Wednesday, September 30, 2015

The Wednesday Post



From the Cartographic Mailbag
it is always in excellent taste to send presents

In a Manila envelope I found in the mailbox on Saturday, there was not one but two copies of Tactical Pilotage Chart F-16D, which covers the southern half of the Beaver State.  It was sent without comment by drschnell, no doubt trying to regain the thrill of his mention in last's week's Wednesday Post.


These are big, handsome specimens of map, and I look forward to using them to inform my tactical pilotage and for other household uses.  I show them here as a reminder that it is always in excellent taste to send presents.  Also, cookies.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round TIEBREAK: Géricault v. Lorenzo Monaco!

Here's the second half of the tiebreak rounds we started last week.



Théodore Géricault
1791 - 1824
French

Routed Mark Gertler in Round 1.
Lost to Artemisia Gentileschi in Round 2.
Tied with Taddeo Gaddi in the Left Bracket Second Round.








Lorenzo Monaco
c.1370 - c.1424
Siennese; worked in Florence

Beat Lorenzetti in Round 1 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!
Lost to Venetian Lorenzo Lotto in Round 2.
Tied with Pietro Longhi in the Left Bracket Second Round.








Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting, but likely much longer.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1130s


I think there will come a tipping point when these will suddenly become much easier.  It is not, however, the 1130s.



1. In 1130, Anacletus II crowned Roger II as King of Sicily, winning Roger’s strong support for his papacy. What was the only hitch in this friendly agreement?

2. In 1132, the man who would become St. Malachy was made bishop of Armagh, with a mandate to bring the independent church of his home country in line with mainstream Christian practice. He was pretty successful! What was his country?

3. The King of England who came to the throne in 1135 would have a tough nineteen years on the throne, with a continual civil war with his cousin and rival to the crown, the Empress Matilda (not to be confused with his wife, Matilda of Boulogne). David I of Scotland, Robert of Gloucester, and various Welsh nobles also did their best to make his life miserable. He’s the only English king of his name; what is that name?


4. In 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his Historia regum Britanniae, which established – for the next 400 years, anyway, that Britain was settled by Trojans led by the great-grandson of Aeneas and that King Lear flubbed by dividing his kingdom between Goneril and Regan at the expense of poor Cordelia. Geoffrey also popularized the history – the “history” – of Uther Pendragon and his highly successful son. Who was the highly successful son?

5. Also in 1136, a city in what is now northwestern Russia kicked out Vsevolod Mstislavich, severed its ties with Kiev, and launched an independent republic that would endure as a generally prosperous city-state through 1478. It wasn’t Moscow, which was at best a riverside village at this point. What city was it?

6. Among the richest and most powerful women of the European Middle Ages, she was the mother of a lofty set of children:
  • Marie, Countess of Champagne
  • Alix, Countess of Blois
  • William IX, Count of Poitiers
  • Henry the Young King of England
  • Matilda, Duchess of Saxony
  • Richard I, King of England
  • Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany
  • Eleanor, Queen of Castile
  • Joan, Queen of Sicily
  • John, King of England
But in 1137, before having all of these kids, she married the King of France. Who was she?


7. He “was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of their Ayyubid dynasty. A Muslim of Kurdish origin,” he “led the Muslim opposition to the European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa.” He was famously admired by not just his friends, but his enemies as well. But in 1137, he was just a little baby boy. Who was this famous guy?



8. Also in 1137, Mara Takla Haymanot overthrew the rulers of the moribund Empire of Aksum and founded the Zagwe Dynasty. The empire he thereby created lasted with remarkable continuity up to the present, eventually becoming a modern African county. What country?

9. October 11, 1138 was a rough day for the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, as it suffered the third most deadly _____________ in recorded history.

10. Back to Sicily: In 1139, Pope Innocent II marched on Roger II’s armies to dispute his outlandish claim to be King of Sicily, Duke of Apulia, and Prince of Calabria. On July 22, Roger’s son ambushed the papal army and took Innocent prisoner. What do you suppose the Pope proclaimed in the Treaty of Mignano, on July 25?




Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1120s

1. The White Ship carried the heir to the English throne.  With him dead, the stage was set for a big old succession crisis.
2. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi, then and now.
3. That's a Chinese painting.
4. Tyre was captured by Crusaders.
5. The Jin attack on the Song worked out just fine.  They took over the capital and historic northern heartland of Song; the Song regrouped as "Southern Song." 
6. A Saracen is basically Middle Ages speak for a Muslim.
7. Abelard of Bath was from English, but like all learned guys he wrote in Latin.
8. After the fall of Kaifeng (see #5), the biggest city in the world was probably Constantinople.
9. Bukhara is in Central Asia somewhere.  I'll look it up.  It's in Uzbekistan.
10. The Battle of São Mamede was, as that tilde over the "a" suggests, a seminal event in the history of  Portugal.

The conquerer of the 1120s was Susan, who trampled all before her by a point or two!  Will she carry her triumph into the 1130s?  We'll find out!

Saturday, September 26, 2015

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Orpen v. van Ostade!

Sir William Orpen
1878 - 1931
British



-----
Adriaen van Ostade
1610 - 1685
Dutch



----

Vote for the artist of your choice! Votes go in the comments. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round TIEBREAK: Gaddi v. Longhi!

At vote-counting time, there was a tie in the Left Brackets between Longhi and Lorenzo Monaco.  That means that Taddeo Gaddi and Théodore Géricault, who tied up similarly about a year ago, can finally re-enter the fray.  Here's the first of the two tiebreak matches!



Taddeo Gaddi
c.1300 - 1366
Florentine

Lost to Thomas Gainsborough in Round 1 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Bested hard-to-pronounce sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in First Round Elimination.
Tied with Théodore Géricault in the Left Bracket Second Round.








Pietro Longhi
1702 - 1785
Venetian

Lost a close one to Richard Long in Round 1.
Beat John Robert Cozens in First Round Elimination.
Tied with Siennese master Lorenzo Monaco in the Left Bracket Second Round.








Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting, but likely much longer.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The Wednesday Post



From the Boring Mailbag
Comfortable accommodations located on the beach

An actual boring postcard arrived in the actual post last week.  It was from drschnell, who remarks "I was unaware that they still make this particular breed of boring postcard."


COLTON COURT MOTOR INN
105 Beach Drive
Cape May, NJ 08204
(609) 884-5384

Comfortable accommodations located on the beach in historic Cape May.  Air-conditioned ocean view rooms and efficiency suites.  Close to historic district and Victorian shopping mall.  On-site parking.



The Colton Court still looks pretty much exactly the same as it does in this postcard.  I thought about getting all fancy and digging up an image of whatever was on that piece of land before the Colton was built, but succeeded only in getting bogged down in an hour or so of random Cape May history and maps.  A good autumn-afternoon pastime for any readers looking to strut their internet research skills.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round 3: Metsu v. Michelangelo!

Gabriel Metsu
1629 - 1667
Dutch

Defeated Mario Merz in Round 1.
Defeated Play-In Tournament artist Jean Baptiste Oudry in Round 2.







Michelangelo
1475 - 1564
Italian

Beat Sir John Everett Millais by a single vote in Round 1. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Beat Spanish painter Joan Miró in Round 2.







Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1120s


The eleven-tens have lots of documented history about crusades and tensions over investiture, but THwtMQ tries to cast a broader net than all that.  Several of this week's questions are pretty tough, but they might be within range of a sharp inference.  Remember, we're all learning together here.



1. On November 25, 1120, the White Ship sank off the French Coast. This led to "the Anarchy," two decades of civil war and strife in England. How did the one lead to the other?


2. In 1122, Georgian King David the Builder moved his capital to a city that his armies had just recaptured from the Seljuk Turks. It would remain the capital throughout the Georgian golden age, and also when Georgia reemerged as an independent state in 1918, and again in 1991. What’s the city? Starts with a “T”!

3. This painting, “Wind in the Pines Amid Ten Thousand Valleys,” dates to 1124. Where do you suppose it was painted?


4. Tyre, even then an ancient city -- it was founded by the Phoenicians -- was captured by newcomers to the region in 1124. Who captured Tyre?

5. In China, in November 1125, the Jin Dynasty -- Jurchen people who had recently taken over Manchuria -- launched an attack on the Song Empire, which had for generations been the major player in the rest of China. How did that work out for them?

6. In 1125, Saracen pirates raid the city of Antibes in Provence and the benedictine monastery of Saint Honorat on the Lérins Islands. What's a "Saracen"?

7. Adelard of Bath was a remarkably learned and well-travelled natural philosopher and all around brainiac, one of the first, for instance, to introduce Arabic numbers into Europe. In about 1126, he completed a translation of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī's arithmetic and astronomical tables. Into what language did he translate them?


8. By some estimates, Kaifeng was the largest city in the world from 1013 until it was sacked in 1127. What city far to the west surpassed Kaifeng sometime in the 1120s to become the largest urban center in the world?

9. In 1127, The Minaret of Kalyan was completed in Bukhara. Where's Bukhara?


10. At the The Battle of São Mamede, on June 24, 1128, forces led by Afonso Henriques defeated an army led by his own mom, as well as her ally and special friend Fernão Peres de Trava. This family quarrel, the culmination of decades of complex political manuevering, is considered a key event in the birth of what independent country?



Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1110s

1. Pope Paschal II probably would have had better luck healing the great schism if his plan hadn't insisted on universal papal authority.  The Patriarch of Constantinople didn't think much of that idea.
2. Burmese first appears on the Myazedi Inscription.
3. The Jurchen people were Mongols, and the Liao held northeastern China, which is to say Manchuria.  Not for the first or last time, a Chinese state fell to mounted warriors coming down out of the steppes.
4. Dalmatia is the eastern coast of the Adriatic, pretty much where coastal Croatia is these days.
5. The Hasankeyf Old Bridge crossed the Tigris.  So, for that matter, does the Hasankeyf New Bridge. 
6. Héloïse d'Argenteuil's boyfriend was Abelard.  So romantic!  He gave up a lot for her.
7. Mahdia and Gabes are towns in Tunisia.
8. The Almoravids lost the Ebro Valley as part of the long, long Spanish (re)conquest of Iberia.
9. England and France began fighting around this time, and for centuries to come, because the kings of England had come from Normandy -- "Norman Conquest" and all -- and still wanted to hold their Norman properties.  Whereas to the French, the English no longer seemed like they belonged on the continent.
10. You put bulkheads in your hold so that if your boat springs a leak, the flooding is limited to a single compartment, and you don't sink.  In theory..

Those who weren't too chicken to show up did well on this especially tough one!  I'm going to give top honors to pfly, with everybody else nipping at his heels.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Organ v. Orozco!

Bryan Organ
Born 1935
British



-----

José Clemente Orozco
1883 - 1949
Mexican



----

Vote for the artist of your choice! Votes go in the comments. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round: Matta v. de Heem!

Roberto Sebastian Echaurren Matta
1911 - 2002
Chile

Lambasted by Henri Matisse in Round 1.
Decisively defeated German portraitist Anton Raphael Mengs in First Round Elimination.






Jan Davidsz de Heem
1606 - c. 1683
Dutch

Tied with Erich Heckel in his initial First Round outing, back in October 2013.
Beat Marie Laurencin in his second shot at Round 1.
Lost to Quentin Massys in Round 2.






Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting, but likely much longer.