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From today's featured article

The Virgin and Child Enthroned is a small oil-on-oak panel painting dated c. 1433, usually attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, and closely related to his Madonna Standing. The panel is filled with Christian iconography, including representations of prophets, the Annunciation, Christ's infancy and resurrection, and Mary's Coronation. It is generally accepted as the earliest extant work by van der Weyden, one of three works attributed to him of the Virgin and Child enclosed in a niche on an exterior wall of a Gothic church. The panel is housed in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid. It seems to be the left-hand wing of a dismantled diptych, perhaps with the Saint George and the Dragon panel now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. As an early van der Weyden, it takes influence from Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck. Van der Weyden served his apprenticeship under Campin, and the older master's style is noticeable in the architecture of the niche and in the Virgin's face, hair and exposed breast. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Kiełbasa szynkowa, a Polish ham sausage

... that ham sausage (example pictured) is a part of Polish, German, British, and American cuisine?
... that Edward Dalton created New York City's first ambulance service?
... that the short satirical opera Das geheime Königreich (The Secret Kingdom) by Ernst Krenek premiered in Wiesbaden in May 1928?
... that Venezuelan footballer Sergio Córdova scored on his professional debut for Caracas FC?
... that unmated female Diprion similis produce only male offspring while mated females produce young of both sexes?
... that Albert P. Halfhill is considered the father of the tuna packing industry and was the first to use the slogan "chicken of the sea" as a sales gimmick?
... that in 1984, Tropical Storm Warren destroyed 740 homes across the Philippines?
... that activist Ed Forchion tried to legally change his name to NJWeedman.com, but was denied by courts in New Jersey and California?

In the news

London Bridge

Several countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, cut diplomatic relations with Qatar.
At least 7 people are killed and 48 others injured when 3 men carry out a vehicle-ramming attack on London Bridge (pictured) and stabbings at Borough Market.
In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Real Madrid defeating Juventus in the final.
A suspected robbery and arson at the Resorts World Manila complex in the Philippines kills at least 34 people and injures 54 others.
United States President Donald Trump announces that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.

On this day...

June 7: Journalist Day in Argentina

Mosaic of Aelia Eudocia

421 – Roman emperor Theodosius II married Aelia Eudocia (pictured), who later helped protect Greek pagans and Jews from persecution.
1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document that set out specific liberties of the subject, was granted royal assent by Charles I.
1917 – First World War: The British Army detonated 19 ammonal mines under the German lines, killing 10,000 in the deadliest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.
1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government destroyed dikes holding the Yellow River in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of Japanese forces, causing a flood that killed at least 400,000 people.
1981 – The Israeli Air Force attacked and disabled the Osirak nuclear reactor, assuming it was producing plutonium to further an Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

Roderigo Lopez (d. 1594) · Paul Gauguin (b. 1848) · Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

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Today's featured picture

The Balcony is an 1868 oil painting by the French painter Édouard Manet. It depicts four figures. On the left is Berthe Morisot, who married Manet's brother Eugène in 1874. In the centre is the painter Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemet. On the right is Fanny Claus, a violinist. The fourth figure, partially obscured in the interior's background, is possibly Leon Leenhoff, Manet's son. Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1869, the painting was sold by Gustave Caillebotte in 1884. It is currently kept at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Painting: Édouard Manet

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