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Salvador Dalí, artist

The Colossus of Rhodes is a 1954 oil painting by the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí (pictured). One of a series of seven paintings created for the 1956 film Seven Wonders of the World, it shows the Colossus of Rhodes, the ancient statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios. Painted two decades after Dalí's heyday with the surrealist movement, The Colossus of Rhodes is emblematic of his transition from the avant-garde to the mainstream. After financial pressures imposed by his move to the United States in 1940, and influenced by his fascination with Hollywood, he shifted focus away from his earlier exploration of the subconscious and perception, and towards historical and scientific themes. His rendering of the Colossus is heavily influenced by a 1953 presentation by Herbert Maryon, a sculptor and conservator at the British Museum. None of the commissioned paintings were ultimately used for the film, and The Colossus of Rhodes was donated in 1981 to the Kunstmuseum Bern. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Eadweard Muybridge, Ostrich Running, 1887

... that the 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge created more than 100,000 images for his study Animal Locomotion (example pictured) that included an ostrich and a capybara?
... that Rüdiger Huzmann, Bishop of Speyer, granted a protective charter to the city's Jewish community in 1084?
... that as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Smiley v. Holm, the 1932 general election ballot in Minnesota contained 30 candidates for Congress?
... that in 2022, Frida Westman was the first Swedish ski jumper to compete at an Olympic Games since 1994, when her father competed?
... that the southwestern North American megadrought that began in 2000 is the driest 22-year period in the region since 800?
... that the 2019 collapse of Welsh construction company Dawnus caused gridlock in part of Manchester as equipment was left in the highway?
... that after the British Army captured New York City in 1776, Samuel Loudon fled to the village of Fishkill, where he founded the state's first post office?
... that the gonads of the banded bullfrog remain ripe during dry periods so that it can mate soon after rainfall?

In the news

Jane Campion

The Power of the Dog wins Best Film and Best Director (Jane Campion pictured) at the British Academy Film Awards.
The discovery of the wreck of the Endurance, sunk during Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, is announced.
Yoon Suk-yeol is elected president of South Korea.
Australian cricketer Shane Warne dies at the age of 52.
An attack at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least 63 people and injures more than 190 others.

On this day

March 16: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2022); Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires

FA Cup trophy

1322 – Despenser War: A royalist army defeated troops loyal to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in the Battle of Boroughbridge, which allowed King Edward II of England to hold on to power for another five years.
1872 – In the inaugural final of the FA Cup (trophy pictured), the world's oldest association football competition, Wanderers defeated Royal Engineers 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
1918 – Finnish Civil War: The Whites won the Battle of Länkipohja, after which they executed at least 70 Reds.
1962 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a charter flight carrying U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers, disappeared without a trace, prompting one of the largest searches in the history of the Pacific.
2014 – Annexation of Crimea: The Autonomous Republic of Crimea held a controversial referendum in which voters overwhelmingly chose to join Russia as a federal subject.

Alaric Alexander Watts (b. 1797)
John Pope (b. 1822)
Manjural Islam Rana (d. 2007)

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Today's featured picture

Ginevra de' Benci is an oil-on-panel portrait painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de' Benci, born circa 1458. It was painted between 1474 and 1478 to commemorate her engagement or wedding. The juniper bush that surrounds her head and fills much of the background is a symbol of female virtue, while the Italian word for juniper, ginepro, is a play on Ginevra's name. The work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and is the only painting by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.

Painting credit: Leonardo da Vinci

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