APOD: Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (2019 Oct 23)

[APOD Robot]

Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

Explanation: The painting Starry Night is one of the most famous icons of the night sky ever created. The scene was painted by Vincent van Gogh in southern France in 1889. The swirling style of Starry Night appears, to many, to make the night sky come alive. Although van Gogh frequently portrayed real settings in his paintings, art historians do not agree on precisely what stars and planets are being depicted in Starry Night. The style of [url=http://www.andreaplanet.com/mosaic/starrynight/" >Starry Night</a> is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-impressionism]post-impressionism[/url], a popular painting style at the end of the nineteenth century. The original Starry Night painting hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, New York, USA.

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[Ann]

Lemme see... it's Wednesday today, isn't it? It's not Sunday? So it's not really repeat day, is it?

Yeah, I understand. Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell post a new Astronomy Picture of the Day every day, like clockwork. They do it every day, except usually Sundays, because Sunday is repeat day. Then Nemiroff and Bonnell just post an old picture along with its original caption and get themselves a little breather.

So maybe, for some reason, it wasn't possible to post the picture that really should have been the new APOD for today, so Nemiroff and Bonnell decided to go for a repeat image. In view of everything they do for us six days out of seven, for 52 weeks a year, that is not a big deal.

Besides, I think I read somewhere that the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, has just opened again after being closed for upgrading, and Vincent van Gogh's iconic painting hangs in MoMA. So maybe his superb work of art could be seen as a "new" APOD after all.

Ann

[Iksarfighter]

Full picture is too heavy.

[Ann]

Full picture is too heavy.

I agree. My computer didn't want to open the full size picture. That almost never happens.

Ann

[heehaw]

Can't repeat this one too often for me!

[Boomer12k]

I think it is fanciful...not actual... that is Art...

A..."stirring" painting...

:---[===] *

[orin stepanek]

I know it is a famous painting; and I'll get a lot of flack; but to me this painting looks like a child's painting! But it is a Vincent van Gogh art piece, therefore very very valuable!

[neufer]

Lemme see... it's Wednesday today, isn't it? It's not Sunday? So it's not really repeat day, is it?

Yeah, I understand. Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell post a new Astronomy Picture of the Day every day, like clockwork. They do it every day, except usually Sundays, because Sunday is repeat day. Then Nemiroff and Bonnell just post an old picture along with its original caption and get themselves a little breather.

So maybe, for some reason, it wasn't possible to post the picture that really should have been the new APOD for today, so Nemiroff and Bonnell decided to go for a repeat image.

<<Precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. The principle by which judges are bound to precedents is known as stare decisis (a Latin phrase with the literal meaning of "Let the decision stand"). "Super stare decisis" is a term used for important precedent that is resistant or immune from being overturned, without regard to whether correctly decided in the first place. It may be viewed as one extreme in a range of precedential power, or alternatively, to express a belief, or a critique of that belief, that some decisions should not be overturned.>>

I think it is fanciful...not actual... that is Art...

[rstevenson]

Full picture is too heavy.

I agree. My computer didn't want to open the full size picture. That almost never happens.

Ann

Yes, it is taking about 3 minutes to download to my desktop. (I'm doing that so as not to strangle my browser.) The clue is in the filename, which is StarryNight_VanGogh_30000.jpg. It is 30000 pixels wide by 23756 pixels high, or 712.7 megapixels. It is about 215 MB on my drive, now that it's finished downloading. It is amazingly detailed!...

Rob

[gmPhil]

I know it is a famous painting; and I'll get a lot of flack; but to me this painting looks like a child's painting! But it is a Vincent van Gogh art piece, therefore very very valuable!

You should look closer - it is NOTHING LIKE a child's painting!

[mostly cloudy]

The file is worth the size. It may be the best scan you will ever see - it’s like a gift! The way he did the lighted windows is incredible. Thank you, APOD.

[ptahhotep]

The following broadcast from last week is relevant:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009c2j

[neufer]

The following broadcast from last week is relevant:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009c2j

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupressus_sempervirens

Cypresses (1889) by Vincent van Gogh, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

---

<<In classical antiquity, the cypress was a symbol of mourning and in the modern era it remains the principal cemetery tree in both the Muslim world and Europe. In the classical tradition, the cypress was associated with death and the underworld because it failed to regenerate when cut back too severely. Athenian households in mourning were garlanded with boughs of cypress. Cypress was used to fumigate the air during cremations. It was among the plants that were suitable for making wreaths to adorn statues of Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld.

The poet Ovid, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, records the best-known myth that explains the association of the cypress with grief. The handsome boy Cyparissus, a favorite of Apollo, accidentally killed a beloved tame stag. His grief and remorse were so inconsolable that he asked to weep forever. He was transformed into cupressus sempervirens, with the tree's sap as his tears. In another version of the story, it was the woodland god Silvanus who was the divine companion of Cyparissus and who accidentally killed the stag. When the boy was consumed by grief, Silvanus turned him into a tree, and thereafter carried a branch of cypress as a symbol of mourning.

In Greek mythology, besides Cyparissus, the cypress is also associated with Artemis and Hecate, a goddess of magic, crossroads and the underworld. Ancient Roman funerary rites used it extensively.

The most famous Muslim cemetery in Turkey where C. sempervirens is used widely is Istanbul Karacaahmet Cemetery. In Istanbul Turkish the tree is referred to as "Mezarlık Selvisi" (Cemetery Tree); its common name in Turkish and the name used in Turkish forestry is "Kara Selvi" (Black Cypress). Cypresses are mentioned extensively in the Shahnameh, the great Iranian epic poem by Ferdowsi.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is the [Turkish] word "ANIM" painted upside
down in white on the Starry Night mountain
................................................
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/an%C4%B1m

anım: first-person singular possessive of an [Turkish]

When this word is pronounced, the stress is on the last syllable: anım.
(The pronunciation with stress on the penultimate syllable, anım,
means "I am [a(n)/the] moment.")
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Jewish tradition, the cypress was held to be the wood used to build Noah's Ark and The Temple, and is mentioned as an idiom or metaphor in biblical passages, either referencing the tree's shape as an example of uprightness or its evergreen nature as an example of eternal beauty or health. It is popular in modern Israeli cemeteries, with contemporary explanation being that its shape resembles a candle and its being an evergreen symbolized the immortality of the soul.>>

[L. McNish]

Here's my updated version as to how "Starry Night" might have been
painted after corporations launch tens of thousands of Low Earth Orbit
satellites.

[Ann]

Here's my updated version as to how "Starry Night" might have been
painted after corporations launch tens of thousands of Low Earth Orbit
satellites.

That is so funny!

Ann

[Jay Arthurs]

Sirs,
I loved today’s picture. My wife even made a cover for my printer made from Starry Night fabric. Anyway, much more is known about this painting than you indicated on your writeup of it. Many years ago Sky & Telescope magazine did an article telling of the efforts of, I believe, art and computer students from a Texas university who went to France and analyzed the painting and compared it to computer simulations of the night skies in 1889. They pinpointed it to a particular night, time and location in France. Further, they identified the night sky items, the moon, Venus, etc. They concluded that Vincent painted from the image in a mirror that he used to see the sky behind him, having oriented his canvas so that the sunset was behind him illuminating the canvas so he could paint. Other than many years ago, I have no idea which particular issue of the magazine had this article. I’m sure if you contacted the magazine they could tell you. Wikipedia has this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night which gives a different story than Sky&Tel gave. You might like to get from Netflix the movie, “Loving Vincent”. It is a biography of Van Gogh and rather than his suicide they put forth the idea that he was actually murdered by some delinquent young boys who loved to torment him for being “weird”. I believe this theory of his death can be found in some histories of Van Gogh. The whole movie is animated and the images are all done in the Starry Night style as though Van Gogh himself did the animation. Fascinating and lovely movie. Thanks for putting out APOD; it is my homepage everytime I boot up.
Jay Arthurs
Prescott, AZ

[neufer]

I loved today’s picture. My wife even made a cover for my printer made from Starry Night fabric. Anyway, much more is known about this painting than you indicated on your writeup of it. Many years ago Sky & Telescope magazine did an article telling of the efforts of, I believe, art and computer students from a Texas university who went to France and analyzed the painting and compared it to computer simulations of the night skies in 1889. They pinpointed it to a particular night, time and location in France. Further, they identified the night sky items, the moon, Venus, etc. They concluded that Vincent painted from the image in a mirror that he used to see the sky behind him, having oriented his canvas so that the sunset was behind him illuminating the canvas so he could paint. Other than many years ago, I have no idea which particular issue of the magazine had this article. I’m sure if you contacted the magazine they could tell you. Wikipedia has this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night which gives a different story than Sky&Tel gave. You might like to get from Netflix the movie, “Loving Vincent”. It is a biography of Van Gogh and rather than his suicide they put forth the idea that he was actually murdered by some delinquent young boys who loved to torment him for being “weird”. I believe this theory of his death can be found in some histories of Van Gogh. The whole movie is animated and the images are all done in the Starry Night style as though Van Gogh himself did the animation. Fascinating and lovely movie. Thanks for putting out APOD; it is my homepage everytime I boot up.
Jay Arthurs
Prescott, AZ

This: https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bit ... lltext.pdf

• April 2001 Sky & Telescope

A FIFTH NIGHT-SKY PAINTING BY VINCENT VAN GOGH
HAS REAPPEARED AFTER BEING LOST FOR A HALF CENTURY.

WHAT CELESTIAL OBJECT DID HE INCLUDE IN WHITE HOUSE AT NIGHT?

THE STORY OF STARRY NIGHT

<<Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh began to suffer hallucination and have thoughts of suicide as he plunged into depression. Accordingly, there was a tonal shift in his work. He returned to incorporating the darker colors from the beginning of his career. One of the biggest points of interest about this painting is that it came entirely from Van Gogh’s imagination. None of the scenery matches the area surrounding Saint-Paul or the view from his window. As a man who religiously paints what he sees, it’s a remarkable break from Van Gogh’s normal work.

In Genesis 37:9, Joseph states, “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” - predicting that one day his family would bow to him as an authority. Some people associate this quote to the painting. Perhaps it is a reference to Van Gogh’s family, who doubted the success of his career (with the notable exception of his brother).

Divide the painting into three parts. The sky is the divine. It is by far the most dreamlike, unreal part of the painting, beyond human comprehension and just out of reach. Go down one level to the cypress, the hills, and the other trees on the ground. They bend and swirl, still soft angles that match the soft swirls of the sky. The last part is the village. The straight lines and sharp angles divide it from the rest of the painting, seemingly separating it from the “heavens” of the sky. However, note the dots of trees rolled through the village, how the spire of the church stretches up to the sky.>>