Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and SZA set to star at Grammy Awards

Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and SZA are up for prizes, while Joni Mitchell will make her Grammys debut.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/ThBmqM4

Angela Rippon 'stopped breathing' on Strictly tour

The presenter, 79, says she suffered a serious asthma attack but is now "dancing fit" again.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/I2ONYnL

Angela Rippon 'stopped breathing' on Strictly tour

The presenter, 79, says she suffered a "serious asthma attack" but is now "dancing fit" again.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/t4FlczX

19th c. pearl shells unearthed in French Polynesia

An archaeological team from the University of Sydney has discovered pearl shells connected to the French colonization of Polynesia in the 19th century. The three complete pearl shells were found under an iron axe head at the site of missionary school on Aukena, one of the Îles Gambier of French Polynesia. The intact shells are evidence of how the missionaries trained schoolboys to process saltwater oysters for export.

In collaboration with members of the local cultural association Te Ana Pouga Magareva, the team excavated priests houses and a boy’s school associated with missionary churches on the islands of Aukena and Akamaru. At six different sites excavated in October and November 2023, the team unearthed more than 1,500 objects from daily use items — plates, bowls — to consumables — medications, alcohol — and remains from meals of fish, bird and shellfish.

The richest trove of finds came from the priests’ house at the Church of Notre Dame de la Païx at Akamaru. Hundreds of fragments of glass were recovered at the site, equating to dozens of bottles of gin, champagne and wine, as well as perfume and medicine imported from France, Britain, and the Netherlands.

Another distinctive find was hundreds of complete and fragmented pearl shells (from the Pinctada genus), which were cultivated to be worked into objects like buttons and decorative inlay, offering a glimpse into the island’s former pearl shell industry. […]

Traditionally, in French Polynesia, pearl shells were used for fishing lures, tattooing needles, pendants and figurines. By the 1840s, they were harvested en masse and exported around the world. The missionary endeavour in Mangareva was supported by Polynesian people cultivating and preparing thousands of tonnes of the valuable shells.

The iron axe and oyster shells found at the boys’ school on Aukena indicate the children in the school were being trained not just to make saleable finished pearl shell goods for export, but to farm the oysters, raise them to useable size, harvest and process them.

Excavations at Akamaru, Aukena and Mangareva will continue next year.

* This article was originally published here

Italian minister resigns amid stolen painting probe

Vittorio Sgarbi is accused of stealing the 17th-Century painting and altering it to conceal its provenance.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/MYBDItC

Italian minister resigns amid stolen painting probe

Vittorio Sgarbi is accused of stealing the 17th-Century painting and altering it to conceal its provenance.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/nUu0lI4

Legio XIII Gemina bricks found in Vienna

An archaeological excavation of an elementary school in Vienna has uncovered bricks bearing the stamp of the Roman 13th Legion Gemina.

The Kindermanngasse Elementary School is the fourth oldest school in Vienna and its location in the historic center of the city required that it undergo an archaeological exploration before a planned renovation. The Vienna City Archaeology department has been excavating the inner courtyard for several weeks and unearthed evidence of a large-scale Roman building — traves of wooden beams and post holes — from the 2nd century. Archaeologists believe it had an industrial purpose, perhaps the production of bricks, although so far there has been no smoking gun to explain the function of the building. In one trench the team found a pit filled with bricks stamped with the name of Legio XIII Gemina. They were likely the broken remnants of pilae stacks, the pillars of brick used to raise the floor for the hypocaust heating system.

Vindobona was founded at the site of a settlement of the Celtic kingdom of Noricum. In the 1st century A.D., the oppidum was absorbed into the Roman province of Pannonia and a fort was built there, part of a line of defenses alone the Danube limes (frontier). Legio XIII Gemina, descendant of the famous Thirteenth Legion that crossed the Rubicon with Julius Caesar in 49 B.C., was transferred to Vindobona by the emperor Trajan in 98 A.D. Legio XIII built a permanent military fort in what would become the heart of modern-day Vienna, although they would not be stationed there long. They were replaced by Legio XIV Gemina in 101 A.D.

The stone fortress was expanded and rebuilt over the centuries, with large stone walls constructed in the early 2nd century. The Kindermanngasse in the historic center of the city is less than two miles from the remains of homes of the legion’s officers found in previous excavations and other significant remains of the civilian settlement, but remains from the initial construction by Legio XIII are rare.

The excavation is expected to come to an end early this month.

* This article was originally published here

'Male UTI Is Always Complicated', Doctor Shares Alarming Symptoms Of Urinary Tract Infection

From symptoms to preventive measures, unravel essential insights on managing and tackling UTIs effectively especially in men. Read expert advice on that.

from Zee News :Zee News - Health https://ift.tt/CSwoasW

Rare Disorder Behind Extra Fingers And Toes: Study

The disorder, which has not yet been named, is caused by a genetic mutation in a gene called MAX. 

from Zee News :Zee News - Health https://ift.tt/lpfwN8J

Rediscovered Guercino Moses joins his David at Waddesdon Manor

A long-lost painting of Moses by Italian Baroque master Guercino has been acquired by the Jacob Rothschild Foundation for the permanent collection of Waddesdon Manor. It will make its English debut on March 20th at a new exhibition dedicated to the artist, Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women. The exhibition will feature five paintings by Guercino, including Waddesdon’s own King David.

The painting was rediscovered in November 2022 when it came up for auction in Paris attributed to a nameless painter of the Bologna school. The auction house’s experts hypothesized it may have been the work of a student of Guido Reni’s. Guercino was another possibility, based on comparisons with a known work of his, Head of an Old Man, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford that has a very similar composition: an old man with a cottony white beard looking up, his face bathed in light. There was also a copy of the same Moses by a pupil of Guercino’s, Bendetto Zalone, that sold at auction in 2001.

The presale estimate was a modest €5,000-6,000 ($5,175–$6,200), but when the hammer fell, the buyer had paid 10 times that amount, likely rolling the dice that the unattributed work could be a lost work by the Baroque master. Paintings by Guercino don’t come up for auction often, and the current record for one of his paintings, set in 2010, is £5.2 million ($6.6 million), even more than 10 times the €590,000 ($610,000) Moses went for.

In September 2023, Moses re-emerged at the Moretti Fine Art gallery. It turned out that Fabrizio Moretti, owner of the gallery and Old Master expert, was the mystery buyer. He rolled the dice happily, believing at first glance that Moses was an authentic Guercino. In the ten months since the auction, the painting was professionally cleaned and thoroughly researched to establish its provenance. Experts Letizia Treves, formerly of London’s National Gallery, and Keith Christiansen, formerly of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, conclusively attributed the painting to the Baroque master.

Moses is a masterpiece of Guercino’s Prima Maniera – used to describe the paintings he produced in Cento outside Bologna before a sojourn to Rome in 1621-23 – and is datable to about 1618-19, a time in which the young Guercino was greatly in demand producing altarpieces for churches in Cento as well as easel paintings for an ever-growing private clientele. The light, fluid and painterly touch in Guercino’s Moses may be compared to that in his King David, datable to a year or two earlier (c. 1617-18, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen) and the Head of an Old Man (c. 1619-20, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), which shares Moses’s tightly cropped bust-length format. Guercino appears to have used the same model for the painting as the figure of Elijah in Elijah Fed by Ravens (1620, National Gallery, London), likely using a tracing or cartoon of Moses’s head for the figure of Elijah, reversing it in the process and turning it slightly.

Moses is first recorded in 1624, in the eminent collection of cardinal Alessandro d’Este (1568–1624) in Rome, a patron of Guercino who almost certainly knew him during the period the painter resided in the city 1621–23. Although this period post-dates the execution of Moses, Guercino may have sold or given the painting to the cardinal to strengthen ties with him and his family. Indeed, from 1630 for a period spanning two decades, Guercino enjoyed the patronage and support of the Este in the form of the Duke Francesco I d’Este (1610–1658), the cardinal’s nephew. Following the death of cardinal Alessandro d’Este, the painting entered the renowned Este ducal collections in Modena and remained there until the Napoleonic era, whereupon it was taken to France during the Napoleonic occupation of the Duchy of Modena (1796–97) and all trace of the painting was lost. Prior to its rediscovery, Guercino’s Moses was known through seventeenth-century painted copies, a drawing and engravings, all of which attest to the work’s art historical significance.

The painting, restored to its former brilliance and to its identity, was displayed at Moretti Fine Art’s Paris gallery with a new price tag of €2 million ($2.2 million). The Jacob Rothschild Foundation snapped it up so Moses can keep King David company in the exceptional art collection at Waddesdon Manor, the palatial estate purpose-built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the late 19th century to house his art collection.

* This article was originally published here

Civil Design Engineer | LNR Consultancy

The Role An international consultancy is seeking a qualified Civil Engineer to become part of the team in Riyadh. Requirements: Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering Registration with the Saudi Council of Engineers Proficient communication skills in English Requirements Responsibilities: Engage in th...

Russell Brand denies 'very hurtful' sexual abuse allegations

The comedian and actor has denied allegations of rape and sexual assault between 2006 and 2013.

from BBC News - Entertainment & Arts https://ift.tt/qUO1VNi

Russell Brand denies 'very hurtful' sexual abuse allegations

The comedian and actor has denied allegations of rape and sexual assault between 2006 and 2013.

from BBC News - Entertainment & Arts https://ift.tt/H6ARDUL