1104 Syringa 1104 Syringa 1104 Syringa, provisional designation , is a dark background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 23 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 December 1928, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant "Syringa" (lilac). "Syringa" is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the intermediate asteroid belt at a distance of 1.7–3.5 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,558 days; semi-major axis of 2.63 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity
Madonna of the Dry Tree Madonna of the Dry Tree Madonna of the Dry Tree (or Our Lady of the Barren Tree) is a small oil-on-oak panel painting, dated c. 1462–1465, by Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. Unusually innovative and dramatic for its time, it depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child as she stands on a disembodied dead tree trunk, surrounded by the circular briars of a crown of thorns. The painting is believed to allude to the Book of Ezekiel, with the tree symbolizing the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Eden. However, Christus portrays the tree as dead and withered,