Art · Museums

Painting by Sweerts, once attributed to Pacheco De Rosa, and the allegory of Smell

Youth in a Turban with a Bouquet of Flowers, Michael Sweerts, 1650s. The painting was originally attributed to another artist, the Italian Pacheco De Rosa, who lived at the same time as the Netherlander Sweerts. The subject of this picture may belong to the series of the five senses, twice

Education · Society

Funding for the "Pushkin Card" proposed to be cut by almost 8 billion roubles

Budget funding for the federal "Pushkin Card" project is proposed to be cut from 16.411 billion roubles to 12.508 billion roubles in 2024, and from 16.411 billion roubles to 12.691 billion roubles in 2025. At the same time, 28.3 billion roubles are proposed

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores

A Register of Goods for the Tsar's Treasury Suggests That Alexei Mikhailovich Did Not Favour French Wines

NB! · Aristocracy · London · Monarchies · Science · Mores · Humour

The Sixteenth-Century Poet and Courtier Sir John Harington, Ancestor of Kit Harington, Who Played Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones", Invented the First Flushing Lavatory for the Ageing Queen Elizabeth I

An elderly man in white vestments and a white skullcap laughs at a laid table with wine bottles, bread and carafes.

NB! · Faith · Mores · Rome · Humour

Wine and the Vatican, from the Conclave of 1378 to the Wine Institute's Assessment

The Vatican was flooded with wine when the Romans ransacked the Apostolic Palace during the conclave of 1378. Today the Wine Institute names the Vatican one of the most wine-drinking countries in the world

Vintage sepia photograph of a young woman with an upswept hairstyle, earrings and a multi-strand pearl necklace, wearing an off-the-shoulder gown with fur trim and a large dark bow.

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Portrait of a woman in a gown with a large bow and pearl necklace

Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · Paris · People

Countess Virginia La Castiglione and her photograph archive at the Metropolitan Museum

Countess Virginia Oldoini di Castiglione (1837-1899) fell in love with being photographed before it became mainstream. Thanks to the fact that her archive of photographs found its way into the Metropolitan Museum as early as the nineteenth century, dozens of portraits of this society intriguer, courtesan and Parisian fashionista

Books · London · Monarchies · Society

Privateers in the service of the English Crown under Elizabeth I and after

It is held that nothing so enriched the English, or allowed so many of them to amass the vast fortunes they are known to possess, as the wars with the Spaniards in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Everyone was permitted to engage in privateering, and they plundered not only the

NB! · Art · Monarchies

Catherine II Setting Out for a Falcon Hunt, Valentin Serov, 1902

Catherine II Setting Out for a Falcon Hunt, Valentin Serov, 1902. Tempera on paper

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

A Reminder from Robert Dighton That Any Elegantly Dressed Gentleman Still Has One Foot on the Brink of the Grave

NB! · Art · Museums

Statuette of Venus (Greek or Roman, 1st millennium BC), carved from rock crystal after the model of the Hellenistic statue of the bathing Venus

Statuette of Venus (Greek or Roman, 1st millennium BC), carved from rock crystal after the model of the Hellenistic statue of the bathing Venus. Getty Collection

NB! · Cinema · Books

"But then…" Harry glanced over his shoulder at the tiny, mangled creature beneath the chair. "What is that, Professor?" "Something neither you nor I can help," replied Dumbledore

Alexandr Radayev