From today's featured articleSmythe's Megalith was a chambered long barrow near the village of Aylesford in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Probably constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Britain's Early Neolithic period, it was discovered in 1822, at which point it was dismantled. Built out of earth and at least five local sarsen megaliths, the long barrow consisted of a roughly rectangular earthen tumulus with a stone chamber in its eastern end. Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental Europe. Part of an architectural tradition of long barrows that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Smythe's Megalith belonged to a regional variant produced near the River Medway, now known as the Medway Megaliths. Several of these still survive: Coldrum Long Barrow, Addington Long Barrow, Chestnuts Long Barrow, Kit's Coty House, the Little Kit's Coty House, and the Coffin Stone. (Full article...)
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The Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria is an oil-on-canvas painting by Flemish artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens, dating to 1606. It was commissioned by Marchese Giacomo Massimiliano Doria of Genoa and depicts his wife, Marchesa Brigida, shortly after their wedding in 1605. Both the Marchese and the Marchesa were members of prominent families: the Doria and the Spinola, respectively. In the painting, the Marchesa is shown in an opulent setting to convey luxury; adorned with jewels, she wears a satin and lace dress, with a broad ruff around her neck. Lighting is used to emphasise the drapery of her bulky wedding gown, while she looks down on the viewer, establishing the necessity to hang the finished portrait above the height of viewers. It has been trimmed several times on each side, removing the garden shown in the background and the lower part of the figure, including the bottom of the Marchesa's floor-length gown. The painting, part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection, now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Painting credit: Peter Paul Rubens
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