[Daily article] September 20: Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele

Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-oak panel
painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter
Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within
an apparition of saints. Van der Paele was then elderly and gravely ill,
and intended the work as his memorial. The Virgin Mary is enthroned at
the centre of the semicircular space, which likely represents a church
interior, with the Christ Child on her lap. Saint Donatian stands to her
right, Saint George to her left. The saints are identifiable from Latin
inscriptions lining the borders of the imitation bronze frame. The
Virgin's throne is decorated with carved representations of Adam and
Eve, prefigurations of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, and
scenes from the Old Testament. The panel is considered one of van Eyck's
most fully realised and ambitious works, and has been described as a
"masterpiece of masterpieces".

Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_and_Child_with_Canon_van_der_Paele>

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1643:

First English Civil War: The First Battle of Newbury was fought
in Berkshire; Parliamentarian forces were allowed to pass Royalist
troops to retreat the next morning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Newbury>

1920:

Irish War of Independence: British police officers known as
Black and Tans went on a rampage in Balbriggan as revenge for the
shooting of two officers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Balbriggan>

1977:

A series of celestial phenomena of disputed nature was observed
in the western Soviet Union, Finland and Denmark.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrozavodsk_phenomenon>

2000:

The Real Irish Republican Army carried out a rocket-launcher
attack on the MI6 headquarters in London, with no casualties and minimal
damage recorded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_MI6_attack>

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Wiktionary's word of the day:

missing in action:
1. (chiefly military) The designation for a member of an organization
(usually military) with whom contact is lost and whose whereabouts are
not known, but whose death is not confirmed.
2. (by extension) Not present when one is expected to be.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/missing_in_action>

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Wikiquote quote of the day:

  My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new
president is installed.  
--Ruth Bader Ginsburg
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg>

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