Wikipedia:Picture of the day/October 2017

Venus and Mars is a panel painting of about 1485 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valour. Probably intended to commemorate a wedding, the painting was likely set into panelling or a piece of furniture to adorn the bedroom of the bride and groom. The painting has been held by the National Gallery in London since 1874.

Painting: Sandro Botticelli

Bellevue Palace is a palace (schloss) in Berlin's Tiergarten district, along the northern edge of the Großer Tiergarten park. Designed by architect Michael Philipp Boumann, Schloss Bellevue was erected in 1786 as a summer residence for Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia. Variously used as a residence, museum, and guest house in subsequent decades, Bellevue was damaged heavily in World War II. Following substantial refurbishments, it has served as the secondary residence of the President of West Germany and official residence of the President of Germany.

Photograph: Taxiarchos228

Burking Poor Old Mrs Constitution, Aged 141 (1829), a satirical cartoon by the British artist William Heath (1794–1840). It depicts the Duke of Wellington and Robert Peel in the roles of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare, suffocating Mrs Docherty for sale to Dr Knox. This cartoon represents Wellington's and Peel's perceived extinguishing of the Constitution of 1688 through the Catholic Emancipation, particularly the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829.

Illustration: William Heath

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) was an American soldier and politician who was elected the 19th President of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. The election, at the end of the Reconstruction Era, was highly contentious and he was declared the winner through the Compromise of 1877. As president he ended Army support for Republican state governments in the South, promoted civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew Shiva

Lupinus texensis, popularly known as the Texas bluebonnet, is a species of bluebonnet endemic to Texas. Together with other native bluebonnet species, it is the state flower of Texas.

Photograph: David R. Tribble

Gorakhpur Junction railway station, located in the city of Gorakhpur in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a railway station that serves as the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway. In 2013, Gorakhpur became the world's longest railway platform, with a stretch of around 1.34 kilometres (0.84 mi), after the inauguration of the remodelled Gorakhpur Yard.

Photograph: Benison P Baby

A pair of black lories (Chalcopsitta atra) at Gembira Loka Zoo in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Described in 1786 by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, this aptly named lory is found in eastern Indonesia. This species averages 32 cm (13 in) in length.

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

The Sisters, an oil painting on canvas completed by Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860) in 1826. It depicts the artist's daughters, Eleanor and Rosalba, seated side-by-side, and emphasizes each daughter's creative talents. Eleanor sits before a tapestry-covered table, where a palette and volume of music are visible. Rosalba, meanwhile, holds a drawing tool. The painting is held by the Brooklyn Museum in New York City.

Painting: Rembrandt Peale

An 1856 lithograph of the Selimiye Barracks, located in Istanbul, Turkey, being used as a hospital during the Crimean War. Florence Nightingale's experiences here during this time helped her develop the foundations of modern nursing. As such, the barracks now contain a museum dedicated to her and her staff.

Lithograph: William Simpson; restoration: Adam Cuerden

Messier 106 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years from Earth. Due to x-rays and unusual emission lines detected, it is suspected that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive black hole in the center.

Photograph: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team, and R. Gendler

A five rupee note from Ceylon, dated 1929. Printed by Thomas De La Rue, London, for the Government of Ceylon, it features the engraved signatures of the Commissioners of Currency Francis Graeme Tyrrell (later acting Governor of British Ceylon) and W. W. Woods, Auditor General.

Rupee banknotes were introduced by the Government of Ceylon in 1885. Initially limited to a face value of five rupees, by 1930 banknotes had been issued in denominations ranging from one to one thousand rupees.

Banknote: Government of Ceylon (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)

Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigmas and styles, called threads, are collected and dried to be used mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in food. Saffron, long among the world's most costly spices by weight, was probably first cultivated in or near Greece. Today Iran accounts for approximately 90% of global production.

Photograph: Hubertl

Suzzanna (1942–2008) was an Indonesian actress of Eurasian descent. Born in Bogor, while a teenager she took a starring role in Usmar Ismail's Asrama Dara (1958). Later in her career she became known as the "horror queen of Indonesian cinema", having portrayed such spirits as Nyai Roro Kidul and Sundel Bolong.

Photograph: Tati Studios; restoration: Chris Woodrich

Claes Duyst van Voorhout is a portrait painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, completed in 1638. It is thought to depict a Haarlem brewer named Claes Duyst van Voorhout. One of the best documented paintings in Hals' oeuvre, it is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Painting: Frans Hals

Auriga is one of the 88 modern constellations. Located north of the celestial equator, its name is the Latin word for "charioteer", associating it with various mythological charioteers, including Erichthonius and Myrtilus. This large constellation, with an area of 657 square degrees, includes stars such as the bright Capella and the much-studied Epsilon Aurigae.

Auriga is shown here as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London in about 1825.

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden

The first cabinet of Barack Obama, photographed in the White House East Room in September 2009. Consisting of the heads of the sixteen United States federal executive departments and seven additional members, the Cabinet of the United States acts as an advisory body to the President. Of the persons shown, five (Gary Locke, Peter R. Orszag, Christina Romer, Rahm Emanuel, and Robert Gates) left the Obama administration before the end of the president's first term.

Photograph: Chuck Kennedy

The premiere of the Audi e-tron at the 2009 International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany. This two-seat electric car, similar in appearance to the Audi R8 but slightly smaller, was powered by four UQM Technologies motors and could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.8 seconds. The lithium-ion battery provided a range of approximately 248 km (154 mi). Although the vehicle was slated for production in 2012, production was canceled owing to its limited all-electric range. In 2014, Audi began producing the car upon request.

Photograph: Thomas Wolf; edit: LiveChocolate

Bulb Fields was the first garden painting by Vincent van Gogh. Completed in The Hague in 1883, this painting depicts rectangular plots of blue, yellow, pink, and red hyacinths. It is now held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting: Vincent van Gogh

Niveoscincus metallicus, commonly known as the metallic skink, is a species of skink in the family Scincidae. It is endemic to Australia, where it is found in southern Victoria, as well as in Tasmania and many offshore islands in Bass Strait.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

Curug Cipendok is a waterfall located near Purwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia. Measuring 92 m (302 ft) in height, it is one of the area's highest waterfalls. The site, which hosts a campsite and lake, is one of the more popular tourist destinations in the Banyumas area.

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

The total lunar eclipse that occurred in April 2014, as viewed from Charleston, West Virginia. The first of two total lunar eclipses in 2014, it was visible in the Americas and the Pacific Ocean region. Although within the Earth's shadow, the eclipsed moon is lit by sunlight refracted and scattered by the Earth's atmosphere, and more of this light reaches the outer parts of the umbra than the center of it. During this eclipse, the Moon passed south of the center of the umbra, so its southern part was noticeably lighter.

Photograph: Robert Jay GaBany

Parisian Women in Algerian Costume (The Harem) is a painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir completed 1872. Renoir created the painting, which acknowledged the artificial nature of much Orientalist painting by making it clear that these were Parisian women in costume, in homage to Eugène Delacroix's Women of Algiers (1834). Rejected for entry to the 1872 Paris Salon and disliked by the artist, it was eventually sold for a small sum as part of a larger lot. It is now in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.

Painting: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The interior of the dining hall at Keble College in Oxford, England. Established in 1870 as a monument to John Keble, a leading member of the Oxford Movement, the college is the largest (by rooms) of constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Its neo-gothic red-brick buildings, designed by William Butterfield, housed 433 undergraduates and 245 graduate students in the 2011/12 academic year.

Photograph: David Iliff

Jane Seymour (c. 1508 – 1537) was Queen of England from 1536 to 1537 as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, a son who became King Edward VI on Henry's death. She was the only one of Henry's wives to receive a queen's funeral, and his only consort to be buried beside him in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Painting: Hans Holbein the Younger

A panoramic view of Lower Manhattan as seen at dusk from Jersey City, New Jersey, in November 2014. Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City. It is the city's economic and administrative center, and a major global cultural, financial, media, and entertainment center.

Photograph: Tony Jin

A design by Chief Engraver of the United States Mint Frank Gasparro for the Susan B. Anthony dollar, a dollar coin minted from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999. Proposed as a smaller replacement for the cumbersome Eisenhower dollar, the coin was initially intended to depict an allegorical representation of Liberty. However, legislative and popular demand led to the likeness of social reformer and women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony being used instead. In 1978, Gasparro began preparing a design, going through multiple versions depicting Anthony at various stages of her life before settling on an approximation of her at age 50. After the final design was approved, the dollar was first struck in 1978.

Illustration: Frank Gasparro

Ramaria gracilis is a species of coral fungus in the family Gomphaceae. Originally described by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1797, this species is found in European coniferous woodland, where it grows on leaf litter. Fruit bodies are made up of a dense cluster of branches that measure up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in height and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in width.

Photograph: H. Krisp

Cygnus CRS Orb-3 was an attempted flight of Cygnus, an automated cargo spacecraft developed by United States-based company Orbital Sciences, on 28 October 2014. This flight, which would have been its fourth to the International Space Station and the fifth of an Antares launch vehicle, resulted in the Antares rocket exploding seconds after liftoff.

Photograph: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Northeaster is an oil painting on canvas completed by the American artist Winslow Homer in 1895. One of several paintings on marine subjects by the artist during his time in Maine, it presents viewers with a struggle of elements between the sea and the rocky shore. It is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Painting: Winslow Homer

Doleschallia bisaltide, also known as the leaf wing, is a species of butterfly found in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. The butterfly mimics the shape and colour of an autumnal leaf, giving it its common name "autumn leaf". This specimen was photographed in Bali, Indonesia.

Photograph: Charles J. Sharp

An illustration by Gustave Doré for Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem "The Raven", accompanying the poem's final lines "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor/Shall be lifted—nevermore!"

First published in January 1845, "The Raven" tells of a man who, pining for his lost love Lenore, falls into madness as he is barraged by a talking raven's repeated calls of "Nevermore!". This poem, which has often been noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere, makes numerous references to folklore, mythology, religion, and classical antiquity. It has been widely reprinted, parodied, and illustrated.

Engraving: Gustave Doré; Restoration: Lise Broer