A week of portraits

The Portrait of Madame X is a 1884 painting by John Singer Sargent, which can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a new featured picture

The Portrait of Maria Anna is a 1630 painting by Diego Velázquez, which can be seen at the Museo del Prado; a new featured picture

Obverse of the commemorative Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar

The frontispiece and cover of the first edition of The Man in the Moone

John Clarkson was the first MLB pitcher to strike out three batters on nine pitches

Cœur de pirate, whose discography is a new featured list

Cave of the Crystals is a cave in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico

Malayan Banded Pitta at the Sri Phang Nga National Park in Phang Nga, Thailand

Shell of the veined rapa whelk

Female dik-dik at the Etosha National Park in Namibia

Six featured articles were promoted this week.

• Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book (nom) by Curly Turkey. Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book is a 1959 graphic novel by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman. The satirical stories are aimed at an adult audience, in contrast to Kurtzman's earlier work for adolescents in periodicals such as Mad.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (nom) by PresN. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a console role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Released in 2011 in Japan and 2012 in North America and PAL regions, it is a direct sequel to the 2010 role-playing game, Final Fantasy XIII, and is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries.
• Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar (nom) by Wehwalt. The Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint. Bearing portraits of former presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, the coin was issued in commemoration of the centennial of the Monroe Doctrine and was produced at the San Francisco Mint in 1923.
• Prometheus (2012 film) (nom) by Darkwarriorblake. Prometheus is a 2012 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. The story is set in the late 21st century and centres on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as they follow a star map discovered among the artefacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, the crew arrive on a distant world and discover a threat that could cause the extinction of the human race.
• The Man in the Moone (nom) by Drmies, John O'London and Eric Corbett. The Man in the Moone is a book by the English divine and Church of England bishop Francis Godwin (1562–1633), describing a "voyage of utopian discovery". Initially considered to be one of his early works, it is now generally thought to have been written in the late 1620s. It was first published posthumously in 1638 under the pseudonym of Domingo Gonsales.
• Charles Inglis (engineer) (nom) by Dumelow. Sir Charles Edward Inglis (1875–1952) was a British civil engineer. He was educated at Cheltenham College and won a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. Inglis spent a two-year period with the engineering firm run by John Wolfe-Barry before he returned to King's College as a lecturer. Working with Professors James Alfred Ewing and Bertram Hopkinson, he made several important studies into the effects of vibration on structures and defects on the strength of plate steel.

Four featured lists were promoted this week.

• List of Major League Baseball pitchers who have struck out three batters on nine pitches (nom) by Bloom6132. In baseball, a strikeout occurs when a pitcher throws three strikes to a batter during his time at bat. Forty-seven different pitchers have struck out three batters on nine consecutive pitches in a half-inning of a Major League Baseball game as of 2013, the most recent being Iván Nova of the New York Yankees on May 29, 2013.
• List of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion episodes (nom) by DragonZero. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is an anime series produced by Sunrise, Mainichi Broadcasting System, and Project Geass. The series was directed by Gorō Taniguchi who cooperated with Ichirō Ōkouchi on the script. The characters were scripted by Clamp and designed by Takahiro Kimura. The plot follows Lelouch vi Britannia who leads a rebellion group called the Black Knights to oppose the superpower Britannia.
• Cœur de pirate discography (nom) by Underneath-it-All. The discography of Cœur de pirate (born 1989), a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter, consists of two studio albums, two extended plays, 10 singles and 10 music videos. Cœur de pirate began her career in 2007 as the keyboardist for the band Bonjour Brumaire and she also began that year to record solo material and placed several demos on the social networking service Myspace.
• List of Marvel Cinematic Universe cast members (nom) by Fandraltastic and TriiipleThreat. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a film franchise and shared fictional universe that is the setting of superhero films independently produced by Marvel Studios, based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics publications. "Phase One" of the franchise featured five films based around individual superheroes, leading up to a crossover in the 2012 film The Avengers. The franchise's "Phase Two" will again feature a number of films based on individual properties, culminating in an Avengers sequel, planned for release in 2015.

Thirteen featured pictures were promoted this week.

• Gassed (nom, related article) created by John Singer Sargent and nominated by Keraunoscopia. Gassed is a very large oil painting completed in March 1919 by John Singer Sargent. It depicts the aftermath of a mustard gas attack during the First World War, with a line of wounded soldiers walking towards a dressing station. Sargent was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to document the war and visited the Western Front in July 1918 spending time with the Guards Division near Arras, and then with the American Expeditionary Forces near Ypres. It is now held by the Imperial War Museum.
• Portrait of Madame X (nom, related article) created by John Singer Sargent and nominated by Keraunoscopia. Portrait of Madame X is the informal title of a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau. The model was an American expatriate who married a French banker, and became notorious in Parisian high society for her beauty and rumored infidelities.
• Purple Swamphen (nom, related article) created and nominated by 99of9. The Purple Swamphen is a "swamp hen" in the rail family Rallidae. From its French name talève sultane, it is also known as the Sultana Bird. This chicken-sized bird, with its large feet, bright plumage and red bill and frontal shield is easily-recognisable in its native range.
• Castalius rosimon (nom, related article) created by Jkadavoor and nominated by Pine. The Castalius rosimon is a small butterfly found in India that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family. The butterfly can also be found in the Andaman Islands and the South Nicobar Islands.
• Modern Iranian Astrolabe (nom, related article) created by M.safarniya and nominated by Jacopo188. An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa, surveying, triangulation, and to cast horoscopes.
• Cave of the Crystals (nom, related article) created by Alexander Van Driessche and nominated by Tomer T. Cave of the Crystals is a cave connected to the Naica Mine 300 metres (980 ft) below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. The main chamber contains giant selenite crystals, some of the largest natural crystals ever found.
• Portrait of Maria Anna (nom, related article) created by Diego Velázquez and nominated by Crisco 1492. The Portrait of Maria Anna is a 1630 portrait of Maria Anna of Spain by Diego Velázquez. It was painted during his three-month stay in Naples on his return to Spain. It was made before its subject's marriage to Ferdinand III of Austria. It is now in the Prado.
• Malayan Banded Pitta (nom, related article) created by JJ Harrison and nominated by Ceranthor. The Malayan Banded Pitta is a species of bird in the Pittidae family. It is found in Thailand, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Bornean and Javan Banded Pittas.
• Ane Brun (nom, related article) created by Benoît Derrier and nominated by Keraunoscopia. Ane Brun (born 1976) is a Norwegian songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. Since 2003 she has recorded eight albums, six of which are studio albums and one live DVD.
• Noisy Miner (nom, related article) created by JJ Harrison and nominated by Arctic Kangaroo. The Noisy Miner is a bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae and is endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow patch behind the eye and white tips on the tail feathers.
• Veined rapa whelk shell (nom, related article) created by Llez and nominated by Crisco 1492. The veined rapa whelk is a species of large predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk or whelk, in the family Muricidae, the rock shells. This species is native to the marine and estuarine waters of the western Pacific, although it has become an invasive species in many different localities around the world.
• The Mikado (nom, related article) scanned and nominated by Adam Cuerden. The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885 in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, which was the second longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time.
• Dik-dik (nom, related article) created by Yathin sk and nominated by Samaksasanian. A dik-dik is a small antelope in the Genus Madoqua that lives in the bushlands of eastern and southern Africa. Dik-diks are named for the alarm calls of the females. In addition to the females' alarm call, both the male and female make a shrill, whistling sound. These calls may alert other animals to predators.

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• I have not seen any mention of demotions of featured content lately. Is this because no such demotions are occurring anymore or have you chosen not to cover them? JRSpriggs (talk) 05:40, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• This report doesn't usually cover demotions although we could have a special report about them if someone was interested enough to write it. --Pine^✉ 06:26, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]