The decorated ceilings of the Natural History Museum in
South Kensington, London, were designed by
the museum's architect
Alfred Waterhouse, and were unveiled at the building's opening in 1881. The ceiling of the large Central Hall (pictured) consists of 162 panels, 108 of which depict plants considered significant to the history of the museum, to the
British Empire or to the museum's visitors. The remaining 54 are highly stylised decorative botanical paintings. The ceiling of the smaller North Hall consists of 36 panels, 18 of which depict plants growing in the
British Isles. Both ceilings make extensive use of
gilding for visual effect. Built of
lath and
plaster to save costs, the ceilings are unusually fragile and require extensive maintenance and restoration. Since 2016 the skeleton of a
blue whale has been suspended from the ceiling of the Central Hall. (Full article...)
Mud play in a rice field during the 2020 National Paddy Day
... that on National Paddy Day in Nepal, people splash each other and play in the mud (pictured), plant rice seedlings, eat
curd and
beaten rice, and sing folk songs?
... that during the
Congo Crisis, American Methodist bishop Newell Snow Booth was threatened at gunpoint by a soldier before being released by an officer who recognized him?
... that
Ty Dolla Sign's song "Ego Death" is a "first-ever of its kind" 9D listening experience?
... that Ba Than, a school teacher, wrote the
Burmese history textbook used in many Burma high schools from the 1930s to 1950s?
... that to demonstrate elevator safety in the Empire Building, eggs and light bulbs were loaded in a cab that was dropped past the third floor at 82 miles per hour (132 km/h), emerging undamaged?
1865 – Off the coast of
Crescent City, California, the steamship Brother Jonathan(depicted) struck an uncharted rock and sank, killing 225 people; its cargo of gold coins was not retrieved until 1996.
John the Baptist was the subject of at least eight paintings by the
Italian Baroque artist
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. This work, a brooding, "psychologically interiorized" oil-on-canvas portrait of
John the Baptist as a young adult, shows him without any of his usual symbolic attributes (except for the cross he holds), and is considered by scholars the most radical portrait of the series. Caravaggio's unusual practice of composing directly on the canvas without any underpainting, incising salient features with the blunt end of his brush handle, or perhaps with a knife, is evident here particularly on John's left leg. This painting is in the collection of the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in
Kansas City, Missouri.
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