An Arctic fox gives a huge yawn before curling up to keep warm from a strong northerly wind in Churchill, Man. About the size of small house cats, Arctic foxes remain active all through the long northern winter, often following polar bears to the sea ice to scavenge their leavings.
Not me posting for the first like in like ever haha
Anyways Merry Christmas Eve! Did some fan art for the season because I've had it stuck in my head for the entire month and literally only got around to doing it last night!!! I've been so into Bloons lately :'D
Joan of Arc was a being so uplifted from the ordinary run of mankind that she finds no equal in a thousand years. She embodied the natural goodness and valour of the human race in unexampled perfection. Unconquerable courage, infinite compassion, the virtue of the simple, the wisdom of the just, shone forth in her. She glorifies as she freed the soil from which she sprang.
- Sir Winston Churchill, The Birth of Britain
What Joan of Arc looked like has always been a contentious debate. In terms of Joan’s appearance, historians have hardly anything to go on. The only image that remains from Joan’s lifetime is merely a doodle, made in the margins of French parliamentary notes by Clément de Fauquembergue, who had never seen her in real life.
There is also a statue head from a church in Orléans. The statue dates to the 15th century, and given Joan’s association with the city and the feminine appearance, for many years historians believed this might be a depiction of her. But some historians dispute this.
Luckily, we do have many descriptions of the ferocious maiden. We know that she was short - probably around 5’ 2”, and very muscular with a strong neck. She had dark hair, cropped short with bangs similar to the men’s hairstyles at the time. Artistic depictions of Joan actually popularised the bob hairstyle in the early 20th century. Her eyes were described as “large, dark, and grave”, and matched her skin tone, which was tan and sunburned from her time outdoors.
Photo: reconstruction using the head of the statue at a church in Orléans of how Joan of Arc might have looked @royalty_now.