NB!
Alexandr Radayev
Cinema · Books · Observations
Russian Guards helmet held by Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in the 1960 film “Candide”
In the 1960 French film adaptation of Voltaire's "Candide, or Optimism" I noticed an interesting detail. In the twentieth-century version, Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh lives not in Westphalia but somewhere a few steps between Alsace and Lorraine, and this time he, like previous generations of
Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums
Philips Galle's Alchemist after a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: a man sinking into utter insignificance and ruin, driven by the wish to grow rich quickly in the fields of alchemical transmutation
Philips Galle's Alchemist after a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: a man sinking into utter insignificance and ruin, driven by the wish to grow rich quickly in the fields of alchemical transmutation. Instead of turning lead into gold, the experiments of the philosopher's stone, as
Art · Moscow · Museums
Athena and the Serpent
A cast from the Pushkin Museum
Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages
Yesterday Sistema Gallery opened three exhibitions at once, to mark the gallery's third birthday
Yesterday Sistema Gallery opened three exhibitions at once, to mark the gallery's third birthday. The project that impressed me most was Daria Pasechnik's "Posts from Nowhere", done in an enchanted, fairy-tale style. The artist explains that she is exploring the longing for visual
NB! · Art · Nature
Mantises, Justin Wood, 2022
Faith · The East · Society · Rome
“Herod, fearing deposition, killed children who are still being torn apart by bombs today; Pilate washed his hands, as we risk doing every day, until we reach the point of no return”
Pope Leo XIV on Netanyahu’s crimes and the complicity of the West
Geography · Monarchies · Society
Britain's Royal Train withdrawn from service after 125 years to cut costs
After 125 years, the Royal Train is being decommissioned as part of the need to cut costs. Not that the British royal family is gradually bidding farewell to its old spendthrift habits; it is simply that the train matters less to Charles than it did to Elizabeth II and Prince
Interviews · Paris · People · Humour
“My father and his friends found a way to express themselves through the press
“My father and his friends found a way to express themselves through the press. The families of my classmates did not understand this: in their eyes, I was not fit company.” The French actress Michèle Bernier, daughter of Professor Choron, the founder of the magazines Hara-Kiri and Charlie Hebdo,
Museums · Heritage · Science · Nature
A fungus impervious to museum climate control and low humidity has been found in a number of Danish museums, including the National Museum in Copenhagen, writes The Art Newspaper Russia
The problem was discovered by a group of researchers led by Camilla Jul Basthholm, head of the conservation and storage department at the National Museum of Denmark, who described the situation as “a kind of coronavirus epidemic for Golden Age painting”. The fungus attacks paintings, textiles and furniture. “Museum” mould
NB! · Geography · Maps · Books
A Map of the World According to Homer
Architecture · Faith · Art · Museums · Heritage · Rome
Hall of Constantine in the Vatican, painted under five popes, and a restoration milestone
After ten years of painstaking restoration, the state Hall of Constantine in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican has regained its original splendour. The largest of the Raphael Rooms, named after the Roman emperor who granted Christians freedom of worship, was decorated under five pontiffs over the course of the