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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-11-19/Featured content

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This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 2 November 2014 through 9 November 2014. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Two featured articles were promoted this week.

A photograph of Mysore Palace, India, taken by Muhammad Mahdi Karim.
  • Masked shrike (nominated by Jimfbleak) is a bird in the shrike family, Laniidae. The male has mainly black upperparts, with white on its crown, forehead and supercilium and large white patches on the shoulders and wings. The throat, neck sides and underparts are white, with orange flanks and breast, hence named as masked.
  • Luo Yixiu (nominated by Midnightblueowl) was the first wife of the future Chinese communist revolutionary and political leader Mao Zedong. She was eighteen and Mao just fourteen years old at the time of their betrothal. Mao later stated that he was unhappy with the marriage, never consummating it and refusing to live with his wife anymore and it was this experience with Luo that turned Mao into a "fierce opponent" of arranged marriage.

Five featured lists were promoted this week.

The church of Sankt Clemens is a 12th or 13th century ruin, and is one of the many church ruins on the island of Gotland, Sweden in a new featured list.

Twenty-six featured pictures were promoted this week.

Petrus Christus's Portrait of a Carthusian
This photograph of Nuremberg, Pennsylvania by Jakob is a new featured picture.
A wonderfully well-shot photograph of the European robin by Francis Franklin.
Illustration of the World War I Christmas truce in The Illustrated London News of January 9, 1915
Joseph Wright of Derby's Dovedale by Moonlight.
Newsagent's shop - a 2011 news kiosk in Paris
A Group of Danish Artists in Rome by Constantin Hansen.
  • Nativity (created by Petrus Christus, nominated by Adam Cuerden) The article's just been promoted to featured article, so watch this space in two weeks, when the new featured article will be highly seasonal, and we can showcase this wonderful painting properly. In the meantime, just have a look at all the wonderful details - the tiny angels, the archway, the way that the painting zooms through a church-like archway through a stable and deeper still to fields, a city, and mountains. It's beautifully composed.
  • The Voyage of Life: Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age (created by Thomas Cole, nominated by Chris Woodrich) A Christian allegory of four stages of human life, The Voyage of Life consists of four paintings, each showing a ship sailing, the mariner accompanied by a guardian angel. First, the child emerges from a dark cave, then the youth takes control, and tries to get to a shining castle. Rough waters are met by prayers in adulthood, and, finally, the angel leads the ship to the waters of eternity.
  • View from the Artist's Window (created by Martinus Rørbye, nominated by Hafspajen) The surprising thing about Martinus Rørbye's View from the Artist's Window was the unexpected connection to historical events: behind the decorations of the window, ships being constructed can be seen. Given the date, these ships are almost certainly the ones being constructed to replace those lost in the Battle of Copenhagen (1807), in which the British forces ravaged the Danish fleet. Like most paintings of the Romantic era, the painting has many underlying symbolic meanings: The window opens towards the light, the ships in the harbour symbolize the longing for an unknown calling, and the cage with the imprisoned bird symbolizes the old home as a prison for the artist longing to explore the world outside. On the windowsill, potted plants symbolize the different stages of growth of human life, and a blank sketchbook is waiting to be filled.
  • A Group of Danish Artists in Rome (created by Constantin Hansen, nominated by Hafspajen) The Danish Golden Age painters are gathered in Rome in a little room. This is the generation before the Skagen Painters - the Golden Age of Danish Painting was the first national style of Denmark. The first half of the 19th century in Denmark started with an explosion of gorgeous artworks out of Denmark, landscape paintings, portraits and scenes lighted by the special northern light that is soft, but allows strong contrasts of colour. This painting shows some of the important artists of the period: Architect Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll is lying on the floor with a fez and pipe, Martinus Rørbye is sitting on the floor, beside, looking somewhat critical into his tiny coffee cup. Constantin Hansen (who painted it), is sitting behind them in the other chair. Wilhelm Marstrand, Albert Küchler, Ditlev Blunck are on the balcony and Jørgen Sonne is sitting on the table. The dog sitting on the chair, however, is not known to have created any important works.
  • Christmas truce (created by A. C. Michael for The Illustrated London News, nominated by Adam Cuerden) Christmas is coming. That's where all the snow comes from. Christmas is a time of good will and cheer, and even in the middle of World War I, soldiers from both sides, sporadically, at different places down the line, stopped fighting, met in the neutral territory, talked, took photos, shared food and gifts, sang carols, and, although the prevalence and amount of organization is probably exaggerated, played football with each other.
  • Nuremberg, Pennsylvania (created and nominated by Jakob) A photograph of the beautiful small town of Nuremberg, in eastern Pennsylvania, showing the autumnal colours of the American northeast. It's a gorgeous photograph, and really adds to the (admittedly fairly short) article.
  • Newsagent's shop (created by Florian Plag, nominated by Crisco 1492) A newsagent's shop in Paris, selling postcards, newspapers, magazines, books, maps, and what appear to be DVDs. Newsstands are business that sells beside newspapers and magazines, also cigarettes, snacks and items of local interest, typically operating in busy public places like city streets, railway stations and airports. Racks for newspapers and magazines can also be found in convenience stores, bookstores and supermarkets.
  • Theodor Heuss Bridge (created by Arcalino, nominated by Jim Carter) Dating from 1948-50, but part of a series of bridges dating back to the Romans in 27 AD. The Theodor Heuss Bridge is a deck arch bridge across the Rhine River that connects two cities in in Germany - namely Mainz and Wiesbaden. The very first bridge over the water was a pontoon bridge, but, in about the year 27 AD, a fixed bridge was constructed, consisting of at least 21 stone pillars of 18 meters long and 7 meters wide and 12 meters wide, with a multi-lane roadway. The remains of this Roman bridge over the Rhine, which stood above the present Theodor Heuss Bridge, are an evidence of the high engineering art of the Romans. The reconstruction of the bridge was completed in 1950.
  • Madonna of the Book (created by Sandro Botticelli, nominated by User:Hafspajen) Perhaps best known for his The Birth of Venus (Botticelli), Sandro Botticelli was a fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century Italian painter. His Madonna of the Book shows the Virgin Mary concentrating on a Book of Hours - a collection of prayers - while the infant Jesus in her arms gazes at her lovingly. Botticelli painted the scene with sensitivity and love of details, that are depicted almost as a still life; the pages of the book, the garments, the transparent veils—they all have an amazing tactile quality. The details have symbolic meaning, as they often had with old masters; the fruit on the plate has an emblematic meaning, with the cherry representing either the blood of Christ or an allusion to Paradise, the plum indicating the tenderness between Mary and the Child, and the fig characteristic of the Resurrection. The window opens up towards a distant landscape, but the soft light seems to emanate from the figures themselves.
  • Charles de Solier, comte de Morette (created by Hans Holbein the Younger, nominated by Hafspajen) A French soldier, and ambassador to England for King Francis I of France during the time when King Henry the VIII was trying to get French support for his repudiation of Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives. Charles de Solier was painted by the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger, who established himself as a painter in England and quickly became a favorite with the Royal court. Holbein had been appointed King's Painter by Henry the VIII. He painted in England several celebrities of the time, such as Thomas More, Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell, and painted many portraits of the English royal family and nobles. These paintings show us today the English court life in the time of Henry VIII of England. Holbein is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century and pretty much in the whole art history.