A sick tsar sits on his bed with his hands over his ears, facing ghostly figures in armour, women and children, while two figures in black monastic robes stand at right.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums

Mikhail Klodt's drawing of Ivan the Terrible and the shades of his victims, Stavropol

"Ivan the Terrible and the Shades of His Victims", Mikhail Klodt, paper, ink, gouache. Stavropol Regional Museum of Fine Arts

Archive · Faith · Art

An illustration from a South German codex of 1417 shows the family tree of the descendants of Saint Anne

According to medieval tradition, Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, was married three times: to Joachim, Cleopas and Salomas (Salomé). From each marriage Anne had a daughter named Mary. The seven grandchildren of Saint Anne depicted in medieval art are these: Jesus Christ, son of the Virgin Mary; James

NB! · Architecture · Faith

Makovka: How It Is Done

Faith · Ethnography

Miraculous icon of Saint Anne in the Skete of Saint Anne on Mount Athos and prayers for childbirth

The wonder-working icon of Saint Anne, mother of the Most Holy Theotokos, stands beside the abbot's stall in the main church of the Skete of Saint Anne on Mount Athos. Prayers for help in conceiving a child are offered before this icon. Boys born in answer to

A group of barefoot men floats above a plain, holding a pole with a dark burning flag, with a pale ring above them and a red pyramid outline below.

Art

“Burning Flag”, a 1934 painting by the German Surrealist Edgar Ende

Don't Panic! The German Surrealist Edgar Ende, painting Burning Flag, 1934

NB! · Moscow · Humour

Muscovites Have Grown So Pampered That They Have Filled the Drainage Canal with Matches

Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour

Bokassa's coronation modelled on Napoleon's, with Olivier Brice's throne and Paris's support

In 1977 the self-proclaimed Emperor of Central Africa, the dictator Bokassa I, presented the guests of honour at his coronation with gilded replicas of his own throne. Paris supported the ruler of the former French colony, who in the tenth year of his rule had decided to turn from

NB! · Archive · Books · Education · Paris · People

Borges at the Sorbonne in 1978

NB! · Observations · Nature

Kernels of maize that look like precious stones

Art · Monarchies · Observations · Society

Arthur Drummond's Allegory of the British Empire, 1901

Arthur Drummond's allegory of the British Empire, 1901. Queen Victoria, already dead by the time the picture was painted, is seated on a heavenly throne, surrounded by aristocrats, bureaucracy and native subjects from the colonies. On earth are Edward VII, the Prince of Wales, and other members of

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

And in literature this is called a romantic attachment

NB! · Archive · Art · Pop Culture

Alexandr Radayev