Ancient handaxe found in famous Renaissance painting?!

Hello everyone, welcome back to Buy Amara. This is a supposed to be a weekly news show. It kind of hasn't been, but bear with me.

It will be weekly, I promise. What are we talking about? Weekly news show where I discuss some of the weird, strange, and downright odd things happening in the art and history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator Amara Andrew. Just kidding, it's Amara if you've never listened to this. Anyway, this week we're talking about dinosaur fossils on a Colorado golf course, a rare compound found on the Mona Lisa, and an ancient handaxe that's actually in a famous Renaissance artwork,

Possibly. It's really interesting, it's weird, just bear with me. We'll talk more about that in a second.

I'm a little rusty. Hi. Just call me Rusty then, I guess.

It has been a few weeks. I'm so sorry, I said that I was going to have an episode out 2 weeks ago and then it's just been crazy. So I'm very sorry, please forgive me.

I hope you haven't stopped loving me, and if you have, please just keep loving me.

I'm so needy. Hi, welcome back. Or if you're new here, welcome to this shitshow of a podcast.

My name is Amara Andrew, as I stated, it is not Amara Andrew. I get Amara quite a lot, which is a little disconcerting. I get Amanda a lot, too.

One of my friends nicknamed me Amaranth, which I thought was very funny. I don't know why. Oh, my dad also calls me Am'are Stoudemire from the Phoenix Suns cause I'm from Arizona, so Am'are Stoudemire was everywhere.

Anyway, what the fuck am I going on about?

If you hear squeaking also, Jeff is our one of our closet doors is very squeaky, so he's trying to fix it right now, and it's very loud. So, if you hear it, I apologize. But anyway, hi, welcome.

It is Halloween today. It is my favorite time of year. My mind is just everywhere right now, sorry.

It is Halloween, it is my favorite day of the year. I love Halloween. I love Halloween more than literally every single other day

Of the year. I don't know why, it just like it feels really nice. It's snowing here though, which is ridiculous.

I live in Chicago and what the fuck? It was supposed to be nice and sunny, but whatever. So, it's snowing, super weird, I don't enjoy that.

But today is my favorite day. I'm very excited. It just like fills me with like happiness.

Like I just I love Halloween as you can tell by my sweater. So, it's very nice. Our whole house is decorated, and we're going to have fun tonight, hopefully, and

We'll see what happens. But yeah, so like I said, it's been a very busy couple weeks. Also, side tangent, this is the part of the show where I just do life updates and story updates, which I do have some, so please stay tuned, don't leave me just yet, or if you want to zoom ahead, that's totally fine.

So, crazy busy past couple weeks. I was going to record 2 weeks ago, but then just things were crazy, and just dealing with client stuff, not dealing with, but

Working through client stuff. We went to Arizona, which like I just said is where I'm from, and we went to my high school best friend's wedding, which was very sweet. She was just so lovely.

I got to see her new house, too, which was really fun. I got to see all my old high school friends, and actually funny enough, one of my other high school best friends did my makeup for my high school best friend's wedding, so it was just really cute. It was like a very Hallmark kind of thing.

It was as Hallmark as I want to get. So, it was very sweet, I absolutely loved it. Her wedding was beautiful.

It was at this really pretty outdoor venue, and like they had overhead lighting. I don't know why, I was so fixated. I love lighting.

So, I was just It was like all the little like bistro lights, and it just felt very romantic, and she had like this whole bridal suite, so we all got to get ready together, and I was trying to do my hair, and I had a meltdown cause I just don't do my hair ever. Like, this is this is it. This is what you get.

So, thank fuck my other friend could do my makeup cause that was very nice. So yeah, it was it was just a very romantic sort of feeling, and she loves national parks, so actually her little centerpieces were like various different national parks across the country, and it was really cute.

So, she was a beautiful bride. I balled my fucking eyes out. As soon as when we were in the bridal suite, it was just me, her parents, and then like her sister, cause like everybody else went out to go get their seats cause I was like taking photos.

Her dad comes into the bridal suite, and like as soon as he saw her, he started crying, which he is a hard ass, and he does not cry. So then I started crying because I was like, oh my god, I was crying the whole fucking day. It was a hot mess, and I don't want to cry that much ever again.

And it was just really sweet. Like it's it's weird, I think, for me too because that's like a person who like obviously as you get older, like your friendships kind of like change and shift and stuff like that, but we were so close in high school cause like I lived with her for a little, long story, but it was just different.

Like someone so close to you getting married like that, it was just really sweet, and her husband is adorable. So, they're just they're very cute together. I really like them, so anyway,

Balled my little eyes out. So, that was very fun. Like I said, I got to see some of my old friends.

We recreated one of our prom photos, which was really fun, where we were helping my best friend, we were helping her like go to the bathroom cause her dress, her prom dress, was huge. It was like this giant Cinderella dress. She looked amazing though, of course.

So, it was just very funny, so we got to recreate that, even though her wedding dress was much more subdued.

So, that was very fun, and it was nice and warm. I love it hot. I am definitely a desert lizard.

I love it warm. I need the heat as it's snowing right now, and I can't fucking believe it. Anyway, and we got to go to In-N-Out Burger, which is literally my favorite food group.

I love In-N-Out Burger. I have In-N-Out Burger shoes actually, funny enough. I just I'm obsessed with it, which is really dumb.

Yeah, so Arizona was very lovely. It was just super chill. Got to see people, hang out, do all this fun, wonderful stuff, see people I haven't seen in like 12 years, which was cool.

So then we left there literally the day after the wedding because then a couple of clients of mine were just like, "Hey, we're going to be in San Diego for a conference. Do you want to come?" And I was like, "Fuck yeah, let's do it." And I was like, "Oh fuck, this is like literally the day after the wedding." Even though we got there like a little bit late cause the conference was already going on.

So then, one of my main things that I do is I do videography, specifically videography, like social media videography for realtors, so like doing various different content and stuff like that. So, we have this thing called like a VIP experience where we record with them, and we bring all of our stuff, and like I have it's like a whole system.

Have a private car, pick them up, take them to the studio space, drive them back, blah, blah, blah. It's really fun, I like it. It's probably one of my favorite things I'd I've ever done just because I don't know,

I like talking to people, and I like getting to meet people and like get to know more about them. I don't know. So, that was very fun, and we got to like reconnect cause we met first in Dallas in August at another real estate conference.

So then, we got to like see each other, and I was just so excited to see everybody cause it was just like I don't know, I got to see like It was an interesting trip because it was like old friends and then new friends, and I don't know. It was just really exciting. So, I just I liked being able to see everybody and hang out, even though we didn't get to hang out too much, but

It was just very fun, and everybody's just wonderful. So yeah, the San Diego part was very quick. Unfortunately, I wanted to hang out longer with everybody, but it just timing didn't work out and stuff like that.

Then, the day after we got back, I went to a gong meditation with a couple friends of mine. I've never been to one. I am so not a woo-woo person, and like that's not to be diminutive, like if you like it, that's totally awesome, but that is so not my vibe, but I'll try anything twice, so why not?

So, we went to that, which was very odd, and I couldn't get into it. I think because for me, like working out and meditation are so private to me, like I only like to do that by myself, just because then I get in like the mind space, and I can actually like be in it, where I don't really like doing like the group things like that cause then I'm focused on like everybody else, and if somebody coughs, and I know it's like the whole point of meditation is to like get within your yourself and like within your mind and eliminate just or like, whatever.

You fucking know what meditation is. Go Google it.

It was in my head all the time, and I couldn't quite get comfortable, and cause like I just had a lot on my mind, also. But, it was very nice that they invited me, and that I got to be included in their world, so that was fun. I might try it again, honestly, maybe when I don't have so many things on my mind, so that is it, I think, for my personal I'm literally looking through my notes cause I'm like, do I have anything else?

So, I think that's literally it. I do have two story two, one, two,

I have three! I have three story updates. Sorry, also, this is going to be a very long episode of Buy Amara, it just is, so I'm sorry.

In Episode 49, we looked at this collab between the Van Gogh Museum and Pokemon, where at the Van Gogh Museum, they had It's It's such a weird collab, I have no idea how this even came about. It's a very weird thing, but it's cool, I guess, cause I like both of those things, so it works out. But, at the Van Gogh Museum, they were selling merchandise that had various different Pokemon characters, and then they had like Sunflora,

I think there's a promo with Snorlax in the bed, and like just various different things. There was this one specific piece of merch that everybody just lost their shit over. It was on like eBay for thousands of dollars, and people were just like going crazy.

It was this little promo card of Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat, which is based off of a Van Gogh self-portrait in Gogh, sorry, I'm never going to say it right, just shut the fuck up.

So, Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat, it was a collectible item. People lost their ever-loving fucking minds for it. People on eBay were selling it for a shit ton of money.

People on eBay were buying it for a shit ton of money. Well, now the museum has decided to stop the promotion, apparently, because shit was just crazy. Quote, "This is from a press release from the museum, The Van Gogh Museum and the Pokemon Company International take the safety and security of visitors and staff very seriously.

Recently, a small group of individuals has created an undesirable situation that has led us to take the difficult decision to remove the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat promo card from the museum. In this way, visitors will be able to experience this special collection of Pokemon paintings and the rest of the museum in a safe and enjoyable manner," end quote.

What the fuck is happening at the museum where they're like, "Okay, we need to pull this promo card because people are going insane." I wonder if it's started like fist fights or I don't know. I don't think of the Dutch as being particularly violent, but who knows? Or, just international visitors, I guess.

But, apparently, they had to pull the promo card because people were just doing whatever, they don't say exactly what it was, but I'm imagining people just fist fighting in a gallery full of Pokemon Van Gogh paintings, and it's very funny to me. I don't like violence, but just the idea that grown-ass people are fighting over this thing is ridiculous.

Don't buy something super expensive on eBay though, they do clarify that the card will soon be available at Pokemon Center soon, and will also be available at other retailers in the Netherlands, just not at the museum, so don't be afraid. But, this also

Brings up I got one. Can you see it? The lighting is a little odd.

But I did end up getting a Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat. It's sealed still. I just I couldn't help myself.

I only got it for like $80 or something on eBay. I did not spend thousands of dollars, so do not worry, but I had to get it. Look how cute it is!

Sorry, that was very loud.

Look how cute it is. It's so cute, just like his little face, and like I don't know, it just felt perfect for me. I was like, well, I have to get one.

So, I'm actually going to get it I'm going to send it in to get graded and everything, so then it's just sealed in a case. I have a couple other graded cards from other various different things, but I'm very excited for it. Yeah, I was just very happy to be able to get one, so I really I don't know, I like it.

I'm glad I got one. I was just like, that's just like a stupid waste of money, but I don't know, I'm glad I got it. I like all art history-related things fucking obviously, so I got my little my little Pikachu card, and hopefully, no bloodshed for it, but you know, if so, then there's a story.

So, the second update that I have,

Okay, so we are all we, the collective we, not so much me, but the collective we, which I got a lot of shit on one of my videos where I was talking about how copyright and AI are not agreeing, which a lot of people were like, "Yeah, fuck it. You're stupid." I was like, "Okay, let's calm down." But, a lot of people have apprehension about AI, but AI isn't all bad, I do want to say, which sue me, whatever, that's fine.

As a creative, I'm saying that I don't find AI to be that bad, but that's

My own prerogative, I guess. So, all the way back in Episode 31, we talked about the Vesuvius Challenge. Just as a little refresher, there's it's a global competition to decipher the set of scrolls that were uncovered in the 18th century.

They were buried under layers of ash, soot, mud, all this various different shit, but the scrolls themselves had actually carbonized because they were kept perfectly intact. So, they were dug up between 1752 and 1754. These scrolls are thousands of years old, cause I think Pompeii exploded 79 AD, I think is the year.

I don't remember, but whatever, just let me know. So, the Vesuvius Challenge was launched as a way to have researchers assist in reading these scrolls. So, they are extremely fragile, obviously, cause they're they're carbonized, so you can't actually unroll them.

So, what someone did, I think it was in 2016, they actually had a CT scan of these different scrolls,

So then researchers could actually read the un-opened scrolls. The Vesuvius Challenge is a way to incentivize people to compete and then, also, to have people try to read these scrolls a lot quicker. So, there are various different prize moneys.

I think the highest is 700,000 or $750,000 is like the grand prize if you can read a lot of it. So, we do have some updates for that. So far, one contestant has won the $10,000 prize point, there are like various different prize points, they've won the $10,000 prize point for discovering a quote "crackle pattern" in the scan that was confirmed to be ink, which then confirmed to be ink means confirmed to be words,

Letters, which confirmed to be words, which you can then start to read, which is really cool. I love this shit. This shit, oh my god, you could if you could hear my heart, which there isn't one in there, but I'm so excited.

So, another person So, sorry.. This one person identified ink. Another person, now, has been able to train AI to be able to read the ink that was found and turn it into readable text.

So far, he's only been able to decipher one word, and can you guess what this word is? And no, it's not Amara.

That's dumb. This one word is porphyras. I don't know if I'm saying it properly.

Forgive me. Porphyras, or purple! Apparently, the first word that was able to be deciphered is purple, fun fact.

So, the person who did this was awarded money. They got $40,000. That means though that the grand prize for 700,000 700,000

$700,000 is still up for grabs. Take two weeks off and I fall apart. The grand prize is still available, so if you are able to identify four readable passages of at least 140 characters from the scrolls, you can still have this grand prize.

So, if you are at all interested, you have a passing fancy, you should go for it. It would be very I don't know. You should just do it.

Just do it, just do whatever makes you happy. So, our third and final update, sorry, I said this was going to be a very long episode,

Our third and final update has to do with the Van Gogh painting that was returned in an IKEA bag. I talked about it last episode, I think. I don't know, everything just blends together.

Essentially, what happened was a Dutch art detective, Arthur Brand, was negotiating with thieves who stole this painting from this one museum when it was on loan from another museum. The painting was called The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring. He was able to negotiate this with people, the thieves, and have them return it to him.

Came in an IKEA bag. I just thought that was very funny. Well,

Mr. Brand was at home watching TV when his doorbell rang with a delivery. The doorbell or the delivery person was totally unaffiliated with the thieves, but apparently, what was at the door was a package that contained six historical paintings believed to be worth around €100,000 or about $160,000 US dollars.

These were stolen a long time ago, and after examining the works, he then called the police. So,

Brand states quote, "I think this was a direct result of the recovery of the Van Gogh last month." So, he states that he believes that the thieves got scared and then instead of burning or trying to destroy the painting, which would be a larger prison sentence if they got caught, they just wanted to return it and just kind of like cut their losses and just be like, "Okay, whatever.

Like, we're done with this." So, some of the paintings that are included are portraits of like early medieval kind of peoples, like a bunch of different royalty essentially. So, there's early medieval King Radbod, and then assorted Dutch royals like Prince William of Orange, Maurits of Orange, Count Jan van Nassau, and Queen Wilhelmina.

There's also a biblical scene, too, in there, so fun fact. So, not exactly connected to Van Gogh, like to that actual story, but it is still connected because it was a byproduct of that, so it's just really fascinating. I just thought it was cool.

So, anyway, let us get in to the show.

A series of dinosaur fossil tracks were found on a Colorado golf Well, not on a Colorado golf course, in a Colorado golf course. Could you imagine if you walked out to the golf course in the morning and then you're just like, "Holy shit, there's a T-Rex footprint here." That would be wild. I would definitely be like, "Okay, am I okay?

Are things okay?" anyway. So,

Dinosaur footprint was found in a Colorado golf course. This was found at the aptly named Fossil Trace Golf Course in Golden, Colorado, and this is a super brief story. There isn't a whole shit ton to it, but it was just really fun.

Also, I keep thinking of this there's an NFT project called Dinosaur Butt Feet, and it's just very funny. Just the premise of Dinosaur Butt Feet I find so funny, I'm like a 10-year-old boy. Anyway, so at this golf course, paleontologists removed a dinosaur footprint after concern for the survival was expressed.

I think there were multiple footprints, but for the purposes of this story, we're just going to focus on the one. Earlier this month, so October 2023, Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, which is nearby, they found that over 40% of the block that was containing this fossil track, which I love that name by the way, that feels like that would be my rap name.

I will not become a rapper, so don't worry. But,

40% of this fossil track were actually coming removed from the wall, so then there was a really high likelihood that after winter or spring, whatever, by the time spring came, it would actually fall out and be damaged forever, like not be able to be salvaged at all. So, there was a huge impetus to like, "We need to get this out of here." The fossil track, like I said, I love that, cause like track like singing, fossil track.

Anyway, so the fossil track in question, guess what dinosaur it was from! Triceratops!

I just thought that was fun. Anyway, so, they put the So, they removed the fossil track from the wall, which obviously it takes a lot of work because you want to move slowly and not damage anything, and blah, blah, blah, and especially 40% of it was already gone, then or like detached from the wall, then it was like, "Okay, I don't want to damage anything." So, it was put in a field jacket, and then it was covered with plaster, and then it had a wood bottom part to it, like a wood frame to be able to preserve it.

So, essentially just think of like a cast, it was just put in all of this to then keep it intact. This area of Colorado, Golden, has a shit ton of fossil traces and various different things that have been found throughout history throughout time.

Throughout now. There have been a lot of things. There's a lot of fossil activity.

Nearby at Dinosaur Ridge, similar footprints are also in danger of extinction, so, extinct, extinction, just because of the winter and having erosion and things like that, so they're the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge are trying to preserve all of these different footprints as much as possible. I always love that, but like I said, like I say, rather, you can't save everything, so I really love that they're trying to save as much as possible, but again, it's like, you can only save so much.

So, anyway, like I said, super brief story, but just a footprint series of footprints were preserved from this golf course. The footprint itself is actually supposed to go on view at the Golden History Museum later this year, so if you want to go view it, it will be there. So, on to our next story.

Sorry, that felt very loud. I feel like every week on this podcast, I'm either talking about Van Gogh or the Mona Lisa, and this week we are talking about the Mona Lisa. Wow, shocking, I know.

But, what's really cool what we're talking about this week rather, that's really cool, is a rare chemical compound was found on the Mona Lisa. This chemical compound, this chemical compound too tells us a lot about Da Vinci's creative practice and a bunch of other artists, but we'll talk about that more in a second. I just like I love knowing why people create things, how they create things.

I love knowing people's creative processes cause it's very different person to person. Like, my creative practice is going to be very different from yours, and mine in specific disciplines is very different from other disciplines that I practice. It's just really cool, so that is there's a lot there are a lot of reasons why we should know this, but we'll talk about that in a second.

So, anyway, sorry, I get so jazzed, I'm like, "Let's talk about your creative process. What is it?" So,

This week researchers published an article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, where they uncovered a super rare chemical compound in the Mona Lisa. Scientists took a small sample from the top right portion of the Mona Lisa, and then they did a variety of different sciencey things, so they used, excuse me, high angular resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction

And micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Yeah, lots of science. To reveal a singular mixture of strongly saponified, strongly, why did I propose pronounce a G?

A mixture of strongly sapon- strongly, why am I saying strongly? A singular mixture of strongly saponified oil with high lead content and a plumbonacrite-depleted lead white pigment. I'm going to tell you what all that means.

Basically, scientists took these really cool science machines, they tested this little piece of the painting, and then they found that it contains oil and then lead oxide pigment. There you go, that is broken down for you. And this is actually a rare chemical compound called plumbonacrite.

I'm going to call it plumbonacrite just for the purposes of this. This substance has also been found in other Old Masters artworks, but like I said, we'll talk about that more in a second, but it's very exciting, I promise. I find it exciting.

Plumbonacrite forms from lead oxide, so this means that Da Vinci likely used lead white powder lead oxide powder, rather, to help thicken and dry his paint. So, apparently, this would speed up the drying process for paint, so you literally didn't have to watch paint dry if you were trying to finish a commission on time or quickly or whatever.

And then, obviously, the saponified oil base was from the oil that he used within his paintings. It's believed by researchers, they talk about it in the study, that it was either walnut or linseed oil. I don't know, I always find it interesting.

Linseed oil was like the most common kind of oil that was used, so it was probably that, but it's not 100% confirmed. So, Da Vinci, what researchers are saying, he combined the oil with the lead oxide powder to create this pigment, mixed it up and then actually heated it to form a really thick paste. Since lead oxide powder is orange, it would have had this really pretty like golden kind of yellow hue to it, which is important to know in 2 seconds.

Sorry, I keep teasing all these things, but it's just really interesting. I have a lot of different threads that I'm trying to connect. So, it's long been suspected by art historians that he actually used lead oxide powder just from other various different artworks.

So now, it can actually mostly be confirmed. It's not like 100% yet, but sort of confirmed. I always like to be like, "Well, why the hell do we need to know any of this?" This is super helpful for conservation work.

Like I just talked about with the dinosaur feet, dinosaur footprints rather, or fossil tracks, you don't need to serve like save everything. However, the more that we can save things, the better, just because then it's like, "Oh, this is a record of ancient history," because eventually Da Vinci's going to be ancient history, which is wild to think about.

Like, we will be ancient history one day, which blows my mind. Well, technically, we could be ancient I'm not going to get into timelines and shit like that, we could go down another rabbit hole. But, for the purposes of this, it's really important to know this because then it helps conservatives be able to help conserve paintings a lot better and not have a bad chemical reaction to it, how to be able to take certain things off, put certain things on, so it just really helps with the overall presentation of the painting.

It's really, really helpful. So, like I've been teasing, this isn't the first time that plumbonacrite has been found in Old Masters works. This was also found in Da Vinci's iconic The Last Supper fresco, which is very of note, very of note.

Whoa. English, not first language. It is, but I apparently don't speak it very well.

So, this was also found in Da Vinci's iconic The Last Supper fresco, which is really fascinating. This was also found in a variety of other artists, but namely Rembrandt. It's been found in his Night Watch, which we talked about like many, many episodes ago.

It was found in Night Watch. It was also found in his portrait of Marten Soolmans, Susanna and the Elders, and Bathsheba at her Bath. So, this is really fascinating to know.

So, Da Vinci and Rembrandt are about like over 100 years in distance from each other. That means that this recipe for lead oxide white paint was transferred from various different locales across Europe, also from various different time periods, and it was used in both of these time periods. There are also ancient artworks that have lead oxide lead white lead oxide I'm getting so excited, lead oxide powder in them also, so that means that this possibly came from ancient art, and then just like it's been carried through and passed down.

What's even more remarkable about this though, they talk about this in the study, is that throughout you can read through all of Da Vinci's manuscripts online, it's really fascinating, you should take a look, but you'll have to reverse it cause he wrote backwards. In his manuscripts, there's no reference to using lead oxide.

There are various different references to giallo and other kind of like gold kind of hue sort of terms, there are a bunch of different terms, you can read about it in the study further if you want, but there are references to this golden kind of hue, but not actually to the recipe of making this color white. It's really weird.

It's weird that he didn't preserve it, but then also how it was carried through. Like, it almost feels like an oral tradition rather if you are passing this recipe along, so it kind of almost feels like a rite of passage. Like, if you spent time working in an artist's studio, then you got access to these various different recipes, but then it was never written down, or maybe written down and then gone, like lost from history, and then you would just share it with people.

I don't know, I find that really fascinating, so anyway, TLDR, there is a commonality with these white paints in various different Old Masters. I'm sure as time goes on, too, we'll find way more. But, for now, that's all I got.

It's just a very interesting sort of story, so good for conservation work, interesting to know, and maybe there was an oral history tradition through art something or other, it was like a secret guild or something, which there were guilds, but I digress. Anyway, on to our third and final story, this one I'm very excited for.

If you've ever taken an art history course, you have definitely seen this painting of the woman with the really weird melons. I don't mean to be so crass, but it is such a creepy, weird painting. Like it creeps me out, and I don't really get creeped out that often.

It's a very odd painting. So, what I'm talking about is the Melun Diptych. So, a diptych is it literally means two paneled, two whatever.

So, if you have like a triptych, it's three panels, blah, blah, blah. This painting was long thought to actually just be one specific piece, but then it was later found out like, "Oh, the hinges actually correlate," cause it was in two separate institutions. I think it still is.

But anyway, or maybe it's together. I don't know, I'm just making shit up. But it's if you've ever taken an art history course, you've definitely seen this, and if you're listening to this, you should look it up.

It's the Melun Diptych. You will 100% know what the fuck I'm talking about as soon as you see it. It's like, "Oh yeah, I remember those boobs," cause they're like literally on opposite sides of her body where it's like, "No, they come together.

They don't merge like that." This was before breast implants, so it's not that, or maybe they had them, I don't know. Anyway, that'll be something that we find out later on. I'm just talking like a lunatic.

We are looking at this diptych, so we're very familiar with this specific panel where it shows the Madonna and the Christ Child, and then surrounded by angels. The Madonna, weird boobs aside, is very creepy because she's so ghostly pale, same with baby Jesus. They're very pale, like creepy pale.

She has her crown. She's She's extremely idealized, so like the boobs are part of the idealization, her creepy whiteness, her like hairline being moved back cause people like women would shave their heads, which is insane to me. I'm like, keep my hair.

But they would shave like their heads to get this really high forehead cause it was like, "Oh, I'm intelligent," blah, blah, blah. They'd shave their eyebrows, like it was just it was a whole thing. I'm not going to go too in to it, but then you have these like creepy little angel babies all around it, which are terrifying.

They're like this plasticky looking, excuse me, like this plastic looking kind of shininess to them, but anyway, she's sitting on the throne, creepy angel babies, they're like red and blue and surrounding her and blah, blah, blah. This other panel though shows two figures, two male figures. They both have really sexy bowl cuts, like a monk sort of thing.

I love I love a bowl cut. I actually had one for a little bit, but we're not going to talk about that. So, in this other panel, you see two male figures.

One of them is actually Saint Stephen, which he's the guy holding this book, which has gold to it and like a weird rock on top of it, which is what we're talking about today, and then there's another guy who is like kneeling on the floor in this like luxurious robe and everything, with yet again another bowl cut, and he is actually the patron of this painting.

What we are talking about today though is this weird shaped rock in this other panel of the Melun Diptych. It's believed by certain researchers that this is actually modeled after an ancient handaxe. This piece is a it's it's known as like a Northern Renaissance piece, and it was painted somewhere around 1455, just give or take a couple years, decades, whatever.

So, 1455 is when this is believed to have been painted. This handaxe is probably from Paleolithic times, so how is this even a thing? Well, in this panel that shows the handaxe, like I said, it has the patron who's Étienne Chevalier, and then Saint Stephen.

Saint Stephen, if you know anything about the Bible, like I said, I'm not religious, but I know way more about the Bible than I anybody should just because of art history, so he was stoned to death, so that is why he's carrying this stone, apparently. A team of researchers, like I said, a team of researchers are stating that this believe they believe this rock was actually modeled after a Paleolithic handaxe.

They published their findings this summer in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, and in this study, they state that Fouquet, who Fouquet is the artist, or largely attributed to be the artist of this, Fouquet's stone shares the same shape, color, and number of chiseled flake marks as real-life artifacts that were found in Northern France.

The researchers used a series of 2D analyses to compare the painted stone object's border, so they essentially took an outline of the stone that's figured in this diptych, in this panel of the diptych rather, and then they compared it to other handaxes. They also compared like the surface of it and all the little divots and things like that, and the chisels, and blah, blah, blah, or the flakes rather, and there is some overlap, which is really interesting, particularly that, like I said, of the shape and then the flake scar count or like the divots within it within it.

At this time in Northern France when this was painted, or I guess a little bit before that, various different abbeys and things like that were being built, so when you're building, you have to dig under, so ancient sites were being covered by this new architecture, so then when you're digging in the earth, you find really weird things.

So, a lot of late medieval European historians actually have talked about these weird stones. They actually, though, called them, quote, "thunderstones shot from the clouds during lightning storms." So, it was believed these stones were sent down from the heavens or from the sky from thunder down into the earth, and that's how we got them, which is bonkers to me, but then in the enlightenment period when people were like actually being rational, then researchers were like, "No, these are actually human made," and they were able to tell from various different things.

I'm not going into it, but that is very fascinating. So, for literally 2 to 300 years, people thought that these came from thunder, which is interesting. I like studying people.

It's very fascinating. And then many 16th century natural historians also from this northern part of Europe had talked about these quote, "curiously shaped stone objects," end quote. So, they do show up in the writings of the time, which is fascinating.

So, back to this painting though. Apparently, Fouquet saw some sort of intrinsic value, like why would he include this in this painting, specifically in this context? It's very weird, which is kind of what the researchers are trying to get to, but spoiler alert, they kind of don't really get there.

It's more just like providing the questions to think about. It's still unclear why this was in included in this portrait. They have a couple theories though.

One is that it may have been included because it was a well-known object in Northern Europe at this time, in France at this time specifically, just because of the wide variety that were found, you know, like I said, with excavation and building on top of ancient sites, and then they dig up, and then they find all these weird thunderstones, then it's like, "Oh, we all know what this is." So then maybe that also has some religious or cultural significance to it as well, sorry, I'm like talking with my hands a lot, if you're watching this, sorry.

But then it might have some religious or cultural significance to it as well, which then that's maybe why it was placed on this book, which I'm guessing is a Bible in the saint's hands. So, it could have been easily identifiable by people looking at this painting, cause again remember, most people couldn't read, so you are reading the painting.

Like, that is what you were doing. You are able to look at something and be like, "Oh, cool. I know what this, this, this, this, and this means." Like, there is a story going on in basically all paintings, so people at the time would have been like, "Oh, cool.

I know what that thunderstone is, and I know what this symbolizes." So, maybe then it does have more of a religious or cultural sort of connotation to it, like attached to it. It could also just be that Chevalier, who was a high-ranking member of society, he was kind of part of the nobility, I think he was the treasurer for the king of France at the time.

I think that's what I read, but he was he was a high-ranking official, and you can tell by his robes and everything, like he's very sumptuously dressed, sumptuous man, but he was a high-ranking official, so this, having this diptych commissioned, probably was trying to show his status, his wealth, cause also blue paint at the time was fucking expensive.

So, there's a lot of blue in here. So this is a very expensive piece. There's also gold in there, I think, too, so this is a very expensive painting, and to have it be a diptych also, showing off his wealth and status, and then also just to show his religious piety, so maybe there is some sort of religious context to having this rock included in there.

I have no idea. Those are just some of the theories that they are positing that this is attached to, but there is a really weird, striking sort of resemblance to these ancient Paleolithic handaxes, especially when you look at them in the study. I don't know, it's just really fascinating.

So, I never would have thought handaxe, which is really silly, cause I love ancient history and looking at all these different things, and I've definitely talked about handaxes before, but I thought that was really fascinating, and the researcher who was looking at it also stated that one time he saw a handaxe, and like when he saw this painting, it just stuck with him that maybe this was actually an ancient handaxe, so kudos to him, I like it, just stick with your hunches, I guess.

Anyway, that was a very long-winded episode of Buy Amara. Thank you so much for listening, and I promise we are back on a regular schedule, just because I don't have any travel coming up, I don't think. Actually, I shouldn't make promises.

Don't don't cash checks your ass can't cash. Don't make checks. Don't Don't write checks your ass can't catch cash.

Ass, ass, ass. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. Sorry this was a little bit longer of an episode, but I hope you enjoyed it, and if not, I'm so sorry, and just don't listen ever again.

Easy peasy. I am Amara Andrew. Oh, please like and subscribe, if you do, if not, cool, you do you, and I'm Amara Andrew, never stop creating.

Why did I just do a thumbs up? That was dumb. Oh, and Happy Halloween.

Bye.