Architecture · Moscow · Heritage · Society

The 1909 Red Square tram line and the protests of Vasnetsov, Tsvetaev and Shekhtel

In 1909 it was decided to run a tram across Red Square. The tracks were to pass literally in front of the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, which at that time stood opposite the entrance to the Upper Trading Rows. Part of the city's public opinion came out

NB! · The East · Art · People

An Unexpected Subject for Salvador Dalí: The Walls of Babylon

NB! · Mores · Humour

You Can See at a Glance: Acknowledged Society Beauties

NB! · Architecture · Paris

A view of Paris from the Montparnasse Tower, the hideous 210-metre skyscraper built in the centre of the French capital in 1972

NB! · Art · New York · People

The most expensive painting in the history of Latin American art: "Diego and I" by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo

The most expensive painting in the history of Latin American art is "Diego and I" by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In November 2021 the picture was sold at Sotheby's in New York for 34.9 million US dollars. The previous record belonged to "Rivals&

Art · Observations · People

A Little Dog, Biscotti and a Chinese Cup on the Scarlet Tablecloth

A little dog, biscotti and a Chinese cup on the scarlet tablecloth. The flies, quite rightly, decided there could be no better place for a rendezvous and for the delivery of a letter. Thanks for this picture go to the seventeenth-century Italian painter Giovanna Garzoni

Archive · Books · Monarchies · Society · Saint Petersburg

"There is no power on earth more absolute than that of the sovereigns of Russia: throughout their empire their will is the only law; obedience the only morality

"There is no power on earth more absolute than that of the sovereigns of Russia: throughout their empire their will is the only law; obedience the only morality. Yet we shall see their pitiable condition, and how their power, having overstepped every limit prescribed to men, has destroyed itself

Books · Observations · Humour

The saddest advertisement for selling books: ideal for crafts, for creating atmosphere, and they can even be read

In the spirit of Meghan Markle, just a little

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Mores

General Kostenetsky Dined at Count Osterman-Tolstoy's for Twenty Years

General Kostenetsky dined at Count Osterman-Tolstoy's for twenty years. It was so organic a part of their routine that every day, an hour and a half before dinner, the Count sent his carriage to fetch the General

NB!

Is This Even Legal?

A saint in a red cloak with a lamb and a kneeling man in a dark habit in an interior with a convex mirror on the wall.

Art · Observations · Humour

The convex mirror as a picture within a picture, one of its earliest depictions in painting

For a second I thought Robert Campin's "Saint John the Baptist" of 1438 was standing next to a washing machine. If you look closely, the convex mirror on the wall is, as it were, a picture within the picture, offering a glimpse of the interior and

Books

All in trousers cut to one pattern, With moustaches, overcoats and bowler hats, In the street I look like anybody, And I lose myself completely at the corners

If only I don't swap personalities: He will enter into me, and I into him — I am gripped by total indifference And am afraid decidedly of everything… Literal translation Sasha Chorny, 1907-1908

Alexandr Radayev