Wikipedia:Picture of the day/January 2021

These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in January 2021. Individual sections for each day on this page can be linked to with the day number as the anchor name (e.g. [[Wikipedia:Picture of the day/January 2021#1]] for January 1).

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January 1

A still life is a work of art depicting inanimate subject matter, typically either natural things such as flowers, dead animals, food, rocks or shells, or man-made objects. As a genre, still-life painting began with Netherlandish painting in the 16th and 17th centuries. The wealthy Dutch Empire's trade enabled the importation of spices, sugar and exotic fruits into the country, and new ingredients such as dates, rice, cinnamon, ginger, nuts, and saffron became available. This oil-on-panel still life from the 1620s by the Flemish artist Osias Beert is entitled Dishes with Oysters, Fruit, and Wine, and includes a rare early depiction of sugar in art. The painting now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting credit: Osias Beert

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January 2

Priscilla Horton (2 January 1818 – 18 March 1895), was a popular English singer and actress. She was a favourite of James Planché, Charles Dickens and Madame Vestris, and a mentor to W. S. Gilbert. Horton was known for her agile dancing and clear contralto singing voice. This drawing depicts Horton in the role of Ariel in the final scene of Act 5 of Shakespeare's play The Tempest in 1838. Having married the theatrical manager Thomas German Reed in 1844, the pair presented and performed in "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", consisting of brief, small-scale, family-friendly comic operas, which served to improve the opinion of theatre amongst the British public (it was widely considered a den of immorality at the time). The first professional production of Arthur Sullivan's comic opera Cox and Box was one of their entertainments.

Drawing credit: Richard James Lane; restored by Adam Cuerden

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January 3

Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen (1795–1860) was a 19th-century Dutch landscape painter and art teacher. He was a prominent contributor to the Romantic period in Dutch art, and his students and children founded the art movement known as the Hague School. He is known for his pastoral scenes (especially paintings of livestock) with detailed landscapes, notably inspired by Golden Age artist Paulus Potter and continuing the Realist tradition of that era. This oil-on-panel self-portrait by Van de Sande Bakhuyzen dates from 1850, and is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Painting credit: Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen

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January 4

The yellow-faced honeyeater (Caligavis chrysops) is a small-to-medium-sized bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, native to southeastern Australia. Its typical habitat is open sclerophyll forests, as well as woodland, riparian corridors, parks, orchards and gardens. Although some populations are resident, others migrate, using geomagnetic fields to navigate. Comparatively short-billed for a honeyeater, it has adapted to a mixed diet including nectar, pollen, fruit, seeds, honeydew, and insects. It is considered a pest in some areas because of the damage it does to fruit in orchards and urban gardens. This yellow-faced honeyeater was photographed near Lake Parramatta in New South Wales.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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January 5

Shah Jahan (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666) was the fifth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1628 to 1658. Under his rule, the Mughal Empire reached the peak of its cultural glory. He commissioned many monuments, the best known of which is the Taj Mahal in Agra, in which his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, is entombed. This rosette, or shamsa (sunburst), executed in ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, forms the frontispiece to the Kevorkian Album, a muraqqa compiled by Shah Jahan, and bears his names and titles. The Arabic tughra inscription in the center translates to: "His Majesty Shihab ud-Din Muhammad Shah Jahan, the King, Warrior of the Faith, may God perpetuate his dominion and sovereignty".

Illustration credit: unknown

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January 6

The Adoration of the Kings is an oil-on-panel painting depicting the scene of the Magi adoring the infant Jesus at the stable in Bethlehem, as related in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. It was painted by the Netherlandish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1564, and is now in the National Gallery, London. The painting treats the biblical episode in an unconventional manner; the onlookers are crowded around the mother and child, with everyone warmly clad except for Jesus himself. The Magi are depicted richly dressed but somewhat dishevelled, the soldiers are menacing, and the onlookers appear bewildered. The figures are slightly elongated, their faces caricatured or even grotesque, while Mary is shown natural and unidealised.

Painting credit: Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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January 7

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, succeeding to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of the incumbent Zachary Taylor. Born into poverty with little formal education, he became a successful attorney and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1832. Never an advocate of slavery, he felt duty-bound as president to support the Compromise of 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states. He sought election to a full term in 1852, but was passed over by the Whigs in favor of Winfield Scott. This line engraving of Fillmore was produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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January 8

Dallol is a cinder-cone volcano in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. The area lies up to 120 m (390 ft) below sea level, and has been repeatedly flooded in the past when waters from the Red Sea have inundated it. The Danakil Depression is one of the hottest places on Earth, and the evaporation of seawater after these flooding episodes produced thick deposits of salt, as seen in this landscape. The deposits at Dallol include significant quantities of the carbonate, sulfate and chloride salts of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Hot springs discharge brine to form the blueish ponds, and small, temporary geysers produce cones of salt.

Photograph credit: Alexander Savin

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January 9

This historical depiction of the coat of arms of Connecticut was illustrated by the American engraver Henry Mitchell in State Arms of the Union, published in 1876 by Louis Prang. The three grape vines on the shield may represent either the early towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, or the three original colonies. An 1889 article by the state librarian stated: "The vines symbolize the Colony brought over and planted here in the wilderness. We read in the 80th Psalm: 'Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it' ... and the motto expresses our belief that He who brought over the vine continues to take care of it – Qui transtulit sustinet."

Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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January 10

The Consummation of Empire is the third in a series of five oil-on-canvas paintings entitled The Course of Empire, created by the American artist Thomas Cole between 1833 and 1836. The series, now in the collection of the New-York Historical Society, depicts the growth and fall of an imaginary city, situated at the lower end of a river valley. In this painting, the rural village has become a magnificent city, with colonnaded structures reminiscent of ancient Rome. A victorious hero is crossing a bridge in procession and about to pass under a triumphal arch. The architecture and embellishments illustrate that wealth, power, knowledge, and taste have worked together to reach the summit of human achievement and empire.

Painting credit: Thomas Cole

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January 11

Ptyas mucosa, the Indian rat snake, is a common species of colubrid snake found in parts of southern and southeastern Asia. Growing to a length of 1.5 to 1.9 m (5 to 6 ft), they are very slender, diurnal and semi-arboreal. They inhabit forest floors, wetlands, rice paddies, and farmland, and are frequently found in urban areas where rodents thrive. They are harmless to humans, but are fast-moving and adept at catching the small mammals, birds, amphibians and other reptiles on which they feed, subduing their prey by lying on and suffocating them.

Photograph credit: Augustus Binu

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January 12

Venus with a Mirror is an oil-on-canvas painting created around 1555 by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian. The pose may have been inspired by the classical statues of the Venus de' Medici in Florence or the Capitoline Venus in Rome; the painting is said to celebrate the ideal beauty of the female form, or to be a critique of vanity, or perhaps both. X-ray analysis has revealed that it was painted over an earlier double portrait that Titian had abandoned. He kept the red cloak of one of the previous figures and placed it under Venus's arm. The use of the cloak from the earlier painting probably played a large part in the composition of the new work. The work is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it is considered to be one of the highlights of the collection.

Painting credit: Titian

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January 13

Salmon P. Chase (January 13, 1808 – May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio and represented the state in the United States Senate. He served as the 25th secretary of the treasury, leading to his being featured on the last version of the U.S. $10,000 bill. He sought the Republican nomination for president in the 1860 presidential election, but the party chose Abraham Lincoln at the national convention. This line engraving of Chase was produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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January 14

A thermoplastic-sheathed cable consists of a toughened outer thermoplastic sheath of polyvinyl chloride, covering one or more individual annealed copper conductors. Each of the current-carrying conductors in the "core" is insulated by an individual thermoplastic sheath, coloured to indicate the purpose of the conductor concerned. The protective earth conductor may also be covered with insulation, although, in some countries, this conductor may be left as bare copper. The type of thermoplastic, the dimensions of the conductors and the colour of their individual insulation are specified by the regulatory bodies in the various countries concerned.

Photograph credit: Petar Milošević

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January 15

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Loie Fuller (January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928) was an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of techniques in both modern dance and theatrical lighting. She created the serpentine dance, but upon finding that her talents were unappreciated in the United States, she moved to Paris and received a warm reception there. She regularly performed at the Folies Bergère, and began adapting and expanding her costume and lighting, so that they became the principal features of her performance. Fuller unsuccessfully applied for a patent on the serpentine dance, to prevent imitators from copying her choreography. This 1901 film, entitled Loie Fuller, shows another dancer performing the dance.

Film credit: Segundo de Chomón

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January 16

The Danzig gulden was the currency of the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland) between 1923 and 1939. Inflation in Danzig during 1922 had spiralled out of control, and the city abandoned the German Papiermark in favour of the Danzig gulden the following year. The issuance of the new gulden was overseen by the Bank of Danzig, established in early 1924. The obverse of each note shows the city's coat of arms on the left and an important local architectural structure in the centre. This ten-gulden banknote, issued in 1930, bears an illustration of the Artus Court, previously a meeting place of merchants and a centre of social life, and now part of the Gdańsk History Museum.

Other denominations: