Gui

Hi!

Napoleon Crossing the Alps was commissioned by King Charles IV of Spain to hang in a gallery of military heros. Napoleon didn’t help much with the portrait, refusing to sit for it, but did lend his uniform he wore at the Battle of Marengo and said that he should be portrayed calmly sitting on a “firey” horse. Napoleon didn’t really believe one had to look like their portraits, as long as they caught the subjects genius. David therefore used his son as a model and had him sit astride a ladder.

The painting proved to be so popular and well liked that Napoleon commissioned three more. A fifth one was painted and stayed in David’s studio. One hung in Madrid, one in Milan, and two in Paris. One for the Palace of St. Cloud, one for the library at Les Invalides, and one to Milan. They were popular paintings and probably used by Napoleon as propaganda pieces.

The version that went to Spain, eventually went to Joseph Bonaparte when he became King. Upon his abdication, he took the painting with him and it eventually ended up in his estate Point Breeze in New Jersey. The painting was almost destroyed in a fire, but thanks to the population of Point Breeze, they rushed in and saved a lot if not most of Joseph’s art when the fire broke out. The painting was passed down and eventually ended up at Malmaison (in 1949) where it is today. So that would be the “original” work as it was the first one commissioned.

The second painting (which David had help from his students working on the different versions) was commissioned for the Palace of St. Cloud (1801). In 1814 it was removed by Prussian soldiers by Blucher and offered to King William III of Prussia. It is currently at the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. Version two:

In 1802, Napoleon hung the second Paris one at Les Invalides. After the restoration, it was taken down by order of the King and kept in storage. In 1827, Louis Philippe had it re-hung at Versailles where it remains today:

The 1803 version was sent to Milan but confiscated by the Austrians in 1816. The people of Milan refused to give it up and it remained in the city until 1825. It was finally installed in the Belvedere in Vienna where it remains.

The fifth version was kept by David until his death and then was shown in a salon. It was offered to Napoleon III, who had it hung in the Tuileries Palace. In 1979 it was given to the Palace of Versailles:

This was not part of the original series:

One chance to fly again, just gotta hold on…

2018 October 2

Supernumerary Rainbows over New Jersey Credit & Copyright: John Entwistle

Explanation: Yes, but can your rainbow do this? After the remnants of Hurricane Florence passed over Jersey Shore, New Jersey, USA last month, the Sun came out in one direction but something quite unusual appeared in the opposite direction: a hall of rainbows. Over the course of a next half hour, to the delight of the photographer and his daughter, vibrant supernumerary rainbows faded in and out, with at least five captured in this featured single shot. Supernumerary rainbows only form when falling water droplets are all nearly the same size and typically less than a millimeter across. Then, sunlight will not only reflect from inside the raindrops, but interfere, a wave phenomenon similar to ripples on a pond when a stone is thrown in. In fact, supernumerary rainbows can only be explained with waves, and their noted existence in the early 1800s was considered early evidence of light’s wave nature.

The Ancient Celtic Ritual of Killing a Sword,

During the early iron age up to the rise of the Roman Empire the ancient Celts dominated most of Europe, their tribal societies stretching from Spain in the west to Turkey in the east. One ancient Cetlic tradition was the ritual of “killing”  the sword of a deceased chieftain or warrior for burial. Often the sword would be heated, then bent into either a circle or “S” shape thus making it irreparable and useless. In hundreds of Celtic graves throughout Europe such ritually killed swords have been uncovered, one of the most well preserved being a iron sword uncovered near Oss in the Netherlands dating to 700 BC.

There are many possible reasons such a ritual was done by the ancient Celts. The sword could have been killed as a ritual sacrifice to speed the soul of the deceased into the afterlife. Indeed a sword would have made an excellent sacrifice considering the expense and labor needed to craft a quality iron sword in that age. In addition, it may have been a special honor for a particular brave warrior, and while the warrior rests peacefully in death, likewise his sword should be permanently retired. Kind of like how today we retire the jersey and player number of a famous athlete who passes away.  Finally, killing the sword may have a more practical and down to earth purpose, to make it useless if uncovered by thieves and grave robbers.

my favorite unexpected eyes:

Starfish, one per arm

Ticks, because the part people call their “head” is just the mouth

Leeches, with anywhere from 2 to almost 30 eyes in some species

Box jellyfish, on all four of their boxy corners

Sea urchins, whose spines all act as one compound eye together

Scallops

predatory single-celled organisms called warnowiids, who use mitochondria and other symbionts as the “cells” of the eye.

Courtney McCullough

Did you know that some species of starfish have the ability to regrow an a complete new central disc and body from a single arm?

More commonly in other starfish species, a severed limb will only be able to regenerate into a full-grown #starfish if it is already attached to at least a portion of the central disc of the animal.

Fun History Fact,

Burgonet with falling buff, Austria or Southern Germany, dated 1543.