NB!
Alexandr Radayev
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
Aristocracy · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg
Count Stroganov's open dinners and the unknown guest who dined there for almost 30 years
The open dinners of Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov were the stuff of legend: his table was prized not only by colleagues and kinsmen but by members of the imperial family and by distinguished foreign guests, such as the painter Vigée Le Brun. At times this influential and wealthy gentleman found
Art · Observations · Paris
Works by the French street artist known as MifaМosa, who creates in the pixel-art vein
On the whole, MifaМosa's pieces resemble the work of Pixelboy, a Russian artist of the same profile. Both authors began developing their aesthetic at the same time and, I think, independently of one another
NB! · Observations · Humour
How Long to Rivendell?
NB! · Faith · Art
Another Version of Francis Bacon's Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Faith · Books
The Temple Is Sacred Because It Is Not for Sale
Ezra Pound
NB!
Installation: a wooden box on wheels with horns and a mask in an exhibition hall
NB!
Hand holding a pair of scales in a detail of Gothic painting with gold ground
Faith · Art · London · Madrid · Museums
The Archangel Michael Triumphs over the Devil
1468. The first known painting by the Spanish artist Bartolomé Bermejo, who was almost forgotten until the early twentieth century and to this day has not received the worldwide fame his talent deserves. Photo from the Bermejo exhibition at the National Gallery in London, 2019
Books · Moscow · Observations
In Mayakovsky Theatre's new production of Ostrovsky's "The Forest", Raisa Pavlovna Gurmyzhskaya, a widow in her early fifties, and her friend the housekeeper Ulita are at last played not by 70- or 80-year-old grannies but by young, vivid women, Anna Ardov
In Mayakovsky Theatre's new production of Ostrovsky's "The Forest", Raisa Pavlovna Gurmyzhskaya, a widow in her early fifties, and her friend the housekeeper Ulita are at last played not by 70- or 80-year-old grannies but by young, vivid women, Anna Ardova and