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Title: Sunset Fires Artist: Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910) Date: 1880 Genre: landscape painting Medium: watercolor on paper Dimensions: 24.7 cm (9.7 in) high x 34.6 cm (13.6 in) wide Location: Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA, USA

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One of my goals as an autodidact is to learn some of the so-called "less commonly taught languages". (This designation is used in the USA for pretty much any language other than English, Spanish, French, German, or Italian -- a rather sad comment on the state of American language instruction.) As I improve my skills in (Castilian) Spanish, I'm actually giving serious thought to exploring Catalan as well. Apart from the inherent pleasure that comes with learning any new language, there's a non-zero chance that I'll one day find myself in Catalonia, Andorra, or Sardinia, and I can't help but think it would really impress the locals if I could converse with them on even ground.

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My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

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What’s that spiky critter? It’s the lowland streaked tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus). This mammal’s yellow and black quills provide protection from predators, but also serve as a means of communication! The lowland streaked tenrec can rattle its quill tips together, producing a high-pitched sound that’s thought to signal others of its kind. And? When bothered, the spines on its head will move up and down repetitively, warning others of its displeasure. This species is found only in the rainforests of Madagascar. 

Photo: Frank Vassen, CC BY 2.0, flickr 

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Title: The Torre d'Orologio in Piazza San Marco Artist: Francesco Guardi (Italian [Venetian], 1712-1793) Date: 1775 Genre: veduta Movement: Rococo Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 44 cm (17.3 in) high x 70.5 cm (27.7 in) wide Location: Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

A generation younger than Canaletto, Francesco Guardi was one of the last Venetian artists to practice vedutismo, painting sweeping views of his native city at a time when the Venetian Republic was rapidly losing influence in Europe. Guardi's mature style, pintura di tocco ("painting of touch"), used small, careful brushstrokes; a hundred years after his death, the French Impressionists would admire his work for this very reason.

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Sometimes my brain fixates on the oddest things. Case in point: Facebook keeps showing me ads for Saint-Germain liquor featuring Sophie Turner. From pictures I've seen elsewhere of Ms. Turner, she has a tattoo on her left arm of an arrow. In the Saint-Germain ads, it's nowhere to be seen -- presumably they either covered it with makeup or removed it digitally. Why? Are they afraid that their "high-class" target audience will freak out if their spokeswoman has a visible tattoo?

(This is the sort of thing I think about when I'm insomniac at 1:30 in the morning.)

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RAF Spitfires respond to reports of enemy planes over the English Channel - Sept 1940

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I miss the sea. It would be so nice to be by the sea right now.

(Apologies for the less-than-riveting status update. I'm just tired.)

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Stater of the Greek city-state of Elis in the northwest Peloponnese, minted for the 106th Olympiad (356 BCE). On the obverse, the head of Hera, wearing a form of the polos -- a cylindrical crown borrowed by the Greeks from Near Eastern iconography, signifying a mother goddess. On the reverse, an eagle, symbolizing Olympian Zeus, within an olive wreath. The shrine of Olympian Zeus lay within the territory of Elis, and the Eleans took great pride in what they considered to be their ancient right to administer the Olympic Games (though this right was not infrequently contested by other Greek city-states).

Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

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I'm presently reading a book of poems by Pere Gimferrer (b. 1945), a much-lauded author from Barcelona who writes both in his native Catalan and in (Castilian) Spanish. For whatever it may be worth, I've found that I'm getting much better in/more comfortable at Spanish. (Catalan, on the other hand, may take some work.)

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Title: St. Casilda of Toledo Artist: Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598-1664) Date: ca. 1635 Genre: religious art (Roman Catholic Christianity) Period: Spanish Golden Age (Siglo de Oro) Movement: Tenebrism Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 171 cm (67.3 in) high x 107 cm (42.1 in) wide Location: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

St. Casilda was the daughter of Yahya ibn-Ismail al-Mamun, Muslim ruler of the Taifa of Toledo from 1043 to 1075. According to tradition, she smuggled food to maltreated Christian captives of her father. On one occasion, she was stopped and searched, only for the hidden bread to transform into roses; it is this moment that Zurbarán chose to depict. After being healed of an illness at the shrine of San Vicente, Casilda converted to Christianity and became a penitential hermit.

Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age, was dubbed "the Spanish Caravaggio" for his careful use of chiaroscuro, influenced by the great Italian master. He excelled both in religious art and in the still life (bodegon).

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Approaching Storm, Funtown Pier, New Jersey, 2009. Michael Massaia. Gold-toned gelatin silver print.

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Title: In the Streets of Leith Artist: Telemaco Signorini (Italian, 1835-1901) Date: 1881 Genre: street scene (Leith, Scotland, UK) Movement: Macchiaioli Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 45 cm (17.7 in) high x 41 cm (16.1 in) wide Location: Galleria d'arte moderna, Florence, Italy

Telemaco Signorini was a prominent member of the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian artists who rebelled against the strict conventions of the artistic establishment (much as the Impressionists were to do later in France). The Macchiaioli favored painting en plein air, rather than within the confines of the studio, and they enjoyed capturing scenes of everyday life. Here, Signorini depicts the comings and goings of ordinary people in the Scottish port city of Leith during the Victorian period.

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Title: Noli me tangere Artist: Lambert Sustris (Dutch [active in Italy], 1515-1584) Date: between 1548 and 1560 Genre: religious art (Christianity) Movement: Mannerism Medium: oil on canvas Location: Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, France

"Noli me tangere," meaning "Do not touch me," is the Latin version of the risen Christ's words to Mary Magdalene at John 20:17. Sustris represents the Magdalene as sumptuously dressed and holding the silver jar of ointment with which she was said to have anointed Christ's feet during his earthly lifetime. She kneels before Christ, who holds up his right hand in a gesture of blessing. Behind them is an elaborately constructed park-like landscape.

Lambert Sustris, nicknamed "Lambert of Amsterdam," worked for much of his career in Venice. A specialist in landscapes, he assisted Titian's studio with works in that genre. His style is seen as a bridge between Northern Mannerism and the nascent Baroque.

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Title: An English Fleet Coming to Anchor Artist: Peter Monamy (English, 1681-1749) Date: probably late 1720s Genre: maritime art Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 87.5 cm (34.4 in) high x 129.5 cm (51 in) wide Location: Royal Museums Greenwich, England, UK

The exact date and context of the scene here depicted are uncertain, but it must have occurred after 1714, as one of the vessels bears the Hanoverian "GR".

After initially apprenticing in London as an interior decorator and sign painter, Peter Monamy reinvented himself as a studio painter specializing in maritime art. During Monamy's lifetime, English maritime art was still very strongly influenced by Dutch art of the previous century, and Monamy himself may have studied in the workshop of the great Dutch painter Willem van de Velde the Younger.

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Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Otis P. Lord, featured in The Letters of Emily Dickinson

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Title: Polder Landscape with Windmill near Abcoude Artist: Willem Roelofs (Dutch, 1822-1897) Date: ca. 1870 Genre: landscape painting Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 80 cm (31.4 in) high x 108 cm (42.5 in) wide Location: Kunstmuseum den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands

A polder is a low-lying stretch of land protected from flooding by dikes.

Willem Roelofs was a major figure in the so-called "Dutch Revival" of the mid-19th century, which turned away from Romanticism in favor of a return to the artistic traditions of the Dutch Golden Age. Roelofs spent time in France with the artists of the Barbizon School, and his landscapes show the keen eye for natural detail characteristic of Barbizon.