09 May 2015
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08 May 2015
From Dürer to Darwin: exotic fauna in drawings
Before the photography era, drawing, painting, etching,... were among the only media to disseminate images from the "new world". Such illustrations from the Renaissance up to the second half of the XIXth century are preserved today in Musea and/or university libraries. The striking resemblance of these works with reality just reflects the very high drawing skills of the artists. This explains also why some of them were patronized to support long-range scientific expeditions. To this respect, graphic arts became progressively an efficient tool of botanical, geological and zoological development. The very few examples below try to show the talent of these artists and the different goals they wanted to reach. Some of the exotic animals below can still be observed in French Guiana during the MSG-4 Launch Campaign...
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Rhinoceros, 1515... first representation of such an animal in Europe (though Dürer never saw this animal located in Portugal). This Rhinoceros died in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean sea in 1516 while it was sent as a present by the King of Portugal to the Pope Leo X!
Albert Eckhout (ca 1610-1655)
Study of two Brazilian (giant) turtles, ca 1640, Mauritshuis, Den Haag. The comparison with pictures made in French Guiana during MSG-3 launch campaign is striking!
Also to be seen in the Mauritshuis, a painting called the Garden of Eden and the fall of the man, ca 1615. This work was a join effort of two major artists of the time, Jan Brueghel I (1568-1625) for representing the animals and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) for Adam and Eva. A detail of this painting shows various birds sitting in branches including exotic ones...
Pieter Boel (1622-1674), was also an expert in animal studies and postures.
Right: Study of 2 parrots (ara chloroptère and ara arauna), Le Louvre
These species of Red and green macaws can be observed in French Guiana.
Frans Post (1612-1680) was already mentioned in a previous post.
View of Olinda, Brazil (detail), 1662, Rijksmuseum
Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1635-1690),
The Menagerie, ca 1690, Rijksmusuem
Jean Baptispte Oudry (1686-1755)
From left to right: Demoiselle crane, Guianan Toucanet, Tufted crane, 1745, Schwerin, Galerie Alte & Neue Master
In the same museum in Schwerin, one should not miss the Jean Baptiste Oudry's famous Rhinoceros (Portrait of Clara in Paris, 1749). This female Rhino was toured in Europe as a star and had a less tragic fate than the Dürer's one...
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) used these sketches (and much others) to elaborate his theory of the evolution (On the origin of Species,1859).
07 May 2015
(C8) MICE is being prepared for its final mission
MICE stands for Mobile Indoor Cooling Equipment. It is used for blowing cool air on the Nickel Cadmium batteries during reconditioning periods before their integration on the Spacecraft. Here under is a picture of MICE #3, one of the three devices still existing at CSG.
This strange device with long hoses (also called Boas) has not been used since MSG-3 Launch Campaign in 2012... The reason is that batteries mounted today on spacecrafts rely on different technologies and don't need reconditioning and
cooling anymore. This MICE #3 that has been re-validated specially for
MSG-4 batteries will go to the museum after the launch.
So, there are still few weeks left to contemplate the (m)ice age or the historical dimension of MSG programme :-)
06 May 2015
Colours of Kourou
Even during the rainy season, Kourou appears as a colorful city. This is the result of the work of anonymous artists that have created this "open air museum" for the pleasure of those who just open their eyes. Few examples are shown below.
Rond Point des "Toucans"
Zone Industrielle de Pariacabo
Let's welcome with these Kourou colours the members of the ESA/ESTEC team that will join us today!
05 May 2015
(C7) Successful safety test
The propellant tanks were pressurized nominally today (05/05/2015) and no leak was detected. As it can be seen on the picture below, a blast shield was placed during the test in S1 as a safety precaution . A second one, on the opposite side of the spacecraft, was also used but cannot be seen from this angle of view.
MSG-4 in S1 after the Safety test through the blast shield
After the pressurisation phase, Thales technicians were preparing in the S1 airlock the RF mast necessary for the future Antenna Connection Test (ACT).
Depressurisation will be completed tomorrow (06/06/2015). Then the test sequence will continue on the platform and and the payload.
04 May 2015
(C6) MSG-4 preparation for a safety test
A safety test (pressurization of the propellant tanks) will take place tomorrow 05/05/15. It is a necessary step to make sure that the tanks can withstand the required pressure for the mission.It is a prerequisite for the fueling of the spacecraft that will take place in June.
MSG-4 view on 03/05/2015: preparation for the safety test
In parallel, the Transport Container has been stored under the "casquette" in S1. It was its last mission after the transport of four spacecrafts and few storage episodes in Thales Cannes over the last 15 years. It cannot be used for other programmes (size and obsolescence) and will be disposed after the MSG-4 Launch campaign. Is someone interested? :-)
03 May 2015
A Postcard from the Dutch Goden Age
The beginning of the Columbus era (>1492) started to unveil various aspects of the South American continent to the West. It is generally admitted that the first elaborated landscapes of these remote lands known in Europe are attributed to Frans Post (1612-1680) a Dutch painter who lived in Brazil between 1637 and 1644. He was commissioned by Johan Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, Dutch Governor in Brazil.
The Dutch Brazil (1630-1654) was at that time a large area located along the most Eastern part of Brazil. This is different from Suriname, a former Dutch colony established as from 1667, which is located at a slightly higher latitude. Suriname has a border with French Guiana.
Dutch Brasil, Credit Wikipedia
Despite different locations, the coastal and land views of the Dutch Brazil painted by Frans Post might show some resemblances with the Surinam and French Guyana ones we see today. All had and still have numerous wide muddy rivers meandering up the Atlantic ocean and huge areas of rain forest with a rich equatorial/tropical fauna and flora.
The picture below, dated 1639, depicts a scenery along the San Francisco river located in the Alagoas. Frans Post surely wanted to impress his audience with the Cabiaï on the foreground not known in Europe. If the large treelike cactus evokes an exotic country, the low horizon line and the blue and grey woolly sky could remind a Dutch atmosphere from Jacob Ruysdael's or van Goyen's paintings.
Rio Sao Francisco and the Fort Maurice, with a Cabiaï in the foreground, 1639, Le Louvre
Frans Post completed only very few (6) out of the 140 paintings attributed to him while he was in Brazil. Curiously, most of the ones he made in Brazil are in Le Louvre (Paris) because they were presented (and sold?) by Jan Moritz van Nassau to Louis XIV. But still one of these "originals" can be admired in the famous Moritz' house in The Hague which is known today as the Mauritshuis, one of the most beautiful Dutch museum (see painting below).
View of the Itamaracá, island in brazil, 1637, Mauritshuis, Den Haag
Credit Wikipedia
In the "Brazilian" landscapes he made once back in Haarlem, Frans Post was working from memories and from the sketches he brought back with him. One can notice that he slightly changed style, using brighter colours, showing more imagination or fantasy. This produced baroque or even romantic effects as proved by the painting below:
Paulo Alfonso falls, 1649, Sao Paulo Museum of Art,
Credit Wikipedia
In the same period, we should also not forget to mention Albert Eckhout (ca 1610-1665) who painted few local portraits and still lifes from the Dutch Brazil. Some of his paintings are exposed in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and in the Maurithuis (e.g. Study of two brazilian tortoises, ca 1640).
Last but not least, Dirk Valkenburg (1675-1721), two generation later, spent some years in Suriname where he made few paintings in the early 1700, but at that time the Dutch Brazil was over…
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