Faith · Art · Museums · New York
Sculpture of the Infant Jesus with an apple dated 1470 at the Metropolitan Museum
The Infant Jesus with an Apple. 1470. Metropolitan Museum
Alexandr Radayev
NB! · Observations · Society · Pop Culture
It is now twenty days since Yandex Zen switched off its recommendation feed, that is, the main system on which the service was built and to which everyone had grown accustomed
It is now twenty days since Yandex Zen switched off its recommendation feed, that is, the main system on which the service was built and to which everyone had grown accustomed. I still cannot grasp the point of a Zen without algorithms. It is as if TikTok were suddenly to
Archive · Books · People
Saltykov-Shchedrin on Zola and Goncourt after reading “Manette Salomon”, in a letter of 1875
Saltykov-Shchedrin in a letter to Nekrasov, 14 November 1875:. “Goncourt writes excellently… Zola’s article on the Goncourts is very good… Zola’s despatch on the floods is the kind of thing that makes one’s hair stand on end. A whole appalling drama… If it does not work
Books · Paris · People
Saltykov-Shchedrin was not a particularly sociable man, nor one inclined to make new acquaintances: for many years he kept company with one and the same circle of people
Saltykov-Shchedrin was not a particularly sociable man, nor one inclined to make new acquaintances: for many years he kept company with one and the same circle of people. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was not dazzled by foreign authors and did not cling to them. All the more
Faith · Art · Humour
Reynaud Levieux's 1663 painting of the Archangel Gabriel appearing to Zechariah, and Gabriel's patronage in Catholicism
The Archangel Gabriel appearing to Zacharias. Reynier Levy (Reyno Levye), 1663. In the Catholic Church the Archangel Gabriel is regarded as the patron saint of telecommunications: radio, television and, presumably, the internet.
NB! · Society
Only 10 Refusals to Take Part in the Auction Have Been Commented On by the Organisers
Archive · Monarchies · Pop Culture · Humour
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Charles, photograph by Cecil Beaton, 1948, Vogue
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Charles, photograph by Cecil Beaton, 1948, Vogue. Although the child here is only a month old, there is no tiger-cub emoji on his face. Besides being the first published photograph of Prince Charles in the magazine, it is the first royal photograph printed in the
Coming Up · Architecture · Books · Society · Nature
Art estate Veretyevo asks visitors to help restock the library in its park pavilions
The park created by the architect Brodsky at the Veretyevo art estate needs help restocking its library, scattered across tiny pavilions over 7 hectares of wooded marsh. Anna Narinskaya, curator of the Veretyevo book project, has already written that many visitors to the park, for some reason, take the bookshelves
Architecture · Art
Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco on bad government in the Hall of Nine of Siena’s town hall
A fourteenth-century masterpiece, an allegory of bad government and its consequences by Ambrogio Lorenzetti: tyranny reigns with a bestial grin, justice is oppressed, cities are gripped by violence, people suffer, and chaos and destruction are everywhere. The fresco in the Sala dei Nove of the town hall of Siena
NB! · Observations
Well, hello
NB! · Art · Observations · Society · Humour
Nine European auctions have cancelled the author's registration as a buyer
At present 9 European auction houses have cancelled my registration as a buyer. I cannot recall anyone in my whole life who has taken such tender care of the safety of my money
Faith · Nature · Ethnography
The parasitic plant Peter's Cross in bloom in France and in Russian folk beliefs
In France, toothwort is already in full bloom, a most beautiful parasitic plant that has no chlorophyll of its own and lives by attaching itself to the roots of other plants. In Russian it is called "Peter's cross" (petrov krest) for the shape of its rhizomes,