gezicht in delft

The 1652 painting A View of Delft with A Musical Instrument Seller’s Stall by Carel Fabritius (*27 February 1622 - †1654, student of Rembrandt and had his own studio in Amsterdam) typifies the painter’s style, a departure from that of the master in experimentation with foreshortening and spatial effects. The exaggerated angle of the cityscape suggests it might have been intended to be displayed on the curved surface of a perspective box (perspectiefdoos), using light, camera obscura and architectural elements (see previously) to create an illusion of depth.

tulipenmanie

The market bubble peaking, according to available records and sales ledgers, on this day in 1637 before bursting, rampant speculation (see also) and deviation from intrinsic value, with single flower bulbs selling for what a skilled artisan or trader could expect to earn in a decade in his trade drove the Dutch Tulip Craze, generally understood as the first stock market crash. With a newly liberated—no longer the Spanish Netherlands—and wealthy populace captivated by an import from the Ottoman Empire that could be cultivated and coveted unlike any other flower endemic to Europe, increased demand attracted as many professional brokers as tulip fanciers to the marketplace, complete with abstractions including short-selling and futures contracts. Once the bottom finally fell out of the trade amid distress and recrimination, those left holding flowers and bulbs in the end were left with little recourse as no court was willing to enforce the terms of a contract, declaring the debts incurred through gambling and not subject to commercial law.

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fietsstrook: LEGO cycling lanes (see previously) on their way 

pay no attention to that man behind the curtain: Jeff Bezos to hand over the reigns of power at Amazon 

it’s a duck blur: an in depth, retrospective analysis of the 1989 Capcom video game Ducktales  

end effector: Boston Dynamics’ Spot gets an arm and gripper attachment 

nihon no shiro: abstract woodcuts of the castles and palaces of Japan—via Present /&/ Correct  

force multiplier: innovative, portable CLIP drive transforms any convention bicycle into an e-bike—via Swiss Miss

temptation of saint anthony

Venerated on this day, itinerant and chief amongst the Desert Fathers, Saint Anthony of Alexandria, has had his enduring supernatural visitation during his sojourn through the wilderness of eastern Egypt depicted in many forms, giving way to lurid and bizarrely embellished interpretations beginning in medieval times up to the present day with greater emphasis on the mental states of individuals over demonic temptation.
One of the most iconic portrayals, aligned with the fantastic and nightmarish landscapes of Hieronymus Bosch (previously) is the 1650 work by Flemish painter Joos van Craesbeeck of Brabant, who had produced many a quick and circumspect study of the dissolute and down-and-out with his cautionary tavern scenes. A colossal screaming head—that resembles Craesbeecck’s self-portraits, spews forth an allegory of obscenities, the meanings lost to the ages and the symbolism subject to guesswork whilst Anthony calmly is seen on shore trying to keep his sanity.

de anatomische les van dr. nicolaes tulp

Regarded as one of the early masterpieces of Rembrandt van Rijn (previously), the dissection (only one public viewing was permitted a year in Amsterdam, to which Dr Tulp as the city’s chief anatomist invited the artist to execute a group portrait, mise-en-scène) that inspired the painting occurred on this day in 1632 (possibly two weeks later, according to some sources) in the surgeon’s operating theatre. The corpse, as in all such exclusive social occasions was that of a convicted and executed criminal, laid out in Christ-like repose was called Adriaan Adriaanszoon (aka, Aris Kindt) and was sentenced to death by hanging for armed robbery. The detail of the tendons and musculature—especially in the vivisected forearm, is rather remarkable, and is significantly, displaying growing confidence in his abilities, is signed simply with his forename f[ecit] (made me) and the year rather than the monogramme RHL—Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden, plus rhotic glyph seen in the body’s navel.

to moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear

In a strange twist of fate, Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (previously) was killed on this day (New Style, 1916) coinciding with the passing with the Aruban performer Bobby Farrell (2010), whom with the disco ensemble Boney M. produced possibly the finest musical homage in the 1978 hit single (see link above) from their album Nightflight to Venus, often dressed as the charismatic for concerts. Farrell died of heart failure whist on tour in Saint Petersburg. Here is a video from the variety show TopPop.

home box office

We enjoyed this curated gallery featuring the minimal encapsulations of movie poster (see also) executed by graphic designer Chungkong, which served to highlight the not only the commercial blockbusters of shared experience but those certain cinematic shibboleth of obscure choices—both by the creator and collector—that yet resonate nostalgic but are still cult enough to carry distinction. Peruse through an assortment of over twelve hundred filmic properties and artefacts assiduously catalogued and distilled in an instantly recognisable fashion at the artist’s website above.

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dry dock: a drone surveys a cruise ship graveyard  

one of these things is not like the other: match memes described as having the same energy—via Waxy 

anti-trust, anti-social: leaked documents show how viciously Facebook (previously) plans to fight regulations and its forced break-up

verticalisation: photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro has Chongqing in frame a decade after his first visit 

rephotography: vis-à-vis, the above, staging the same photos decades later—via Things Magazine  

we bid a hasty retreat from his lair: School House Rock’s Unpack Your Adjectives  

begagnade varor: IKEA to open a second-hand outlet in Sweden—via Kottke  

space ghost coast-to-coast: a retrospective of comics illustrator Alex Toth 

even keel: a tiny, personal boat to navigate Amsterdam’s canals

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globus polski: an uncanny geopolitical representation 

hollands venetië: revisiting the enchanting village of Giethoorn—previously here and here  

youtube enthusiast: Ruben Bolling (previously) illustrates a day in the life of Trump’s America  

the colour of pomegranates: Lady Gaga’s visual homage to the Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov

kirie: artist Lito experiments with the ancient Japanese art of切り絵, cut pictures  

flattening out: an illustration of how map projections distort our view of the world—see previously

i know the scientific names of beings animalculous

On this day in 1683, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (*1632 – †1723) announced in a letter addressed to the Royal Society his discovery of animalcules—little animals, the adjectival form above—living in rain water and invisible to the naked eye.
Sounding quaint to modern biologists and poor van Leeuwenhoek will forever be associated with the word, the progenitor of microscopy and microbial studies of course employed Dutch terms that he readers and fellow researchers could understand dier (animal, compare Tier) with the suffix –en or –ken to express their diminutive nature rather than inventing a Latin term, as his translator, German diplomat and natural philosopher Henry Oldenburg was wont to do. van Leeuwenhoek’s record of transparency, willingness to share discoveries and open, unreserved correspondence spurred on a lot of competition in the field and advanced the field microbiology and germ-theory at pace thereafter.

hatebrand

With a name nearly as awesome as our friend Ultragoth, today marks the veneration of Frisian abbot of the Benedictine order, credited with its revival in that part of the Netherlands on the occasion of his death or translation of his relics in 1183 or possibly 1198. Aside from the founding of three monasteries and being forewarned of an ambush by God and armouring himself with a cauldron, unfortunately not much else is known about the saint’s life or acts and more is known posthumously, vicariously about the fate of Hatebrand’s reliquary and relics in the centuries after his death through multiple civil and religious upheavals and who is presently scattered in various churches across Holland and Belgium

ketikoti

Meaning the chain is broken in the Sranantongo English-Dutch creole language, the annual commemoration held in Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and the Netherlands is a time for celebration and remembrance as well as education and as well as a prompt for research, reparation and reconciliation began on this day in 1863 when the institution of slavery was abolished.
Though also presently referred to Emancipation (Maspasi) Day, actual freedom for most formerly enslaved individuals would be deferred for a full decade as part of a transition period which still tethered people to their plantations, curtailing their liberties as indentured servants until this obligation was discharged. Landowners were further compensated by the government for their loss monetarily, the Dutch being one of the last of the colonial powers to end enslavement—with Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that liberated those in America’s capital city about a year earlier while across the British Empire, full emancipation came at midnight on 1 August 1838.

usage rights

Via Pasa Bon! and their latest curation of remarkable things (opmerkelijke zaken—bijou, incidentally, was long considered to be a Dutch word since it was inconceivable that that forbidden letter combination might be valid in English and the French borrowing is pendantically spelt byou in Holland), we enjoyed this gentle lampoon of the domineering stock image distributor, though they probably deserve worse for their rather infamous cases of copyfraud and overreach in watermarking and demanding payment for public domain photographs. The idea is fun—nevertheless, and makes me wonder about what very niche variety of stock photos I could furnish up, royalty-free.

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mistress don’t harm me, mistress don’t harm me henceforth: What is Love medieval style (see also)

octopi, occupy: a history of caricature and other persuasive maps (previously), via Nag on the Lake

degenerate states: a look at myriahedral map projection (see also) and related attempts at squaring the circle

distance disco: your dance party at a safe range, via Swiss Miss

television and telephot: video-conferences envisioned in 1918

knight industries two thousand: Knight Rider theme for eight cellos (see previously)

sophonisba met de brief van masinissa

Identified as the patron of artists for having painted the portrait of the Virgin Mary by John of Damascus, the Guild of St. Luke—especially in the Low Countries—was a common term for the association representing professional painters through the Renaissance, an organisation that Leipzig-born Nikolas Knüpfer (*1603 – †1655) was admitted to (as a visiting member, bezoekend lid), allowing him to establish a studio in Utrecht, one of his pupils being Jan Steen, where he produced some of his small-scale masterpieces—focused on literary and mythological themes.
Reflecting his penchant for unusual poses, here pictured (1635, through the lens of course of what is familiar) is part of a series on the influential Carthaginian noble woman, powerful in her own right Sophonisba (𐤑𐤐𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋) who famously poisoned herself rather than be captured by Roman forces during the Punic Wars. Sophonisba receives news from her husband, King Masinissa, from the front that a truce has been reached but she must be paid in triumph to the victors—the Romans feeling that she had incited rebellion to begin with and ought to be removed from Carthage. Having none of that, later Sophonisba drinks the goblet of poison, rebuking Masinissa for making their marriage short and bitter.

theatrum orbis terrarium

First printed on this day in Antwerp in 1570, the collaboration “Theatre of the Orb of the World” from Abraham Ortelius and Gillis Hooftman van Eyckelberg is considered the progenitor of the modern atlas and informed charting, seafaring and to a large extent the Golden Age of Exploration—transforming worldview from older, staid conceptions.
The edition of some seventy uniform, bound maps with keys, legends and explanatory text with a section called a nomenclator that was a registry of place names from Antiquity as well as table of endonyms and exonyms. Though more immediate literacy accrued with this publication and plate tectonics and continental drift would not be articulated or scientifically accepted until l centuries later, it is believed that Ortelius, while compiling his work, was one of the first people to notice the correspondence of the landmasses and postulate that they might be mobile.

blue jeans and bloody tears

Inadvertently creating the new subgenre technofear with a nonsensically subversive and unexpected anarchical message, a team of researchers from Rotterdam—the city that had been slated to host the Eurovision Song Contest (previously here, here and here)—cancelled for this iteration but still held on-line—trained a neural network on more than two hundred of the winners and catchiest entrants from over the decades, generating this number that samples from those common elements. Learn more about the teaching methodology at Ars Technica at the link up top.

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horsefly stretches so much time: learning French with these near homonyms that sound like (near) idioms, you know—taon temps tant tends

the lord hardened pharaoh’s heart: as scary as “murder hornets” sound, if they destroy the bees, US agriculture will be in shambles

making muppets: Jim Henson presents a tutorial on creating one’s own puppets in 1969, shortly before the debut of Sesame Street

jukebox: a neural network that’s getting quite good at imitating musical genres and syndicating wholly artificial songs, via Memo of the Air

plastique fantastique: these face shields from Isphere have a certain Avengers’ spy-vibe

do not make me fight you: reminiscent of this montage, stunt choreographer Zoë Bell takes on Hollywood

headspace: cranial collages from Edwige Massart and Xavier Wynn

catamaran: this floating shelter in Amsterdam, de Poezenboot, finds new forever homes for our feline friends

www: this was the internet we were promised—why did it take the collapse of civilisation to bring it?

🤬 or the dutch disease

Not to be confused with the economists’ coinage or this other economic hysteria attributed to the Low Country, we find ourselves directed to a pair of articles on Dutch curses—which tend not to fixate on the social taboos of religion (see also these fantastic French Canadian swears) sex and other bodily functions, but rather on illness.
For a proper telling-off, one might be called poxy or told to get consumption (krijg de tering), and witnessing the deserved misfortune of a rival, one might laugh oneself into pleurisy (lachen je de pleuris) and so forth. There are competing theories about how this might have arisen, the chief being that health and hygiene reflected virtue and prosperity—indeed that cleanliness was next to godliness, and it seems even as a lot of these maladies are antiquated and vanquished to be circumspect to keep terms for old ailments fossilised in common-parlance. The typographical universal stand-ins for profane language are called grawlixes—a term thought up by illustrator Mort Walker in his 1980 Lexicon of Comicana that examined some of the conventions (see also) employed by cartoonists. Another coinage from the same source—though perhaps not as widely used are plewds, the name giving to droplets of sweat emanating from a physically taxed or emotional distressed character.

and the word mini

Via friend of the blog, Nag on the Lake, we are directed towards this set of spot the difference games from the museum and gallery consortium Europeana with this works of fine art altered in eight subtle ways for you to puzzle out.

 Each round is fiendishly busy with a lot of details to pour over but we really liked The Merry Family (Het vrolijke huisgezin, 1668) by Jan Havicksz Steen which resides in the Rijksmuseum. This colourful and boisterous scene is typical of the Dutch Golden Age painter’s portfolio—including Peasants before an Inn, Woman at her Toilet, Rhetoricians at a Window, and A Burgomaster of Delft and his Daughter—and the note hanging from the mantle sums up the situation: “As the old sing, so shall the young twitter.” See if you are able to find all eight changes in eight pairs of paintings.