NB! · Art

Arran, Phil Greenwood

Geography · Science · Nature

Melting of Kilimanjaro's glaciers, deforestation and glacial recession since the 1850s

The rapid melting of the glaciers on the "shining mountain" of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is nowadays linked to the ruthless felling of the rainforests on its slopes. It is believed that, with the disappearance of the forest, the slopes have ceased to store the moisture which they once

Art · Museums · Heritage · Saint Petersburg

Five El Greco paintings in Russian museums and the history of their arrival

By various estimates, El Greco's surviving painted oeuvre today comprises between 137 and 300 pictures. Russian museums hold only 5 canvases by El Greco: 3 in the Hermitage, 1 in Nizhny Novgorod and 1 in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The first El Greco picture purchased

Detail of an oil painting with a cracked paint surface: a fluffy white cat looks upward against a dark background.

NB! · Art · Nature

Jean-Jacques Bachelier painted “The Cat and the Butterfly” in 1761

The Cat and the Butterfly. Jean-Jacques Bachelier, 1761

Books · Observations · Science · Mores · Humour

Character traits by hair type according to a book of 1765

Reading a person's character from the look of the hair, after a book of 1765. To my mind, it all holds together, and the science is the more exact for being ancient White hair shows a cold nature. If the hair goes grey before its time, it signifies

Faith · Museums · People

The Chains of Patriarch Nikon

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Faith · The East · Art · Books

"A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter"

"A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter." And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There

Painted sculpture of a standing barefoot woman with long wavy hair and a torn garment with a woven pattern, on a pedestal in a dark museum room.

NB!

Sculpture of a barefoot woman with long hair in a tattered woven garment

Painted wooden statue of a barefoot standing woman with long wavy hair in a torn yellow garment, on a plinth in a dark gallery.

Coming Up · Faith · Art · Moscow · Museums

Sculpture of Mary Magdalene attributed to Pedro de Mena at the Pushkin Museum exhibition

Saint Mary Magdalene, a wooden sculpture of the 17th century, attributed to the Spaniard Pedro de Mena. Collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition at the Pushkin Museum, “The Spanish Collection. From the Holdings of Russian Museums”, is open until 4 February

NB! · Cinema · Books · Pop Culture · Humour

The French Olympic Team at the Opening of the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 and the Beauxbatons Academy Delegation at the Goblet of Fire Games at Hogwarts

Art · Museums

Cassandra as a Sibyl and Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, in richly decorated costumes

Cassandra and Penthesilea, Heroines of the Trojan War. The prophetic daughter of Priam is presented in the guise of the soothsayer Sibyl, but with a somewhat more majestic bearing and a richer costume. Her headdress with its pointed plume is executed in the Eastern style, and its height signals the

Landscape with dark silhouettes of trees above a ploughed field, a pink sky with a yellow strip at the horizon and grey-blue clouds.

Art

Landscape by the Swiss artist Félix Vallotton, painted in 1918

Sunset, Blue Clouds. The Swiss artist Félix Vallotton, 1918

Alexandr Radayev