Came across this over the weekend. Just thought it was very cool.
The Lightning Strike That Stretched a Record 515 Miles Across the Great Plains https://archive.md/Jk1Sd
I’d never really heard of this before.
“As the lightning moves horizontally through the clouds, you actually do have cloud to ground strikes along the many branches, one after the other,” Peterson said. “But there’s a lot more investigation that needs to happen in order to figure out exactly what atmospheric conditions are enabling these flashes to occur in the first place.”
Peterson estimated that cloud-to-ground lightning occurred over about 80%, or 400 miles, of the 515-mile flash.
Was there an advantage to wedding a dead woman?
Or, was she alive for wedding but died before completion of painting?
Did he murder her?
Very interesting. Thank you Neo. I took several Art History classes when I was getting my Masters in History. I really enjoyed them. I would tend to agree that the painting symbolizes her Death.
I have been to Burges several times, a beautiful city. With the best chocolate shop around the corner from the Cathedral. The Cathedral has the Michelangelo’s Madonna, only one outside of Italy. It was the center piece for the movie “Monuments Men”.
Re: Jan van Eyck, “Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife” (1434)
There’s always an arms race in art. Clearly this portrait goes far beyond a marriage and the painter’s commission. I argue it’s also van Eyck’s challenge to his contemporaries: “Eat my dust.”
What pushed classical European painting to its heights was competition. Consider all the incredible detail in this painting especially the insanity of the convex mirror behind the couple. Van Eyck: “I can paint whatever you can, only from behind, in converse perspective, in a three-inch circle.”
That’s Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar behind his back or with his teeth.
And if van Eyck threw in a lot of fancy symbolism to make people wonder for centuries what he meant? All the better. James Joyce boasted that all the riddles, allusions, and devices in his writing would keep scholars arguing for centuries.
The painting is signed, inscribed and dated on the wall above the mirror: “Johannes de eyck fuit hic 1434” (“Jan van Eyck was here 1434”). That’s not a simple signature. That’s a declaration.
That’s van Eyck as King Kong beating his chest.
Art Deco’s commentary on the painting is much better with discussion of the painting’s details and the customs of the day.
Good points. I wonder if Arnolfini noticed. If noticed, objected. None of the “details” seem to contradict the subject of marriage. But was he paying for extras he didn’t need? Perhaps that was a declaration of his own wealth as well.
van Eyck can do anything he wants with his brush and I can do anything I want with my purse.
Yeah, the reverse perspective in the mirror is hard to beat.
Good points. I wonder if Arnolfini noticed. If noticed, objected. None of the “details” seem to contradict the subject of marriage. But was he paying for extras he didn’t need? Perhaps that was a declaration of his own wealth as well.
Richard Aubrey:
Good question and a good answer.
___________________________
… in 1425 [Van Eyck] moved to Bruges and came to the attention of Philip the Good [Duke of Burgundy]. [Van Eycks] emergence as a collectable painter generally follows his appointment to Philip’s court… He served as court artist and diplomat, and was a senior member of the Tournai painters’ guild.
A court salary freed him from commissioned work, and allowed a large degree of artistic freedom. Over the following decade van Eyck’s reputation and technical ability grew, mostly from his innovative approaches towards the handling and manipulating of oil paint… His revolutionary approach to oil was such that a myth, perpetuated by Giorgio Vasari, arose that he had invented oil painting.
Van Eyck was one of the top painters of his time. So he wasn’t a starving artist. He had an income, a reputation, and the freedom to take oil painting to the limits. Which he did.
The Arnolfinis weren’t nobility but if you could afford to commission a van Eyck, you weren’t just getting a beautiful painting, you were buying some serious status.
‘Twas ever thus in the art world.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/416149.php
==
It was always implausible that bank officialdom wanted the wife of Gen. Michael Flynn off their customer list for reasons they came up with on their own (but wouldn’t tell him).
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Came across this over the weekend. Just thought it was very cool.
The Lightning Strike That Stretched a Record 515 Miles Across the Great Plains
https://archive.md/Jk1Sd
I’d never really heard of this before.
Was there an advantage to wedding a dead woman?
Or, was she alive for wedding but died before completion of painting?
Did he murder her?
Very interesting. Thank you Neo. I took several Art History classes when I was getting my Masters in History. I really enjoyed them. I would tend to agree that the painting symbolizes her Death.
I have been to Burges several times, a beautiful city. With the best chocolate shop around the corner from the Cathedral. The Cathedral has the Michelangelo’s Madonna, only one outside of Italy. It was the center piece for the movie “Monuments Men”.
I’ll wager they’re overthinking things.
Breitbart, “Journalist Mark Judge to Launch ‘Anti-Communist Film Festival’ in D.C.: ‘Fits the Moment’ “:
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2025/08/17/journalist-mark-judge-to-launch-anti-communist-film-festival-in-d-c-fits-the-moment/
A suggested film to include: Burnt by the Sun (Nikita Mikhalkov 1994): https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/
Re: Jan van Eyck, “Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife” (1434)
There’s always an arms race in art. Clearly this portrait goes far beyond a marriage and the painter’s commission. I argue it’s also van Eyck’s challenge to his contemporaries: “Eat my dust.”
What pushed classical European painting to its heights was competition. Consider all the incredible detail in this painting especially the insanity of the convex mirror behind the couple. Van Eyck: “I can paint whatever you can, only from behind, in converse perspective, in a three-inch circle.”
That’s Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar behind his back or with his teeth.
And if van Eyck threw in a lot of fancy symbolism to make people wonder for centuries what he meant? All the better. James Joyce boasted that all the riddles, allusions, and devices in his writing would keep scholars arguing for centuries.
The painting is signed, inscribed and dated on the wall above the mirror: “Johannes de eyck fuit hic 1434” (“Jan van Eyck was here 1434”). That’s not a simple signature. That’s a declaration.
That’s van Eyck as King Kong beating his chest.
Art Deco’s commentary on the painting is much better with discussion of the painting’s details and the customs of the day.
https://youtu.be/n6mBdpPYDDQ?si=Da4TlNoUR67akalE
huxley
Good points. I wonder if Arnolfini noticed. If noticed, objected. None of the “details” seem to contradict the subject of marriage. But was he paying for extras he didn’t need? Perhaps that was a declaration of his own wealth as well.
van Eyck can do anything he wants with his brush and I can do anything I want with my purse.
Yeah, the reverse perspective in the mirror is hard to beat.
they should make it less obvious,
https://x.com/ElephantSignal/status/1957596957133656262
crunchy irony, with peanut butter,
https://x.com/greg_price11/status/1957810716955508949
Mark Levin joins Hugh to talk about his new best-seller “On Power” – Video
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/08/mark-levin-joins-hugh-to-talk-about-his.html
Good points. I wonder if Arnolfini noticed. If noticed, objected. None of the “details” seem to contradict the subject of marriage. But was he paying for extras he didn’t need? Perhaps that was a declaration of his own wealth as well.
Richard Aubrey:
Good question and a good answer.
___________________________
… in 1425 [Van Eyck] moved to Bruges and came to the attention of Philip the Good [Duke of Burgundy]. [Van Eycks] emergence as a collectable painter generally follows his appointment to Philip’s court… He served as court artist and diplomat, and was a senior member of the Tournai painters’ guild.
A court salary freed him from commissioned work, and allowed a large degree of artistic freedom. Over the following decade van Eyck’s reputation and technical ability grew, mostly from his innovative approaches towards the handling and manipulating of oil paint… His revolutionary approach to oil was such that a myth, perpetuated by Giorgio Vasari, arose that he had invented oil painting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_van_Eyck#Court_painter
___________________________
Van Eyck was one of the top painters of his time. So he wasn’t a starving artist. He had an income, a reputation, and the freedom to take oil painting to the limits. Which he did.
The Arnolfinis weren’t nobility but if you could afford to commission a van Eyck, you weren’t just getting a beautiful painting, you were buying some serious status.
‘Twas ever thus in the art world.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/416149.php
==
It was always implausible that bank officialdom wanted the wife of Gen. Michael Flynn off their customer list for reasons they came up with on their own (but wouldn’t tell him).