using the local golden-coloured Bath stone, a type of limestone. Located in south-west England, Bath is notable for its baths fed by three hot springs. It was first recorded as a Roman spa and temple named Aquae Sulis, although archaeological evidence suggests that the main spring of the baths may have been treated as a shrine by the Britons before the Roman invasion. From Elizabethan to Georgian times it was a resort city for the wealthy. As a result of its popularity during the latter period, the city contains many fine examples of Georgian architecture, particularly the Royal Crescent.

Photograph: David Iliff

Fairy chimney rock formation in the Göreme National Park, close to the town of Göreme. Situated in the Turkish historical region of Cappadocia, Göreme has a population of around 2,000 people. It is not known when it was first inhabited, but there was a settlement there during the Hittite era, between 1800 and 1200 BC. For many centuries, the location was central between rival empires, leading the natives to tunnel into the rock to escape the political turmoil. During the Roman era, the area became home to Christians retreating from Rome. The Göreme valley was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Photograph: Benh Lieu Song; retouch: Thomas Wolf

The historical

Illustration: Henry Mitchell; restoration: Andrew Shiva

A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle is an oil-on-oak painting undertaken between 1608 and 1609 by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp. As with a number of Avercamp's works, the picture is part of the Flemish tradition of painting "the harmony of human activity and the cycle of nature". He was influenced in his subject by the Little Ice Age, particularly the cold winter of 1607–08, and was the first of the Dutch painters to specialise in snow scenes. The painting was acquired by the National Gallery in London in 1891 and remains in its collection today. On acquisition it was square in shape, but during cleaning in 1983 it was established that Avercamp's original was circular, and the surrounding pieces were made by another artist. The gallery removed the additions.

Painting credit: Hendrick Avercamp

Messier 81, also known as Bode's Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about half the size of the Milky Way, with a diameter of 90,000 light years. Discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 31, 1774, it has been studied extensively by astronomers due to its proximity, large size, and active galactic nucleus. Messier 81 can be viewed easily using binoculars and small telescopes, and under exceptional viewing conditions can be seen with the naked eye. The center of the galaxy has a supermassive black hole with around 70 million times the mass of the Sun.

Photograph credit: Ken Crawford